Can you believe it, YouTube just celebrated its tenth anniversary. And guess how they did it – they had a battle of the best ads during their 10-year run. All of the top five ads were created by large companies. Two of them were focused on women – beauty and confidence, two were from car companies, and the top one came from Turkish Airlines. Who knew!
The Turkish Airlines ad was a selfie battle between basketball star, Kobe Bryant and football hero, Lionel Messi. With more than 140 million views so far, this 60-second ad got double the views of the second place video.
The selfie challenge video was more about humor and less about any lasting message. But it’s fun and filled with action and adventure. The two sports legends visit a total of ten destinations trying to one-up each other on location and who or what shares their spotlight.
So in just one minute you see exotic locations, a shark, a lion, and a lot of the two sports’ stars.
In the second place spot was the one-minute ad that first ran in the 2011 Super Bowl from Volkswagen, “The Force.” This ad cleverly shows a young child in full Darth Vader costume and his father using the remote button to allow the mini Darth to use the power of his “force” in starting the car.
Other contenders were the Always sponsored “Like a Girl” ad asking people to start rethinking their use of the phrase so it would no longer be a negative statement. Kaplow PR is believed to have worked on this campaign.
In fourth place was Volvo’s ad featuring Claude Van Damme. In fifth place was the Dove ad that asked women to describe themselves to an artist who could not see them and then the same artist drew them from another person’s description. This ad ends with the women seeing both sketches and realizing they “are more beautiful than they think.”
All of the top five ads of the decade were great.
If you spend time on social media, you’ve probably seen at least two or three of them, maybe more than once. And each ad told a story – one that was in keeping with the brand those companies want to project.
What can you learn from these ads? Well, if you remember to tell a good story that is in keeping with the brand and message you have established, you’ll make a strong connection with your customers.