Visible Measures Blog

The L.A. Lakers took home the NBA Championship over two weeks ago, yet Nike Basketball's Most Valuable Puppets remains at the top of the Chart for the second week in a row. This is in stark contrast to the NBA's Where Amazing Happens campaign, which barely made the Chart this week. This discrepancy could be due to Nike Basketball injecting new assets into its campaign last week, which would speak to the importance and subsequent results of continued marketing support for viral video campaigns. Or, perhaps, it could be due to the staying power of puppets. What do you think?

Interest in bras also showed some staying power this week. The Alton Towers / Ultimo Test Drive Bras campaign jumped five spots to claim third place with 460,000+ views. It fell just short of overtaking the Xbox Project Natal campaign, which saw 473,000+ views.

New This Week

Mountain Dew teamed up with the World of Warcraft to tear apart a supermarket and conquer seventh place. Sentiment analysis suggests that the spot is resonating with the World of Warcraft audience; the most-used comment terms include horde, alliance, elf, and orc. Carl's Jr. packed a one-two punch this week, delivering their new Teriyaki Burger campaign on the heels of How To Eat a Burger, and took both sixth and tenth place.

Congratulations to Saatchi & Saatchi and T-Mobile for winning the Bronze in the Titanium & Integrated category at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for their work on T-Mobile Dance! The campaign also made its fifteenth straight appearance on the Chart this week. Wow!

Top Performing Campaigns for the Week of June 22 

Source: Visible Measures

To watch the videos that made these campaigns the most watched this week, check out our Top Ad Campaigns page. 

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The data used for The Ad Age Viral Video Chart was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 100+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations. 

* See our Top Ad Campaigns page for our methodology.

**Indicates percent change in views compared with the same period the week before.

To notify Visible Measures of an upcoming video ad campaign, or for an end-to-end assessment of your campaign's overall performance, please contact us directly.

Yesterday, we reported that Michael Jackson's Thriller had been viewed over 8.5 million times online since his death last Thursday. These results appear to have resonated with the online video viewing audience and were later reported in the Associated Press. We've been continuing to track Thriller's online video trends and can now confirm that the initial surge in viewership has accelerated significantly. 

Over the weekend, we recorded Thriller's sudden spike in views (8.5 million total). Monday and Tuesday's figures totaled over 19 million new views, bringing Thriller's total views to nearly 28 million since the King of Pop's untimely passing. This remarkable growth is occurring across the entire flight of Thriller's nearly 300 placements; no single asset appears to be driving these new levels of viewing activity.

What do you think this says about how people are remembering the King of Pop? Leave your comments below and be sure to check in for further updates.

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The data used in this post was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 100+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations.

The death of entertainment icons sends us to what makes us love them: their music, their words, their films, and other memories we can cull from the past. The sudden passing of Michael Jackson is no different, which sent millions of fans to online videos related to the King of Pop.

Although his impact on the world of entertainment has been virtually incalculable, we've been heartened by the outpouring of interest in Michael Jackson's music videos since his death. And while the viewership of all of his videos has spiked in recent days, we focused our research on Thriller, arguably Jackson's most groundbreaking music video and, in 1999, named the #1 music video of all time by MTV.  

Since his death last Thursday, viral videos related to Thriller have generated over 8.5 million views. Prior to Thursday, Thriller averaged nearly 150,000 views daily. Since his death, view counts for Thriller have averaged over 2.8 million daily -- an increase of nearly 1,800%.

These videos consist of the original video above, an Indian version, a lego version, perhaps one of the few Filipino prison music videos ever produced, and many others, spanning nearly 300 unique video placements in all.

If we can perhaps find a silver lining in the sadness of an incredible life cut short, it's that it's allowed us to once again recognize and celebrate the genius of Michael Jackson. Online video has helped in this effort through making remembering The King of Pop easier and faster than ever before.  

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The data used in this post was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 100+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations.

This week's chart has really got it all. From auto drifting to a Norwegian web browser to personal hygiene products and women testing bras on roller coasters, shall we say last week's viewing interests were, um... colorful. Four new campaigns have etched their way into the top ten this week but more notably, Nike Basketball has grabbed the top spot again in its sixth week among the rankings with nearly 2.5 million views. Nike's MVPuppets campaign debuted the week of May 11 at second place and took the gold the following week. Nike's jump from third to first place was unexpected with the NBA season wrapped up and both basketball related campaigns on the chart experiencing a decline in views last week. Yet, delving behind the scenes a little bit, we can see Nike aimed to extend the campaign's life by releasing new assets last week contributing to the 55% increase in weekly views.

