Visible Measures Blog

On Sunday night, Hollywood stars dolled up in their finest and attended the biggest awards ceremony in the film industry. There were a few moments that went viral in social video. But what about the actual nominees? They see a surge in social video, too.

The 84^th Academy Awards have come and gone. And, for the most part, the Oscar winners accepted the golden trophy with grace and poise. But what were the moments that audiences went straight to social video to watch again and again? 

Wanderlust releases in theaters this weekend, starring funnyman Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. The comedy comes in at fifth place on the Top 10 Film Trailer Chart with over 1 million views. Wanderlust has seen a steady increase in views since the beginning of the month, gaining approximately 400,000+ views weekly since the beginning of February. Wanderlust is performing well in social video, seeing nearly 800,000+ views more than Paul Rudd’s last two feature films, Our Idiot Brother and How Do You Know, at the time of release.

Animal rights advocacy group Peta has long used gratuitous sex appeal in its campaigns, but its latest effort, which landed at No. 10 on this week's Viral Video chart, with 934,000 views, may have set a new benchmark for tackiness.

This Sunday marks the biggest day in Hollywood, the 84^th Annual Academy Awards. And, as with every year, the Oscar predictions are coming in hard and fast from critics, bloggers, and everyone with an opinion about film.

This morning, Seraj Bharwani, Chief Analytics Officer at Visible Measures, delivered the keynote at OMMA Metrics & Measurement. Seraj's theme was "Making User Choice Accountable." He spoke about the tsunami of metrics facing brand marketers today and the challenges that arise in a "metrics arms race" when brands fight for bragging rights by blindly chasing likes, tweets, and shares. He concentrated on how media researchers can help brands make sense of a sea of metrics and ask the right questions.

Today, we're announcing Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for a number of Visible Measures' core social video metrics. MRC accreditation includes True Reach, the world’s first metric to provide a complete view of video campaign performance online across paid, owned, and Earned Media. True Reach is the measurement foundation for all the social video campaigns we measure, as well as our Top 10 Ad Age Viral Video Chart, iMedia Top Brands in Video Chart, and Variety Top 10 Film Trailers Chart. Other metrics include View Period, Engagement Score, and Completion Rate.

Nicholas Cage stars in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and cruises into third place with 2.1 million views. Ghost Rider sees a 118% increase in views from last week, this week marking its eighth week on the chart. The second Ghost Rider film has nearly 600 placements across the web, consisting of dozens of clips, featurettes, TV spots and trailers. We'll check in next week to see how its success in social video translates to opening box office numbers.  

The battle of the web Super Bowl ads has turned into a long game. While Volkswagen's "The Force" was the clear winner last year, this year's ads are still fighting it out.

We released the 2011 Social Video Advertising Report today. The report covers high-level trends throughout the social video industry from 2009 through 2011, spanning 6,400+ social video campaigns from 3,100+ brands, from over 100,000 video clips across hundreds of video sites. You can download the full report here.

The world lost a music legend this Saturday when Whitney Houston's life was tragically cut short. As the sad news spread, fans turned to Twitter, Facebook, and social video to express their grief. One of the videos they watched, again and again, was Whitney's iconic I Will Always Love You.

Right in time for Valentine's Day, The Vow hits theaters this weekend, coming in third place on the Top 10 Film Trailers Chart with 2.1 million social views. Starring Hollywood A-listers Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, the drama-romance has been on the chart for seven weeks. For context, we compared the flick to another Channing Tatum romance film, Dear John. The Vow is outperforming Dear John at the week of release -- Dear John saw over 1 million social video views its week of release. It went on to rake in $30 million its opening weekend. 

Old wisdom: releasing your Super Bowl ad early on the web builds excitement and buzz for your spot and gives it a huge boost online. New wisdom: still true, but it's not necessarily a requirement.

Chronicle prepares to release nationwide this weekend, climbing to second place on the Top 10 Online Film Trailers Chart with over 2 million social video views. This week marks its seventh week on the chart. The film has had a strong presence in social video with at least six trailers, as well as over a dozen clips and TV spots. It’s also collected over 20,0000+ comments across the Web. 

With just two days to the Super Bowl and a barrage of 2012 Super Bowl ads already generating millions of social video views, we wanted to take a step back and provide some context for what's to come. There's no better way to compare the overall success of the new slate of ads than taking a look at the most-watched Super Bowl ads of all time. The complete list is below.

Now that a great many Super Bowl advertisers are putting their spots on the web early to generate buzz, it means its even harder to break through the clutter. But Honda managed to claim the element of surprise with its "Ferris Bueller"-themed teaser, which collected 4.4 million views last week, more than any other Super Bowl ad, according to Visible Measures.