Roger Federer's Tennis Ball Stunt Proves Viral for Gillette
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Is it real or isn't it? Gillette and tennis great Roger Federer aren't saying. One thing's certain: The video of Mr. Federer knocking a metal bottle off a man's head with a tennis ball (twice!) hit the Viral Chart at No. 1 last week, with more than 5 million views.
The video, shot for Gillette and the British Skin Foundation, received a flurry of press from the AP, Daily News, The Guardian and many others. Some even made a game attempt to verify whether the events portrayed were real or a stunt. A Gillette spokesman told Mashable and others they'd rather "leave the 'real or fake' debate up to the viewers." Read: fake.
But both Gillette and Mr. Federer say the video was shot in one take. After a match at the Cincinnati Masters, Mr. Federer told the New York Times and others, "You know how it is with magicians. They don't tell how their tricks work, you know. I don't do it that much, but, yeah, it was shot in one piece and it was ?- the guy took a chance. It worked out. I'm happy."
The original upload of the video to Gillette's U.K. YouTube site garnered the most views, with a significant portion referred from Facebook, indicating a good bit of organic sharing in addition to the considerable earned media last week. Visible Measures said that while they have advised some Gillette campaigns, they didn't work on this one.
Also new on the chart this week: Dickies' first entry on the chart, Nestle's Butterfinger with a video starring Erik Estrada, Lou Ferrigno and Adam West, and Internet for Peace, an attempt to win a Nobel Peace Prize for, well, the internet.
Also: Evian's venerable "Live Young" campaign delivered another million views, sending it over the 100 million view mark since it launched more than a year ago.
| Last Week | Brand | Campaign | Agency | Current Week Views* | % Change in Views** | Watch the Spot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New | Gillette & British Skin Foundation | Roger Federer Trick Shot | N/A | 5,123,502 | New |
| 3 | 4 | Evian | Live Young | BETC Euro RSCG | 982,215 | +7% |
| 5 | New | Internet for Peace | 2010 Nobel Peace Prize | Ogilvy & Mather | 762,204 | New |
| 6 | Back on Chart | Geico | Really Save | The Martin Agency | 759,237 | Back on Chart |
| 9 | New | Dickies | 874 | Goodby Silverstein & Partners; Sharethrough | 751,301 | New |
| 10 | 9 | Blendtec | Will it Blend? | In-house | 734,421 | -4% |
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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. |