Taking a closer look at this week's new entries, we have the shoes and apparel brand DC following up with Ken Block's Gymkhana Two Project after the success of the first project. The seven minute infomercial features auto racer Ken Block ‘drifting' his go-kart like Subaru around LA's ship yard helping to market a new line of branded apparel. Next up is another infomercial for Comfort Wipe, the "sanitary paper extension arm and holder." Need we say more? In the eighth position this week is Ultimo, the UK based lingerie brand which teamed up with Alton Towers amusement park to test out the durability and "lift support" by putting models in lingerie on roller coasters. Again, need we say more? And lastly, Opera Software of Norway released an asset to market the new release of Unite 10, which is described as a web server on a web browser. A handful of copies associated with the campaign surfaced, but Opera's original video generated the lion's share of the campaign's views. The spot is also somewhat reminiscent of Apple's 1984 commercial.

After Xbox's record-breaking percent growth last week, the Project Natal campaign dropped 31% alongside Carl's Jr vlogger campaign which has declined for the second week in a row. We witness the departure of Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man In The World, Gillette's Shaving Tips From Gillette, Bud Light's Beer & Porn and Vodafone's Make The Most Of Now. Vodafone proved some staying power by maintaining a position in the top ten for six consecutive weeks, with two weeks in the prized first rank. Cadbury's Eyebrow Dance and T-Mobile's T-Mobile Dance remain resilient in their fourteenth week on the chart, both experiencing growth.

Top Performing Campaigns for the Week of June 15, 2009 

Source: Visible Measures

To watch the ads, check out our Top Ad Campaigns page here.

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The data used for The Ad Age Viral Video Chart was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 100+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations. 

* See our Top Ad Campaigns page for our methodology.

**Indicates percent change in views compared with the same period the week before.

To notify Visible Measures of an upcoming video ad campaign, or for an end-to-end assessment of your campaign's overall performance, please contact us directly.

The Viral Video Chart this week is a gamer's paradise with Xbox's Project Natal skyrocketing over 1,000% from last week to claim the top spot with 2.4+ million views. The campaign was launched in the beginning of June, making its first appearance on the Chart last week with 200,000+ views. In week two, the campaign caught on like wildfire, and generated significant amounts of brand advocacy with more than 400 copies and derivatives (!!). In addition to this viral activity, we discovered a slew of new original assets uploaded by Xbox. Among the derivatives for the campaign, Jimmy Fallon jumped into the mix, unable to contain his inner gaming geek, and came out to play (literally) on his late night TV show. Endorsements from the likes of Steven Spieberg don't hurt either.

The top three campaigns from last week, Carl's Jr.'s How to Eat a Burger, Nike Basketball's Most Valuable Puppets, and the NBA's Where Amazing Happens, remain in the upper echelons of the chart, yet experienced significant declines in growth. Interestingly, the two basketball-related campaigns dropped in views the week of the NBA Finals. What do you think could have caused this decline? Could it be that, with only two teams left, there are simply less fans paying attention? Or, perhaps audiences have simply already seen the ads. Maybe they just grew tired of the spots after a few weeks. Drop us a note in the comments section and let us know what you think!

Carl’s Jr.’s vlogger campaign experienced a 50% drop in views despite a number of user response videos detailing how they eat a burger.

New This Week

Bud Light enters the chart this week in a, ehem, unique fashion. The risque creative (a must watch – use headphones if you're at work) seems to have circumvented television completely, being leaked quietly onto YouTube back in February without much initial interest. The spot, featuring a Bud Light drinker trying to buy porno, stirred up a bit of controversy that was recently highlighted in a Time Magazine article. It seems as though the, uh, exposure in Time drove interest in the campaign. It's sitting pretty at sixth place.

Top Performing Campaigns for the Week of June 8, 2009 

Source: Visible Measures

To watch the ads, check out our Top Ad Campaigns page here.

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The data used for The Ad Age Viral Video Chart was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 100+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations. 

* See our Top Ad Campaigns page for our methodology.

**Indicates percent change in views compared with the same period the week before.

To notify Visible Measures of an upcoming video ad campaign, or for an end-to-end assessment of your campaign's overall performance, please contact us directly.

When we last updated the 100 Million Views Club -- which now includes over 33,000 unique video placements that have generated over 4.4 billion views (an increase in nearly 400 million views) -- we identified a number of new members in this elite viral video club. This month, our Viral Reach Database reveals that, while the names on the list have stayed the same, the rankings have changed.  

