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According to the London-based video analytics firm Unruly, the most shared video ad of 2016 is a spot from the UK retailer John Lewis. The holiday-themed ad has earned 1.9 million shares since its November 9 release, shooting it to the top of the list in less than a month’s time.
Unruly bases rankings for its top global video ad chart on the number of shares a video ad on Facebook or YouTube earns across Facebook and the blogosphere. This year’s most shared ads were determined by social data collected from January 1 to November 29, 2016, and only included official ads launched during the year.
Videos from the UK, US, Canada, Thailand, India and Egypt were among Unruly’s top 10 most shared global ads. The top two spots were both from the UK — John Lewis’s “#BusterTheBoxer” ad and the “We’re the Super Humans” Rio Olympics ad from the UK’s Channel 4.
Three sports-related ads made up the top 10, with “We’re the Super Humans” Rio Paralympics ad at No. 2 and Nike’s “The Switch” for the European Football Championships at No. 6, followed by Doritos “Ultrasound” Super Bowl 50 ad at No. 7.
“Social video has dramatically evolved. Brands are adding emotional intelligence and great storytelling to digital advertising,” says Unruly’s VP of global insight, Ian Forrester, in a release announcing the most shared ads of the year, “We’ve also seen the most successful creatives bubbling up from a vast range of countries and cultures, showing how digital video can break down national boundaries and become a truly global conversation.”
1. John Lewis: #BusterTheBoxer (1,949,387 shares)
2. Channel 4: We’re the Super Humans (1,851,533 shares)
3. Shell: Best Day of My Life #MakeTheFuture (1,683,072 shares)
4. Vodafone Egypt: Ramadan 2016 (1,435,350 shares)
5. S7 Airlines: Upside Down and Inside Out w/ OK Go (1,240,842 shares)
6. Nike Football: The Switch (969,650 shares)
7. Doritos: Ultrasound (893,465 shares)
8. Ariel India: #ShareTheLoad (877,558 shares)
9. Cadbury Canada: Aliens (852,895 shares)
10. 7Eleven Thailand: Teachers (792,328 shares)
Unruly says the average run time for the most shared video ads was 2:49, noting the average was slightly skewed by 7Eleven Thailand’s “Teachers” spot that ran nine minutes long. The spot ranked No. 10 on Unruly’s chart, earning 792,328 shares for the year.
