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Viral Video: Now That's How You Sell a Mobile Home

What People Watched the Week of Oct. 26, 2009

by Abbey Klaassen
Published: November 05, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Mac vs. Microsoft battle of the operating systems has been taken to the viral video sphere, and Apple emerged victorious this week. Microsoft's Windows 7 campaign drops off the chart, while Apple's newest "Get a Mac" creative hangs on in the No. 4 spot.

Meanwhile, it's a little bit of an old trick, but Seth Green employs the faux freakout well in this week's No. 2 spot. It's a campaign for Butterfinger in which the B-lister laments the disappearance of his "lucky, vintage" candy bar and enlists viewers to help him get it back.

But all of those campaigns are overshadowed by the Microbilt/Cullman Liquidation spot. It's actually part of a larger campaign focused on local commercials for Microbilt, which describes itself as a "single source provider of risk management solutions for the small and medium enterprise marketplace." And it has yielded one of the more entertaining viral video campaigns we've seen in a long time. Microbilt enlisted YouTubers Rhett & Link to launch a microsite, www.ilovelocalcommercials.com, and a contest in which participants nominate local businesses to get their own Rhett & Link-produced spots. If the results are anything like what they've done with mobile-home seller Cullman Liquidation, we're all in for a treat.

	Last Week	Brand	Campaign	Agency	Current Week Views*	% Change in Views**
1	1	Volkswagen	The Fun Theory	Tribal DDB	2,169,701	-10%
2	New	Butterfinger	Dude Where's My Bar	Threshold Interactive; ShareThrough	1,270,894	New
3	3	Evian	Live Young	BETC Euro RSCG	1,093,386	-11%
4	2	Apple	Get a Mac	TBWAMedia Arts Lab	1,014,683	-40%
5	5	DC Shoes	Ken Block's Gymkhana Two Project	Mad Media	528,143	-6%
6	4	Verizon	Droid Does	McGarryBowen	461,648	-52%
7	6	Microsoft Xbox	Project Natal	World Famous	391,115	-4%
8	8	Durex	Get It On	Fitzgerald+CO; SuperFad	327,161	+7%
9	New	Cullman Liquidation	Painfully Honest and Epic Mobile Home Commercial	Rhett & Link	304,203	New
10	9	T-Mobile	T-Mobile Dance	Saatchi & Saatchi, MediaCom	290,295	-2%
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 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.

3 Comments

By john120 | Marlborough, MA November 5, 2009 10:26:07 am:

I still can't get over how good the rollerblading babies are. I laugh every time I watch it. The others are great too, but that's just one of the funniest videos I've ever seen.

Always love the top ten list.

Jean Levasseur
www.captainsofindustry.com

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By letsduet | Rochester, NY November 5, 2009 10:56:18 am:

Good beginning on the Butterfinger viral, but weak ending.

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By shaydee | Moscow November 6, 2009 05:19:54 am:

I wonder why Durex appeared again, kinda old spot.

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