Report: Top 3 Video Ads Of 2013 Earned Nearly 50 Times More Shares Than Top Ads Of 2006

According to video marketing firm Unruly, the top three video ads of 2006 earned a combined 244,395 shares. This year, the company says Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches,” GEICO’s “Hump Day,” and Evian’s “Baby and Me” video ads have generated a total of 11.6 million shares, representing 47.5 times more shares than the top three ads in 2006.

“We’ve been tracking the most shared videos at Unruly – UGC and branded – since we launched the Unruly Viral Video Chart back in 2006,” said the company’s COO Sarah Wood, “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.”

Unruly claims eight of the top 20 most shared ads of all time were released this year. The top ten ads of 2013 generated a total of 28.8 million shares, a 52.1 percent increase over the 19 million shares earned by the top ads in 2012.

With more than 5.5 million shares, the most shared video ad of all time is Volkswagen’s 2011 “The Force” Superbowl ad:

[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0[/youtube]

DC Shoes has earned the most video shares by a brand for its “Gymkhana Series” with four separate videos that earned a total of 10.73 million shares. The series features car driving stunts performed by professional rally car driver Ken Block. The sixth video in the series was released just last month. Here is the first video that kicked-off the series in 2008:

[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-jAImScms[/youtube]

Volkswagen ranks second for brand with the most video shares at 7.76 million, followed by Evian with 6.45 million total shares.

Unruly says it currently tracks 500,000 shares of branded content every 24 hours, claiming the value of a share trumps the value of a view. “A share is a genuine measure of deep engagement, an act of advocacy and a driver of significant earned media,” said Wood.

The following interactive infographic from Unruly illustrates the history of video sharing since the company began tracking videos in 2006: