'A Dramatic Surprise' Is April's Surprise Hit

April 17, 2012

At 24 million views, the creative TNT promotion is the most-viewed, non-music video of the past month. The spectacle, which was staged in Belgium to announce the channel's arrival, has now become popular around the world, and remains a most-viewed video today in numerous countries including South Korea, UAE, Sweden, South Africa, and the United States, among others.

The video was posted just last Wednesday and hit its peak on Thursday, drawing 6.6 million views that day alone.

Interestingly, the clip comes to us from Belgium where, you might remember, Carlsberg also staged a funny marketing stunt last fall. That clip, which depicted a theater of biker's intimidating movie goers, drew over 10 million views.

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Most Viewed Ads So Far After the Big Game ...and Before

February 09, 2012

It's time to check back in on the data and see which ads from Sunday's big Giants' win were the most popular among fans of football (and commercials). We looked at all the videos posted in the past month by advertisers who ran spots during the game to find out which teasers, previews, ads, and extended cuts drew the most attention before AND after.

Top 10 Most viewed commercials before Sunday (Playlist)

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What about after the game? Which ads drew the most views on gameday and the next morning? Find out...

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What Were People Searching for on YouTube During the Game?

February 06, 2012

Each year, YouTube sees a big spike in ad-related searches during and after the Super Bowl as sports fans -- and non-sports-fans -- check out the game's most memorable commercials.

Over the first half of the 2012's game, top rising searches included "bud light platinum commercial," "OKGo needing getting" (a new music video previewed by Chevrolet) and "m&m; commercial," a reference to the spot that introduced the Ms. Brown character.

Heading into the fourth quarter, "Doritos superbowl commercial" and "David Beckham superbowl commercial" were trending.

Other top searches we saw late in the game: "clint eastwood commercial" and "betty white super bowl commercial." Afterward, Samsung's ad caused a spike in searches for "i believe in a thing called love."

Over the weekend, Chevy's Mayan "end of the world" ad titled "2012" became a top trending video and was one of the most-shared and most-viewed clips.

As we noted last week, 2012 has seen a pre-Super Bowl ad bonanza, with many of the top commercials either being teased or posted in-full well in advance of the game. In fact, Super Bowl ads or "ad teasers" were watched over 30 million times on YouTube before the big weekend this year.

In 2011, Volkswagon's ad "The Force" went viral before the game and picked up roughly 10 million views heading into the big day. Seeming to build off that trend, the pre-Super Bowl activity we saw in 2012 was even higher and spread across significantly more brands.

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Automotive Ad Teasers Becoming the Norm Ahead of the Big Game

January 30, 2012

We won't see all the top commercials until they officially debut on Sunday, but many brands have posted "teasers" and other sneak peaks well ahead of the game. And some of these clips have already drawn millions of views, specifically some of those posted by car manufacturers.

Last year, Volkswagon posted it's big hit, "The Force" a few days ahead of the game, and it was seen over 5 million times heading into the weekend. This year, we're a week out and Volkswagen's teaser for its latest Star Wars-themed spot has over 10 million views since it was posted on the 18th.

Honda, though at the time the brand was unknown, posted a "teaser" starring Matthew Broderick last week that created a lot of stir among fans of 1986's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Since last Thursday, the Bueller teaser has been seen over 4 million times, with as many as 1.5 million views on Friday.

Today, the full-length extended version was released and immediately drew lots of buzz on pop culture, business, and automotive blogs. You can see it here.

Other manufacturers who've also posted ads include Hyundai, Suzuki, and Audi, who's ad also has over one million views.

Update: Acura.

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Nike Lockout Spots Spread

October 31, 2011

The world may be without an NBA, but its not without lockout-inspired ads right now.

Two very popular ads from Nike are spreading quickly among basketball fans right now, both addressing the current lack of an NBA season. This first one was posted on Friday and has been picking up hundreds of thousands of views:

Both that clip and this earlier "Jumpman 23" spot -- which features some of the NBA's top players participating in a humorous series of rec leagues -- have been seen over 1.2 million times already (though a significant number of those are from paid placements). Still, they're currently among the overall most-shared videos in the United States.

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Local TV Commercials Become a Modern Day Art Form

October 27, 2011

This post was authored by Will Goodman, managing editor of CBSNews.com's The Feed, for a YouTube Trends series exploring viral video phenomena.

