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The Long, Viral Lives of Cadbury, T-Mobile and Microsoft

What People Watched the Week of Sept. 28, 2009

by Abbey Klaassen
Published: October 08, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- If the ad campaigns on this week's viral video chart look familiar, they should: They've all been here before.

In fact, many of them have been on the chart for a long time. The longest-running campaign, Cadbury's "Eyebrow Dance," is celebrating its 26th week on the chart and the second-longest, T-Mobile "Dance" is marking its 25th week. Microsoft's "Project Natal," meanwhile, is on for its 18th week in a row. Evian's "Rollerbabies" is on for the 13th straight week. Only three videos are new enough to be celebrating their second week in a row: Microsoft's Windows "Launch Party" video, Trend Micro's "Fearless Web" spot and MoveOn.org's "Protect Insurance Agencies" campaign.

As you can imagine, it's quite a feat to add enough growth week after week to continue to maintain a presence. (Remember, the viral video chart is a look at views over the previous week; not over the lifetime of the campaigns.) So what causes viral longevity? Matt Cutler, VP-marketing and analytics at Visible Measures, which compiles the chart each week, outlined several common characteristics among the campaigns:

• This kind of viral activity is only possible when there is repeat viewing. That means there's something about these videos that make people want to watch again and again.
• They have a sense whimsy. "All of these are 'feel good' spots that are fun and don't take themselves too seriously," he notes. They provide an escape.
• They all contain the bit of "how'd they do that?" and "is it real?" that many successful viral videos seem to employ.
• And finally, he notes, "Most of these have a deep musical connection, which definitely contributes positive associations. Just look at Apple's iPod ads for this."

	Last Week	Brand	Campaign	Agency	Current Week Views*	% Change in Views**	Watch the Spot
1	2	Evian	Live Young	BETC Euro RSCG	1,391,044	-1%
2	5	Microsoft Xbox	Project Natal	World Famous	670,440	+35%
3	4	Microsoft	Windows 7 Launch Party	N/A	575,217	+5%
4	3	DC Shoes	Ken Block's Gymkhana Two Project	Mad Media	536,612	-10%
5	7	Trend Micro	Fearless Web	Brief Attention Span, Alterseekers, Sharethrough	441,739	+80%
6	8	T-Mobile	T-Mobile Dance	Saatchi & Saatchi, MediaCom	249,920	+4%
7	1	MoveOn Political Action	Protect Insurance Agencies	FunnyOrDie	229,943	-88%
8	9	Inspired Bicycles	Danny MacAskill Trials	N/A	226,509	-4%
9	6	Cadbury	Eyebrow Dance	Fallon	220,439	-24%
10	10	Bud Light Lime	Canned Confessions	DDB	202,319	-7%
Source: Visible Measures *The Visible Measures Top 10 Viral Video Ad Campaigns Chart focuses on brand-driven viral video ads that appear on online-video-sharing destinations. Each campaign is measured on a True Reach‚Ñ¢ basis, which includes viewership of both brand-syndicated video clips and viewer-driven social video placements. The data are compiled using the Visible Measures Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing repository of analytic data on more than 100 million internet videos across more than 150 video-sharing destinations. Note: This analysis does not include Visible Measures' paid-placement (i.e., overlays, pre-/mid-/post-roll) performance data or video views on private sites. This chart does not include movie trailers, video-game campaigns, TV show or media network promotions, or public service announcements. View-count results are incremental by week. **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 Visible Measures directly.

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