Pepsi Makes a Summer Splash Onto Viral Video Chart

Santa Claus may be Coca-Cola's most bankable holiday spokesman, but Pepsi wants you to know that summer is a whole different story for Old St. Nick.

Pepsi made waves on this week's Viral Video Chart with the debut of its "Summer Time Is Pepsi Time " spot, which clocked in at No. 8 this week with 1.02 million views, according to data released by Visible Measures.

The spot features Santa partying on the beach, on vacation from his obligations to the children of the world and (apparently) his Yuletide contract with Coca-Cola. It's part of a larger campaign of the same name -- PepsiCo's first big marketing push behind its namesake cola in years, after the brand fell behind both Coke and Diet Coke last year sales-wise. Pepsi's irreverent encroachment on Coke's more traditional holiday turf isn't without criticism, and the next few weeks will tell if the campaign has staying power, but at least Pepsi shows even amidst the tumultuous restructuring of its marketing department, the brand has still got some viral teeth -- and if the high turnover rate on the viral video chart is any indication, it's going to have to use them.

Google's semi-explanatory "The Google+ Project" lost most of its steam after debuting at the top of the chart last week, coming in at No. 7 this week with 1.05 million views, a 70% drop, and one that will likely continue as curiosity surrounding Google's new social network dries up. Also dropping significantly this week is BMW's "MPowered Performance," which fell 33% to No. 9 in its third week on the chart.

Returning to the list this week are Google's "Web Is What You Make Of It" starring Lady Gaga (which claimed the No. 4 spot with 1.2 million views after a similar clip featuring Justin Bieber hit the web) and Wheaties' "Serious About Cereal," which landed at No. 6 with 1.16 million views, likely due to paid placement.

And of course, there's Evian's indefatigable "Live Young," which celebrated its 98th week on the chart in the plumb No. 5 spot with 1.18 million views.

	Last Week	Brand	Campaign	Agency	Current Week Views*	% Change in Views**	Watch the Spot
1	3	Vodafone	Fashion Photography	N/A	2,233,159	6%
2	2	Dirt Devil	You Know When It's the Devil	Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg	1,722,376	-29%
3	4	GE	Tag Your Green 2011	Howcast Media	1,215,189	6%
4	Back on Chart	Google	The Web Is What You Make Of It	BBH,Google Creative Labs	1,209,520	Back On Chart
5	5	Evian	Live Young	BETC Euro RSCG	1,184,210	4%
6	Back on Chart	Wheaties	Serious About Cereal	Saatchi & Saatchi	1,163,082	Back on Chart
7	1	Google	The Google+ Project	N/A	1,056,214	-70%
8	New	Pepsi	Summer Time is Pepsi Time	TBWA/Chiat/Day	1,027,428	New
9	7	BMW	MPowered Performance	Cundari	694,917	-33%
10	Back on Chart	Heineken	The Date	Wieden + Kennedy	694,463	Back On Chart
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.