Heineken's Boozy Wedding Warns of Drinking Too Much
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Proving there's no one recipe for viral success the most-watched chart bows six new spots this week, including at No. 1 a new PSA from Heineken called "Know the Signs." It depicts a wedding gone wrong thanks to a very drunk guest, some raucous dancing and a tentpole. The ad uses the embarrassment factor to deter viewers from drinking too much; an accompanying website lets you spot more drunks.
Meanwhile, in the No. 4 spot, everyone's favorite skateboarding pooch, Tillman, is back. He's already shilled for Amrstrong Flooring and this time he's on the board again, albeit a virtual one, promoting Activision's Tony Hawk videogame. In the No. 6 spot Samsung nabs its fifth appearance on the viral chart since we launched it in April, with a classic "how'd they do that?" mobile phone ad that also ties into the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. And in the No. 7 spot is a push from Toshiba for its Regza flat-panel TV; Visible Measures, which compiles the data for the chart, notes it got heavy promotion on the YouTube homepage, MSNBC, Gizmodo and Engadget. Finally, in the No. 8 spot is an ad for Cisco's anti-virus spam solution.
The most controversial spot of the week was the Microsoft one in the No. 5 spot. There's debate over whether or not this is a brand-produced video or simply one shot by a customer at one of Microsoft's new retail stores uploaded completely independently. Either way, it's gotten passed around the web -- and not because of the quality of the moves. As Visible Measures' Matt Cutler noted: "It clearly harkens back to T-Mobile Dance -- minus the spontaneity, talented dancing, pacing and overall viewer engagement."
The Top-Performing Viral Video Ads of the Week
| Rank | Last Week's Rank | Brand | Campaign | Agency | Current Week's Views*
| % Change in Views** | Watch |
1 | New | Heineken | Know The Signs | Ruby Agency | 1,172,878 | NEW | |
2 | 2 | Evian | Live Young | BETC Euro RSCG | 1,114,727 | 18% | |
3 | 1 | Volkswagen | The Fun Theory | DDB | 838,928 | -23% | |
4 | New | Activision | Tony Hawk Ride | Droga; Sharethrough | 781,922 | NEW | |
5 | New | Microsoft | Microsoft Store Flash Dance | NA | 560,041 | NEW | |
6 | New | Samsung | Expect the Unexpected | The Viral Factory | 549,064 | NEW | |
7 | New | Toshiba | Armchair Viewing Refined | Grey | 546,092 | NEW | |
8 | New | Cisco | Spam And Virus Blocker | Sharethrough | 511,233 | NEW | |
9 | 4 | DC Shoes | Gymkhana Two | Mad Media | 504,608 | -10% | |
10 | 5 | Microsoft | Xbox Project Natal | World Famous | 440,386 | -10% | |
Source: Visible Measures
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The data used for The Ad Age Viral Video Chart was collected from our Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing video repository of analytic data on 200+ million Internet videos from 150+ video-sharing destinations.
*See our Top Ad Campaigns page for our methodology.
**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 us directly.
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Abbey Klaassen is the Digital Editor at Advertising Age. You can find the original article here.