Unruly Launches Interactive Infographic Visualising Growth Of Branded Video #ViralSpiral13

Did you know that the sharing of video ads has increased almost 50 times over the last eight years? It’s an incredible stat which shows how sharing across the social web with our friends and family has become such an important part of our daily lives.

The Unruly Viral Spiral - an interactive infographic which updates in real-time - not only visualizes this incredible growth, but by looking at the most popular branded video content every year since 2006, it shows how consumers’ tastes have changed so much in such a short amount of time.

Advertisers have done their best to keep up. A recent Adobe study found that 76% of marketers say their work has changed more in the last two years than in the past 50.

Technology is bringing about sweeping shifts in the balance of power and social video is fundamentally changing the rules of advertising. Long gone are the Mad Men days when all an advertiser would need to do is buy the airtime, create the spot, blast it out to a captive audience, and raise a glass of Scotch for a job well done. Today consumers pick and choose what they watch.

After all, what we share is a barometer of how we’re feeling, a barometer of what’s moving us to talk around the global water-cooler.

You only need to look at The Unruly Viral Spiral to see how advertisers are changing their approach to meet these shifting needs.

Over the last few years we are increasingly seeing a number of marketers challenging the value of a view and instead focusing on creating content and distribution strategies which drive deeper levels of engagement. The era of content marketing is in full swing.

But don’t just take my word for it, here are some more kick-ass stats:

• During 2006, the 3rd biggest ad of the year was Dove “Evolution”, which achieved 60,954 shares during the year of its launch, compared to 4.24m for "Real Beauty Sketches";
• Sharing of the top 3 branded videos has grown seven-fold from 2010 - the year of the game-changing Old Spice ad - to 2013 (11.6m vs. 1.6m, +613.8%);
• 40% (8/20) of the top 20 ads of all-time were released in 2013;
• The top 10 ads in 2013 generated 28.8 million shares between them - a year-on-year increase of 52.1% from 2012* (19 million) – a signal that consumers’ video consumption habits are continuing to evolve rapidly;
• The Unruly Viral Video Chart is now tracking 500,000 shares of branded content every 24 hours;
• The most shared ad of all time is still Volkswagen’s 2011 Super Bowl ad, “The Force”; in second place second is TNT Benelux’s 2012 hit “Dramatic Surprise”, while Dove’s 2013 ad“Real Beauty Sketches” is third;
• The brand which has racked up the most shares since 2006 is DC Shoes, thanks to its hugely successful Gymkhana series, with 10.73million shares** across four videos. Volkswagen is second with 7.76million shares, while Evian is third with 6.45million shares;
• FMCG/CPG is the most shared product category, making up 23% of the most shared ads of all time**. In second place is Entertainment, with 18% of shares;
• The average length of the top 3 videos has increased from 35 seconds in 2006 to one minute 36 seconds in 2013 – an increase of 177.88%