Branded Video Sharing Almost 50 Times Higher Than 5 Years Ago

According to The Unruly Viral Spiral, the sharing of video ads has increased almost 50 times over the last eight years. Unruly’s latest interactive infographic visualizes the explosive growth of video sharing since 2006, charting the extent to which many advertisers are using social video to amplify their brand.

The Unruly Viral Spiral has charted the three most shared ads across the social web every year since 2006 and also tracks their number of all-time shares since launch. Previous ads from brands such as Pepsi, Volkswagen and Nike are featured along with the latest social videos.

According to the data, the top three ads in 2013 have so far attracted 11.6 million shares — 47.5 times more than the top three ads managed in 2006 (244,395 shares combined).

Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches ranks first.

GEICO’s Hump Day ranks second.

And Evian’s Baby & Me ranks third.

Other key video sharing stats include:

• During 2006, the 3rd biggest ad of the year was Dove’s Dove “Evolution”, which achieved 60,954 shares during the year of its launch, compared to 4.24 million 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 (11.6 million vs. 1.6 million, +613.8 percent);
• 40 percent (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 percent from 2012* (19 million). It’s 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 is TNT Benelux’s 2012 hit Dramatic Surprise, while Dove’s 2013 ad Real Beauty Sketches is third;
• The brand that has racked up the most shares since 2006 is DC Shoes, thanks to its hugely successful Gymkhana series, with 10.73 million shares across four videos. Volkswagen is second with 7.76 million shares, while Evian is third with 6.45 million shares;
• FMCG/CPG is the most shared product category, making up 23 percent of the most shared ads of all time. In second place is the Entertainment category, with 18 percent 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 percent.

In a press release, Unruly COO and co-founder Sarah Wood said, “We’ve been tracking the most shared videos at Unruly — UGC and branded — since we launched the Unruly Viral Video Chart back in 2006. Over that time, we’ve seen an explosion in both the number of videos brands are making and the volume of videos people are sharing.”

She added, “From a marketing perspective, why are shares more meaningful than views? Because shares are a global currency and a gold standard in the social economy; a share is a genuine measure of deep engagement, an act of advocacy and a driver of significant earned media.”

Wood continued, “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. What we choose to share is a barometer of how we’re feeling, a barometer of what’s moving us to talk around the global water-cooler.”

She concluded, “As well as demonstrating the exponential growth of the medium, The Unruly Viral Spiral aims to provide a micro history of the medium and a ‘greatest hits’ for people to enjoy and share.”

In the spirit of 2013 — the year of so-called “prankvertising” — The Viral Spiral also stakes its claim as the Internet’s first “infoprank,” an infographic with surprises along the way.

See The Unruly Viral Spiral infographic below.

Unruly Viral Sharing Awards

Marketers can also join the inaugural Unruly Video Sharing Awards – the #VSAs — a live Twitter event taking place on Dec. 10, 2013, at 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST.

Powered by the Unruly Viral Video Chart, these data-driven awards will honor the most shared videos and brands of 2013. View the 2013 finalists.