Sunday 22 February 2015

Biggest year ever for big game ads on YouTube

This year’s football season might be done and dusted, but the battle for most popular big game ad is still in play. To see how trends have played out in the days since the game, we took a look at the top trending videos, facts, and stats about big game ads on YouTube.

We found that viewership is growing faster than before - people have watched more big game ads and teasers in the first six weeks of 2015 than all 52 weeks of 2014. More than 7M hours of big game ads and teasers have been watched on YouTube, up from 6.3M hours for all of 2014.

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Liam cinches his “Revenge”

One of the surprise hits this week was Clash of Clan’s “Revenge” ad featuring Liam Neeson. The spot gained over 20M views this week alone and now clocks in at more than 30M views, making it the most viewed big game ad on YouTube so far. Here’s a look at viewership of game day ads over time, from a report by Pixability:

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(Source: Pixability report “Super Bowl Ads on YouTube,” February 5)

Beards and selfies infiltrate top trending ads
As expected, puppies and celebrities dominated the top trending ads on YouTube. But there were also some lesser-reported trends that spanned across the top game day ads. We found that:


  • Half of the top 10 ads featured men with beards
  • 21 different types of animals (animated or otherwise) made an appearance
  • Two ads had people taking selfies
  • Two ads featured no dialogue at all
  • One: the total number of “Angry Neesons”

Here’s a list of the top trending game day ads on YouTube (based on views as of 2/6):

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Battle of the brands
As the battle for football supremacy was taking place on the field, a very different battle was raging across the country: Which ad would reign supreme? Whether via smartphone, tablet or laptop, people spent nearly 4 million hours watching game-day ads and teaser videos on YouTube—up from 2.2 million hours from this time last year.

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This year’s most popular ads came from a wide range of advertisers—newcomers and veterans alike. But one thing’s for certain—puppies, pranks, and Kim Kardashian continue to “break the Internet.” Here are the ads that scored big on YouTube so far:



YouTube has evolved to become the place brands go to engage with their audience before, during, and after the big game. That’s why revenue from our AdBlitz program set a new record this year, with brands investing more on YouTube around the big game than years past. And, we’ve hit a new record in watchtime across YouTube—the growth rate at which people are watching YouTube has nearly doubled in the last year, leading to the fastest growth we've seen in years.

Tom Brady and Missy Elliott dominate on search
While people turned to YouTube to watch the ads, people turned to Google to search for everything from “how old is Tom Brady” to “buffalo chicken dip recipes” to “Katy Perry Halftime performance.” Before kickoff, people asked Google “Why did John Travolta call Idina ‘Adele’?”—a throwback to John Travolta’s infamous mispronunciation of National Anthem performer Idina Menzel's name at the 2014 Oscars. Searchers were also interested in Menzel’s performance (or researching prop bets), asking “How long will it take Idina to sing the National Anthem?”

Tom Brady, Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson were the top three searched players before, during and after the game. Thanks to some standout in-game performances, by the end they were sharing the spotlight: Rob Gronkowski and Chris Matthews (replacing Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor). And MVP Tom Brady wasn’t just an MVP on the field—he captured the title of “Most Searched Quarterback” in every state except for the Seahawks’ home Washington.

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Of course, for many people the halftime show is the highlight of the night, and Katy Perry’s performance delivered. She came in on a lion, danced with sharks and went out on a star—one that was, for some, reminiscent of NBC’s old “The More You Know” PSAs. The phrase "The More You Know" spiked 190x in search for the 10 minutes after Katy’s starry flight. And although Missy Elliott was a late addition to the halftime lineup, she was a popular topic in search. Top questions related to Missy Elliott included “When was Missy Elliott popular?” and “How does Katy Perry know Missy Elliott?”

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