The biggest shift is Susan Boyle's continued elevation in the chart. While she may not have taken home the big enchilada for Britain's Got Talent, clips related to her original performance have collected more than 40 million views since May 20. Her current 261+ million total is enough to propel her passed both Mariah Carey: Touch My Body and Beyonce: Single Ladies, and put her within striking distance of vampire film sensation Twilight. However, this still leaves Ms. Boyle over 100 million views behind reigning #1 Soulja Boy: Crank That -- which, for the record, picked up 15 million views since our last update. 

Also, just five weeks from its premiere, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince surprisingly dropped a spot, giving up the #20 position to Dramatic Gopher. Movie trailers typically see a surge in activity during the lead up to their debut, so the next few weeks will reveal if this result is a temporary anomaly (likely), a leading indicator about flagging audience interest in the franchise (unlikely), or shows that wizards and wands just simply can't compete with gopher gravitas (even more unlikely).

Additional Findings: 

• Jeff Dunham: Achmed the Dead Terrorist, who was recently featured in Time with our numbers, has increased by more than 25 million views yet remains in sixth place.

• Hannah Montana: The Movie, despite its release over two months ago, continues to ascend throughout the Chart, jumping from 15th place to 12th by gaining 20+ million views.

Banging on The Door:

There are a couple viral video phenomena inching towards the coveted threshold. Both Lady Gaga: Just Dance and Chocolate Rain are just millions away from crossing the 100 million view barrier. 

The 100 Million Club as of June 12, 2009

Click on the thumbnails to watch the videos that helped amass over 100 million views.

Rank	Title	Type	Label / Studio	True Reach	Months Available	Watch
1	Soulja Boy: Crank That	Music Video	Universal	375,500,000	22
2	Twilight	Movie Campaign	Summit	283,500,000	15
3	Susan Boyle (Britain’s Got Talent)	TV Show	Freemantle / iTV	261,500,000	2
4	Beyonce: Single Ladies	Music Video	Sony Music Entertainment / Columbia	258,700,000	8
5	Mariah Carey: Touch My Body	Music Video	Universal	252,900,000	15
6	Jeff Dunham: Achmed the Dead Terrorist	User Generated	-	225,100,000	20
7	Leona Lewis: Bleeding Love	Music Video	Syco / SonyBMG	206,800,000	20
8	Avril Lavigne: Girlfriend	Music Video	RCA	192,900,000	27
9	Chris Brown: With You	Music Video	Zoomba / Jive Records	184,400,000	18
10	The Dark Knight	Movie Campaign	Warner Brothers	177,900,000	22
11	Alicia Keys: No One	Music Video	J Records	168,400,000	20
12	Hannah Montana: The Movie	Movie Campaign	Disney	167,100,000	4
13	Miley Cyrus: 7 Things	Music Video	Hollywood Records	156,600,000	11
14	Charlie bit my finger - again !	User Generated	-	149,600,000	24
15	Evolution of Dance	User Generated	-	146,400,000	38
16	Beyonce: If I Were A Boy	Music Video	Sony Music Entertainment / Columbia	145,100,000	8
17	Numa Numa	User Generated	-	139,200,000	34
18	Rihanna: Please Don't Stop The Music	Music Video	Universal	133,300,000	22
19	Rick Astley/Rick Roll'd	User Generated	-	127,900,000	25
20	Dramatic Gopher/Chipmunk	User Generated	-	124,700,000	24
21	Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince	Movie Campaign	Warner Brothers	121,100,000	10
22	Paul Potts (Britain’s Got Talent)	TV Show	Freemantle / iTV	110,200,000	21
23	Chris Crocker: Leave Britney Alone	User Generated	-	108,300,000	21
24	Lezberado: Revenge Fantasies	User Generated	-	103,500,000	24
25	Miss Teen South Carolina	User Generated	-	101,900,000	31

 

 Source: Visible Measures

For more about the world of viral video and updates for lists like the top viral video ad campaigns of the week and the most-watched videos in history, please follow @visiblemeasures and @mcutler on Twitter and subscribe to our blog.

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The data used for the 100 Million Views Club was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 100+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations.

The number one spot on the Top Ad Campaigns chart this week showcases vloggers from the Nigahiga comedy group chomping down for Carl's Jr.'s How To Eat A Burger campaign, which features the Portobello Mushroom Burger. The campaign grabbed a record-breaking 3.3+ million views, surpassing Samsung's LED Sheep's previous mark of 2.8+ million. Not only is the campaign the new record holder for the chart, but it swallowed those 3.3 million views in only four days. Wow! Speaking to the power and efficiency of viral video in an interview with MediaWeek, Brad Haley, EVP of marketing for CKE (Carl’s Jr.'s parent company), said of the campaign: “This whole program will be a fraction of the cost of producing a TV ad.”

