South Africa’s top ten most popular YouTube video ads in 2012
December 13, 2012YouTube has released a list of South Africa’s top ten most popular YouTube video ads of the year. These are the South African ads which achieved the largest number of views from people in South Africa. Ranked in order they are:
- OLX Motorbike Advertisement
- Nando’s Diversity Campaign
- Gumtree Property Advertisement
- Nando’s: Last dictator standing
- OLX Treadmill advertisement
- Tropica: You’re a sip away from Jamaica – Flash Mob
- Walka Handheld TV
- Santam “Back at ya” Advertisement
- Gumtree Kitchen Advertisement
- Liquid Capital TV Advertisement
Other popular contenders in the running for the top ten list included:
- Gumtree Living Room Advertisement
- Nando’s: 25 Reasons Why We Love South Africa
- Nando’s: Options
- Isuzu: Sandpit
- Mentos: There’s Nothing Like a Mentos Kiss
- 8ta: more Prepaid
YouTube displays global views for each video on its website. It used an internal tool to determine which were the most popular to a South African audience and ranked them accordingly. This tool is not publicly available.
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Silly list. Most of those bought their views.
The point remains – these are the ten most watched ads by South Africans on YouTube.
Correction – These are the ten ads that South Africans were FORCED to watch. I agree with Dean – silly list as it has nothing to do with what people CHOSE to watch.
All this list proves is you can make a crappy ads (like the OXL ads) and if you have enough media budget to throw at it you can fake good performance…
Oh and of course Google has positioned this as “the ten most watched ads by South Africans on YouTube” they just want more brands to spend cash with them!
The list of what people chose to watch is coming out next week. For the ad industry, which MarkLives covers, the current list is appropriate. Buying airtime, also on Youtube, is a legitimate part of what it does. Viewing ads to access free content is considered an acceptable bargain by most consumers.