Before there was the Internet, humanity’s main source of unintentional comedy came in the form of local television commercials. Often low-budget, poorly scripted and completely random, people from every city and town had their unique blend of visual insanity that would make us all laugh. Fast-forward to the present and we all now have the opportunity to share in this odd sensation on YouTube. Local commercials have joined cute cats and gruesome skateboard injuries as an important segment of the online lolosphere. Let’s start this off with an actual commercial to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

The video is (shockingly) a real commercial for Divine Rags in Memphis. Did you laugh while watching that commercial? Shhhh, of course you did. (They always say “yes” when I ask that question...) But what’s fascinating is that real commercials like this have led to something of a new viral video art form. Which leads us to our next video, a recent viral video hit for The Feed and an ongoing Internet meme sensation.

What many aren’t aware of is that this is an actual commercial that was created specifically to have that “What the...?” reaction (and many laughs) from us all by the clever comedy group Rhett and Link. The duo saw the genius in something so bad it becomes epic, and took the idea one step further by creating an IFC television show, “Commercial Kings,” that actually makes these types of commercials for real companies.

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The Most Popular Taxidermy Ad of the Month

September 22, 2011

Last Thursday, a local news commercial for a taxidermist named Chuck Testa started quickly spreading among pop-culture and comedy sites, resulting in such a big reaction that Testa produced this response video, which has been trending this week and picked up over 250,000 views:

What is Chuck thanking you for exactly? His tongue-in-cheek TV commercial, which was produced by YouTube popular video producers Rhett and Link, has been viewed nearly 4 million times in the past week:

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Back to 'Back to the Future'

September 13, 2011

One of the more surprising trends of last week was 1980's classic Back to the Future, which has had a series of related videos draw much attention over the past few weeks and saw a big spike in searches last Thursday and Friday.

Two companies, one U.S.-based one Argentina-based, leveraged the film -- which has a popular cult following -- to create successful viral ad campaigns recently. Garbarino, an electronics chain in South America where the film is known as Volver al Futuro, enlisted Christopher Lloyd aka Dr. Emmett Brown for a viral campaign that began with some strange bystander footage of a Delorean in the streets and resulted in this video that's been seen 800,000 times.

The more traditional ad hit the web mid-last week and was also very popular in Argentina.

In the U.S., the buzz was around a big revelation from Nike that an Air Mag sneaker, replicating the ones worn by Marty McFly in the second film, would be released. Word for spread with this vague video that drew over 2.4 million views in the past week.

Eventually, Nike revealed that the shoes would indeed be released, but in limited quantity and via eBay auction. Below you can see the full promo, which features Bill Hader and Kevin Durant and drew 1.5 million views, as well as a chart of weekly search interest in the term "back to the future" recently:

Michael J. Fox also recorded a video urging people to bid on the Mag sneakers. That clip has nearly drawn 1 million views as well.

More: Back to the Future II is available on YouTube.

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What They're Watching: Memorable Ads

August 23, 2011

This post was authored by Michelle Castillo as a part of a YouTube Trends series exploring the videos being watched this week by the team at What's Trending.

Advertising is a multimillion dollar business run by the talented men and women who come up with creative ways each day to get us to buy their products. The newest ad that has hit our radar is the “TRON”-themed video for Duck Tape, featuring the one and only TRON guy.

There've been a lot of memorable ads -- for all kinds of reasons -- that have made it to YouTube. Here are some of our favorites.

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Old Spice Guy vs. Fabio Draws Millions of Views

August 02, 2011

Old Spice launched a new viral, comedic campaign last week starring their most popular viral spokesperson, Isaiah Mustafa. The premise was that Mustafa -- aka Old Spice Guy -- was getting challenged for his title by famed model Fabio in something called "Mano a Mano En El Baño."

The series kicked off with this video from Fabio and response from Old Spice guy:

The Fabio challenge video, which has over 3 million views, was the most-watched of the series and was one of the week's most-viewed.

Over the course of the story, Old Spice posted over 100 videos from the two combatants channels: OldSpice and newoldspiceguyfabio. These videos, many of which were responses to tweets and other posts, were seen a total of roughly 22 million times.