Basketball campaigns are still living large this week, with Nike Basketball's Most Valuable Puppets surging 81% with several new spots, enough to maintain second place, and the NBA's Where Amazing Happens taking the bronze.

New This Week 

Microsoft and Dos Equis broke into the chart this week with controller-free gaming and one fascinating man. Microsoft's Project Natal is generating some serious buzz with its latest sneak peak, enough to attract 208,000+ views (if you're a gamer, you have to watch this). Dos Equis conjured up 186,000+ views with The Most Interesting Man In The World campaign.

Departures

This week marks the end of an eleven-week streak for Samsung’s LED Sheep. Two other longstanding campaigns, Cadbury's Eyebrow Dance and T-Mobile’s Dance, have appeared 12 weeks in a row. 

Top Performing Campaigns for the Week of June 1 

The NBA Finals continue to dominate the viral video competition this week. The top two campaigns, the NBA’s Where Amazing Happens and Nike Basketball’s Most Valuable Puppets, hold the top two positions respectively, accounting for more than 50% of the chart’s total views. It will be interesting to watch how these campaigns perform after the finals are over.

The E*TRADE Baby campaign, fueled by a paid placement on the YouTube homepage, returned to the chart this week after a seven week hiatus, landing the seventh spot. The paid placement promoted the show Un-Broke on ABC, and, though we don't include television ads in this chart, the promotion seems to have reactivated the original campaign.

New This Week 

Both Gillette and Air New Zealand generated interest (and views!) with their racy spots this week. Gillette took third place on the chart with its series of how-to shaving videos. The spot detailing techniques for tackling the male southern hemisphere brought in the lion's share of the views. Incidentally, this is the second "grooming," ahem, campaign to hit the chart. Air New Zealand stripped down and picked up fifth place with the tag line ‘Nothing To Hide.’

Top Performing Campaigns for the Week of May 25 

There has been much talk of late of how to monetize news online, which has proven elusive to date. Perhaps one of the most visible attempts was when The New York Times tried their own solution in 2005, implementing a subscription service called TimesSelect that gave readers access to their opinion columns. The Times closed the program two years later.

Similar stories permeate throughout the print industry as companies try to innovate and stay relevant in the Web 2.0 world. Despite continuous efforts attempting to implement different ad and business models to monetize content, the print industry has had difficultly finding a viable solution due to the lack of a model that enables major brand advertising. 

Many brands and agencies agree that video as a medium provides the richest potential for branding and storytelling. Yet, the standard approach for print monetization has been to deploy display and banner ads, which has often left a medium close to our heart – video – out of the mix.

New ad models enable companies to deploy narrative-rich video advertising against any content. ShortTail Media, for instance, has developed an elegant solution to introduce video advertising into non-video environments. Their recently launched product, The Digital 30, which implements our patented measurement technology, enables companies like CNN and Reuters to provide brands with high-quality, full-video ads overlayed on their print content (with the option of clicking away after 10 seconds). This will allow members of the print industry to effectively offer brands and agencies the traditional 30-second spot against premium content.

Will this be the holy grail the print industry has been desperately searching for? Only time will tell, but through opening the potential for major brand spends via richer ad inventory to newspapers and print media, ShortTail's solution could be part of the overarching strategy to help revitalize print industry on the Web.

The NBA playoffs have expanded their game to the world of viral video this week. Nike Basketball's Most Valuable Puppets, featuring stuffed versions of LeBron and Kobe, landed the top position on the chart by scoring 1,133,327 million views. It was the only campaign on the chart to grow this week, swelling by an impressive 40%. Vodafone's Make the Most of Now campaign just missed the top mark by 130,000+ views.

The league of the NBA elbowed its way onto the chart with its Where Amazing Happens campaign, drilling 882,068 views from beyond the arc. The campaign features a number of the NBA's hottest players and a soundtrack from Kanye West.

Three lost campaigns found their way back into the Top 10 this week. Kia's Hamsters, Durexs' Get It On, and Head's Novak Djokovic Scores On and Off all showed their scrappiness, re-entering the chart at number six, eight and ten, respectively.

Cadbury's Eyebrow Dance and Samsung's Sheep, both in the danger zone of late, showed their staying power this week, living large at spots five and nine, respectively.

The Most Watched Campaigns for the Week of May 18

Source: Visible Measures

To watch the ads, check out our Top Ad Campaigns page here.

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The data used for The Ad Age Viral Video Chart was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 100+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations. 

* See our Top Ad Campaigns page for our methodology.

**Indicates percent change in views compared with the same period the week before.

To notify Visible Measures of an upcoming video ad campaign, or for an end-to-end assessment of your campaign's overall performance, please contact us directly.