Visible Measures Blog

On this week's Ad Age Viral Video Chart, the United Nations comes in on top with a whopping 3.6 million views. The interactive, multi-platform ad campaign by the United Nations and Droga5 promoted World Humanitarian Day, which occured August 19th, with the message "I'm doing something good, somewhere, for someone else." 

Beyonce gave a lending hand to the UN, dedicating her song "I Was Here" from her 2011 4 album to the cause. Her music video served as the inspiration of the campaign, and recieved the large majority of the online viewership for the UN. Celebrities like Lady Gaga, Michelle Obama, and Justin Bieber all vocalized their support, helping the campaign gain viewership and popularity.

Meanwhile, another celebrity-endorsed campaign also makes a debut on the chart. The Samsung campaign dubs James Franco as the "ultimate multitasker," as he acts, directs, writes, and teaches across the country. In the ad, Franco uses the Galaxy Note 10.1 to help juggle all his tasks. James Franco: The Ultimate Multiasker debuts at fourth place with 2.3 million views. 

Filling the remaining spots on the chart are Microsoft, a conservative non-profit group backed by the Koch brothers, and the second season of a multi-branded web series.

 The Most-Watched Ads of the Week

Rank	Last Week's Rank	Brand	Campaign	Agency	Current Week's Views*	% Change in Views**	Watch
1	NEW	United Nations	World Humanitarian Day 2012	Droga5 New York	3,676,597	NEW
2	NEW	Intel, Toshiba	The Beauty Inside	Pereira & O'Dell San Francisco	3,507,447	147%
3	4	Volvo	The Ballerina Stunt	Forsman & Bodenfors	2,606,245	64%
4	NEW	Samsung	James Franco: The Ultimate Multitasker	Cheil USA	2,259,160	NEW
5	NEW	Microsoft	Microsoft Unveils a New Look	NA	2,076,994	NEW
6	2	Rovio	Angry Birds Space	NA	2,050,244	7%
7	6	Google	Chromebook	BBH New York;Google Creative Lab	1,342,621	18%
8	1	Samsung	Introducing Galaxy Note 10.1	NA	1,261,824	-61%
9	NEW	Americans for Prosperity	Has President Obama Earned Your Vote?	NA	1,194,354	NEW
10	NEW	Garnier, Schick, Ford, House at the End of the Street	Dating Rules From My Future Self Season 2	NA	1,027,159	NEW

Source: Visible Measures 

Ad Age's Viral Video Chart, powered by Visible Measures, focuses on brand-driven social video ad campaigns. Each campaign is measured by True Reach, an MRC accredited metric that includes views from brand-driven and audience-driven social video clips. The data are compiled using the patented Visible Measures platform, a constantly growing repository of analytic data on hundreds of millions of videos tracked across hundreds of online video destinations. 

Note: This analysis does not include Visible Measures' paid-placement (e.g., overlays; pre-, mid-, and post-roll) performance data or video views on private sites. This chart does not include movie trailers, video game campaigns, TV show, or media network promotions. View counts are incremental by week.