Visible Measures Blog

Just when it seemed like the vampire smash hit couldn't get any bigger, New Moon surged again in online video. In the week following its astronomical opening weekend, the vampire romance grabbed a record-breaking 32.5 million views, a 63% increase. New Moon had set the previous record with 25 million views in late October.

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.

After months of building anticipation and expectations, Twilight Saga: New Moon will sink its teeth into box offices this weekend with the highest view count of any film this year. The vampire romance grew by 9% this week to reach nearly 20 million views. This is nearly twice the views of the first installment in the series, which scored 10.1 million views the week of its release. This also tops view counts for this year's blockbusters. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen generated 5.9 million views the week of its release and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince conjured up 7.3 million. New Moon has also set a record for the Top 10 Online Film Trailers Chart: it's the first film to maintain first place for every chart appearance. Impressive!

With new There's a Map for That ads and a resulting lawsuit from AT&T, Verizon appears twice on this week's Top 10 Viral Video Ads Chart. The campaign that takes on AT&T's 3G coverage first appeared on the chart back in October, when a fan uploaded a clip recorded from television. Now, after releasing new holiday-themed assets last week, There's a Map for That has returned to the ranks with 449,000+ views, taking seventh place. In response, AT&T has released a new ad featuring Luke Wilson. We'll have to wait until next week to see how it compares. Verizon's other campaign, Droid Does, maintained sixth place, losing only 2% of views from last week.

Former Miss California Carrie Prejean seems to be a lighting rod for controversy these days. And on Thursday night, in an interview with CNN's benign Larry King, she found herself in the middle of a media storm yet again. If you haven't seen it, check out the interview everyone's talking about.

Roland Emmerich's 2012 hits theaters this weekend with earth-shattering numbers in online video. The end-of-days film grew a mammoth 167% to reach 9.1 million views, taking second place on the Top 10 Online Film Trailers Chart. For perspective, this view count tops those of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (5.9 million views) and Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (7.3 million views) the weeks of their release. Despite 2012's surge, vampire romance New Moon holds on to first place one week from its release, doubling 2012's view count with 18.2 million views.

You would probably lose if you swam against Michael Phelps. However, you'd have a decent chance if you challenged him to a putting competition. Humanizing super-human athletes with random activities stands at the core of the International Olympic Committee's Best of US Challenge campaign. The campaign, which features Olympic athletes challenging all of us to beat them in random events, scored 1.5+ million views this week, taking the gold on The Top 10 Viral Video Ads Chart. Even with a significant number of video clips spanning multiple Olympians, it was a photo finish, with Best of US Challenge slipping past Volkswagen's Fun Theory by less than 20,000 views. 

On Thursday, Elizabeth Lambert reminded us how physical soccer can get. The University of New Mexico defender was caught punching, smacking, and pushing opponents, even throwing one to the ground by her ponytail in the semi-final game of the Mountain West tournament. Clips of these plays made their way online after the game, quickly igniting interest and controversy across the Web.

In a big upset, Happy Tree Friends has knocked Fred from the number one spot in the Top 10 Webisodes Chart. Fred had dominated the first two editions of the chart, putting up staggering numbers that seemed hard to beat. However, Happy Tree Friends chalked up over 19.8 million views in October to Fred's 15.9+ million, demonstrating not only that the webisode category is full of surprises, but that a large audience exists for mature cartoon content online.

Fred didn't just drop from first place, however. Deca TV challenger Smosh put up 16.4 million views, pushing the teen phenom farther down the chart to third place. With Smosh releasing five new assets in October compared to Fred's two, there seems to be a correlation between frequency of release and viewership. What do you think? Smosh also produced a tie-in to the upcoming vampire hit New Moon, which seems to have given it a boost.

James Cameron's upcoming film, Avatar, experienced a dramatic spike in views this week, growing 418% to reach 2.5+ million views. Still six weeks from release, the majority of the growth comes from a new trailer launched by 20th Century Fox. Despite this growth, the highly anticipated Avatar fell short of surpassing Sony's apocalyptic 2012 and Summit's vampire hit New Moon, which took an uncharacteristic dive this week.

Seth Green's crying helped Butterfinger land second place on The Top 10 Viral Video Ads Chart this week. Dude Where's My Bar features Green describing the loss of his "lucky, vintage" Butterfinger bar, which he asks viewers to help find in a golden ticket-esque fashion. And yes, he really does cry. Aside from this main spot, the campaign includes a 'Seth Green Freak Out' asset, which has driven over 70% of the campaign's views this week.