NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Wieden & Kennedy held on to three of the top four spots last week, with its Tiger Woods ad firmly in second place. A closer look, however, reveals that of the 2.3 million Tiger views for the week, 1.3 million or 60% were for the derivative, or lampoon ads.
More surprisingly, this percentage is a rise over the life of the campaign. Of the 11.2 million total Tiger views so far, 5.7 million or 51% were parodies, which means the spoofs are driving the views. Simply put, it's more fun to watch people making fun of Tiger than it is to watch, well, Tiger.
It also shows that while a video that goes viral can give you reach, it often means the message gets changed along the way. Indeed, that's part of Nike's strategy, as Nike VP of digital Stefan Olander explained in a post Thursday on YouTube's Biz Blog: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We love when people engage and participate in the storytelling. Any confident brand should be."
Nike (and Wieden) may fare better next week if this clip makes the charts. The rest of the ads are either hold-overs or ads making a return to the list. One exception is No. 7 for Nitro Boats, which benefited from TV promotion on Outdoor Channel.
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 | Old Spice | Odor Blocker | Wieden + Kennedy | 3,327,366 | -54% | |
2 | 2 | Nike | Earl and Tiger | Wieden + Kennedy | 2,305,863 | -64% | |
3 | 3 | Evian | Live Young | BETC Euro RSCG | 1,238,960 | -24% | |
4 | 4 | Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like | Wieden + Kennedy | 864,799 | -40% | |
5 | 8 | Microsoft | Xbox Project Natal | World Famous | 538,271 | -24% | |
6 | 9 | Pepsi | Oh Africa | NA | 519,446 | 2% | |
7 | NEW | Nitro Boats | Boat vs. Girlfriend | NA | 487,590 | !Undefined Bookmark, NEW | |
8 | Back On Chart | Sussex Safer Roads Partnership | Embrace Life | Director: Daniel Cox | 402,033 | !Syntax Error, ON | |
9 | 5 | E*TRADE | E*TRADE Super Bowl 2010 | Grey | 373,879 | -71% | |
10 | 10 | DC Shoes | Gymkhana Two | Mad Media | 371,644 | -19% | |
Source: Visible Measures
---
Edmund Lee 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.
Follow Visible Measures on Twitter!
