The Most Shared Ads Of August 2015: Tiny Dancers And Undercover Chancers
This article originally appeared in Contagious.
Journalists have a name for this time of year, when temperatures are high, everyone has one eye on their holidays and consequently the media does its level best to convince us stories like this are newsworthy.
It’s called ‘silly season’ and, looking at the month in online videos, it seems that the advertising industry is having a ‘silly season’ of its own.
This isn’t to say that this month’s crop of ads aren’t exuberant, exciting and high-sharing, but rather that the overriding tone of August appears to be fast, frivolous and fun. Throw in a celebrity cameo and some kind of extreme sport, and you might just have a hit on your hands.
Riding high on this month’s chart is everyone’s favourite supermodel, diver and sometime footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, supporting his new line of headphones from Monster. Taking a cue from Pepsi Max’s brilliant ‘Uncle Drew’ series, the spot finds the Real Madrid player donning a cunning disguise to play a busker. The only difference being that Kyrie Irving’s disguise in ‘Uncle Drew’ involved layers of prosthetics and some decent acting chops, while Ronaldo’s disguise is essentially a costume shop beard.
Never mind though, because Ronaldo’s scant camouflage hasn’t prevented the spot from reaching stratospheric figures, with over 2.8 million shares since release earlier this month. Despite the content itself being a little shapeless, its massive success is testament to Ronaldo’s potential as a lightning rod for online enthusiasm.
Speaking of enthusiasm, we found little online content as joyfully exciting as our number two spot, DC Shoes’ ‘Robbie Madison’s Pipe Dream’. A loving ode to what happens when you attach waterskis to a motorbike, the beautifully-produced spot had a similarly meteoric rise up Unruly’s Viral Video Chart. If you’d like to read more of our gushing thoughts, you can here but really you should just watch it yourself.
While DC Shoes make riding on water look easy, nothing looks quite as effortless as Lexus’ logic-defying ‘Hoverboard’. When the spot was released early in August, the internet immediately cried “Fake!” – after all, we’d been burned once before. As soon as it became clear Lexus’ device was indeed floating, the video’s shares rose as quickly as stock in ‘Back To The Future 2’ memorabilia.
Not content to occupy one spot on this month’s chart, Lexus reappears at number 11 with a frankly fascinating explanation of how they pulled it off. Though you might need to pause at points to peruse the diagrams, it’s a geeky behind-the-scenes peek that’s just as interesting as the original.
Returning to the realm of sporting celebrities, Air New Zealand maintain its reputation for jazzing up air travel with another quirky safety video. This time, they’ve opted for an extended parody of sci-fi comedy ‘Men In Black’ featuring a cast of the All Blacks’ rugby players ahead of the Rugby World Cup. While the quality of the players’ singing varies tremendously, it’s a fun watch and has been shared over 100,000 times. Also I understood it better than Foot Locker’s ‘Thoughts’ which, considering I don’t watch NFL, flew about six miles over my head.
The strangest but most amusing celebrity appearance of the month goes to Rafael Nadal, who stars in Tommy Hilfiger’s ‘It All Comes Off’. Hilfiger leaves nothing to the imagination with its Carry On-esque title and the ad itself is a throwback to the Marky Mark era of underwear modelling, finds Rafa smirking as he peels off his branded skivvies.
Elsewhere in the chart, more serious moments come from Bar-B-Q Plaza and Coca-Cola, in the form of sentimental documentary spots about sharing your emotions with your family.
Rounding out the month, August saw return visits from Castrol’s magical mystery joyride, Always’ ‘#LikeAGirl’ follow up and, of course, the internet’s new favourite puppy.
Most shared ads during August 2015
1. Monster Headphones: ‘Cristiano Ronaldo In Disguise’
Shares: 2,837,028
2. DC Shoes: ‘Robbie Madison’s Pipe Dream’
Shares: 1,514,621
3. Bar B Q Plaza: ‘The Waiter’s Mom’
Shares: 763,566
4. Samsung: ‘Introducing Galaxy Note 5’
Shares: 570,601
5. Lexus: ‘The Lexus Hoverboard: It’s Here’
Shares: 273,425
6. Kleenex: ‘Unlikely Best Friends’
Shares: 263,430
7. Air New Zealand: ‘Men In Black Safety Defenders’
Shares: 110,180
8. EA: ‘FIFA 16 New Season Trailer’
Shares: 107,105
9. John Lewis: ‘Tiny Dancer’
Shares: 85,557
10. Coca-Cola: ‘Trao cảm xúc, nhận hạnh phúc’
Shares: 63,700
11. Lexus: ‘The Lexus Hoverboard: The Story’
Shares: 55,374
12. Foot Locker: ‘Thoughts – feat Victor Cruz and Odell Beckham Jr.’
Shares: 53,057
13. Purina: ‘Puppyhood’
Shares: 50,218
14. Old Spice: ‘And So It Begins’
Shares: 44,243
15. Always: ‘#LikeAGirl Unstoppable’
Shares: 39,976
16. Patagonia: ‘Denali’
Shares: 36,514
17. Tommy Hilfiger: ‘Rafael Nadal: It All Comes Off’
Shares: 33,245
18. Sony: ‘Announcing The Star Wars Limited Edition Playstation 4’
Shares: 31,984
19. HBO: ‘Vinyl Teaser’
Shares: 30,163
20. Castrol – ‘Virtual Drift’
Shares: 30,150
[pardot-form id=”4616″ title=”Trending Content Sign Up”]