At its peak, the Old Spice battle drew 5 million views combined on Wednesday, as evidenced in this chart:

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Last July, when the original "Questions" campaign ran, Old Spice drew around 82 million views.

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What They're Watching: Challenge from New Old Spice Guy Fabio

July 26, 2011

There's nothing more epic than two manly men fighting each other to the Internet death
for fame and glory. Yesterday, Fabio challenged the Old Spice Guy (Isaiah Mustafa) to a battle of viral superstardom.

Only one Old Spice Guy can exist, and Fabio is hoping that you’ll pick the New Old Spice Guy over the original. But, the Old Spice Guy isn’t standing down: He’s accepted the Mano A Mano en el Bano challenge.

This might be the biggest Web battle of the hearts and minds of the YouTube population, but there’s been other challenges and showdowns before. Here’s some of our favorites...

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The 10 Most Viewed Super Bowl Ads

February 07, 2011

UPDATE BELOW - It's a full 24 hours since kickoff between the Packers and the Steelers, so we decided to take a look at which ads have seen the Most Views since they were first posted on YouTube. You'll notice that many of the commercials were posted several days before the big game, and some, like Volkswagen's, drew a lot of attention before Sunday.

Here are the top 10 so far:

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• See all the ads here.

• And take a look at which ads saw the largest spikes in searches on YouTube here.

Update: Below, you'll find an updated chart as of 12pmET Monday.

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The Super Bowl Ad That Went Viral Before It Even Aired

While other ads might have seen bigger search spikes on YouTube right after the game, there's one ad that has clearly drawn the most views and seen big popularity not just in the United States, but around the world.

Volkswagen's "The Force" Super Bowl ad has been seen over 16 million times since it was posted on February 2nd. In the first day, the video was picked up by pop culture blogs and highlighted early by Jalopnik in the U.S., which posted it that morning with the headline, "The Star Wars Super Bowl commercial everyone will talk about." By the next day, the video was already atop our Most Shared list. It was viewed over one million times in the first 24 hours and over 5 million times in the first 48.

Currently, "The Force," which notably contains no dialogue, is the most-viewed overall video this week globally as well as Germany, Canada, UK, Argentina, and Poland and is in the top 5 in Australia, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Israel, South Africa, Spain, France, and Italy.

As indicated in the chart below, the video saw its highest peak on Friday, though it will be interesting to see how many views it draws today.

A little bit later, we'll be looking at some of the other ads that have drawn the most views.

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Rather than our usual "Inside YouTube Search" feature this morning, we're digging into the top video search trend of the past 24-hours: commercials from last night's Super Bowl.

In the two hours immediately following the game, some ads saw huge spikes in search interest, the clear top two being Best Buy's commercial with Justin Bieber and Ozzy Ozborne and the Chrysler commercial starring Eminem.

There appeared to be the most interest in celebrity or Hollywood-driven ads right after the game ended, but this morning, there's been increased interest in the quirky, funny, unique ads we often think of when we think of when we think of Super Bowl commercials. It is worth noting, however, that the morning's spikes are not as high.

Here is a list of the top ad-related rising searches from yesterday and today:

Two hours after the game:

best buy super bowl commercial (or justin bieber commercial)
eminem chrysler commercial
eminem brisk commercial
transformers 3 super bowl trailer
captain america movie trailer 2011

This morning:

What ad from prior to 2011 saw the biggest spike? Mean Joe Green Coke commercial from 1979.

Stay tuned later today for a breakdown on the viewing numbers for the top ads. You can watch all the ads here.

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What Ted Williams Does for Your Macaroni Commercials

January 13, 2011

Ted Williams, the homeless man with the "golden voice" discovered by the Columbus Dispatch, took the web by storm in the past week and became such a phenomenon that brands like Kraft quickly came calling with opportunities for high-profile voiceover work.

Kraft quickly got an ad featuring Willams' voice onto the air and onto YouTube, where those who had been tracking Williams' rise to fame flocked to it in a way that one doesn't usually see the public rush to view a macaroni and cheese commercial. As of posting, the ad accounts for 901,000 of the 1.39 million views Kraft's MacnCheese channel videos have drawn.

Here's a quick look at the channel's overall viewing to put it in context:

Kraft posted a behind the scenes clip with Williams as well.

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