NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- What makes an ad go viral? Cute babies, furry animals, juvenile humor, implausible stunts, and, well, a real stunt from billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Geico's "Lizard Ballad" is the only new addition to the list this week in what has to be the corniest ads to make the chart since we launched it a year ago. But, since it stars Warren Buffett doing an impression of Guns N' Roses rocker Axl Rose, it makes the chart at No. 10 with 368,689 views across just three placements, two uploaded by Geico itself.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns the insurance company known for its many other videos, such as this one with one of the earliest YouTube stars, the Numa Numa guy. Fun fact about that from the Martin Agency's Rad Tollett: the terrarium with the gecko in the background was actually in the original video that made Gary Brolsma web-famous; all they had to do to shoot the Geico ad was make it more visible, and of course, add a lizard.
Geico's Buffett ad comes in at 2:24 minutes (but who's counting?), which is about optimum length for the YouTube attention span. Even that will be too long for most of you, so if you just want to see Buffett rock out (he really sings), fast-forward to minute 1:30.
Other than Geico and Buffett, the chart is loaded with stalwarts such as Evian, Doritos, Old Spice, Microsoft and Pepsi with ongoing video campaigns racking up TV-sized audiences over weeks and months on the web. Programming note: We'll be honoring some of these campaigns -- along with YouTube and Visible Measures -- as part of Ad Age's Viral Video Awards in New York on April 13.
The Most-Watched Viral Video Ads of the Week
| Rank | Last Week's Rank | Brand | Campaign | Agency | Current Week's Views*
| % Change in Views** | Watch |
1 | 1 | Doritos | Viralocity | BBDO | 1,519,071 | -35% | |
2 | 2 | Evian | Live Young | BETC Euro RSCG | 1,083,921 | 2% | |
3 | 4 | Muscle Milk | Spring Break It Down | Pereira & O'Dell; Sharethrough | 723,442 | -16% | |
4 | 3 | Sony Playstation 3 | Sony Playstation - Move | Deutsch | 587,736 | -41% | |
5 | 5 | Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like | Wieden + Kennedy | 527,438 | -21% | |
6 | 9 | Microsoft | Xbox Project Natal | World Famous | 486,134 | 5% | |
7 | 10 | Sussex Safer Roads Partnership | Embrace Life | Director: Daniel Cox | 484,334 | 9% | |
8 | 11 | Pepsi | Oh Africa | NA | 482,901 | Back On Chart | |
9 | 8 | Doritos | Crash The Super Bowl 2010 | Goodby Silverstein & Partners | 382,004 | -22% | |
10 | NEW | Geico | Lizard Ballad | The Martin Agency | 368,689 | NEW | |
Source: Visible Measures
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Michael Learmonth is a reporter at Advertising Age. You can find the original article here.
The data used for The Top 10 Viral Video Ads Chart was sourced from Visible Measures.
*See our Top Ad Campaigns page for our methodology.
**Indicates percent change in views compared with the same period the week before.
For an end-to-end assessment of your online video campaign's performance or to notify us of an upcoming or in-market campaign, please contact us.
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