YouTube's Super Bowl commercial buzz list dominated by automakers [w/videos]
Thu, 31 Jan 2013
As you know, Super Bowl advertisers, particularly automakers, like to endlessly tease their big budget commercials in the weeks before the game, many times revealing them outright days in advance. Because of this, YouTube can tell us which commercials have been viewed the most so far, and their top five list is all automakers.
Kaley Cuoco appears to have been a good investment for Toyota, as her ad for the RAV4 has garnered the most YouTube views – six million and counting – among Super Bowl commercials so far. Second place goes to Mercedes-Benz, though not its actual Super Bowl commercial, but rather the teaser for it. You know, the one with Kate Upton and the car washing, which is up to 5.6 million views. Third place is Audi's Prom commercial (3.3M views), fourth goes to Volkswagen's slightly controversial Get In, Get Happy ad (3.3M views), and the fifth and final spot is bookended by the teaser video for Kaley Cuoco's commercial (3.2M views). You can watch all five in order below.
The data above is current and official as of 10:00 AM EST today, though things are changing quickly. For instance, while preparing this post, we noticed that VW's ad has already passed Audi's in overall views.
This order will almost certainly be upended on game day anyway when the full onslaught of Super Bowl advertising hits our retinas in real time. After all, we haven't heard a peep from Chrysler, which for the past two years has caught the nation's collective attention with its prideful and patriotic commercials.
As of 10am ET on Thursday, here are the most viewed Super Bowl ads currently on YouTube:
Toyota "Toyota RAV4 2013 Big Game Commercial "Wish Granted" Starring Kaley Cuoco" - 6M
Mercedes Benz "Kate Upton washes the all new Mercedes Benz CLA class in slow motion" - 5.6M views
Audi "Audi 2013 Big Game Commercial - Prom" - 3.3M views
Volkswagen "Get in Get Happy" - 3.3M views
Toyota "Toyota Game Day Teaser "I Wish" Starring Kaley Cuoco" - 3.2M views
Other trending Super Bowl ads include:
Volkswagen "Sunny Side: 2013 Volkswagen Super Bowl Teaser Video with Jimmy Cliff" - 1.2M views
Ryan Higa for Wonderful Pistachios "Best Super Bowl Commercial" - 1M views
Doritos "Road Chip -- Crash the Super Bowl 2013 Finalist" - 1M views
Coke "Coke Chase" - 900k views
Doritos "Goat 4 Sale -- Crash the Super Bowl 2013 Finalist" - 650k views
Stats:
The top 10 most-viewed Super Bowl ads on YouTube were watched more than 26M times.
- The most shared Super Bowl ad on YouTube thus far is Volkswagen's game day commercial, "Get in Get Happy."
- Interestingly, the teaser video created by YouTube partner Ryan Higa for Wonderful Pistachio's game day spot has drawn over 1M views - making it the 7th most-viewed Super Bowl ad, above ads from Doritos and Taco Bell. More than 4 minutes long, it's also one of the lengthiest Super Bowl teasers on YouTube.
- YouTube partner Ryan Higa's video also drove the most conversation on YouTube - it has more comments than all other Super Bowl ads combined.
- There are now over 40 Super Bowl ads on YouTube so far, however only 7 are actual game day spots - the rest are teaser videos.
- People are actively seeking out Super Bowl ads online - searches for "Super Bowl commercials" on Google spiked 600% over the past two weeks.
- We saw a spike in Super Bowl ad views last Wednesday (Jan 23), largely driven by the Mercedes Benz Kate Upton video. Since then views have been on a steady increase, as you'd expect heading into the game day weekend.
By John Neff
See also: 2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT Coupe, Toyota announces two recalls affecting 1M Corolla, Matrix and Lexus IS models, Ford only automaker to make 2012 Buzz Rankings, Toyota most improved.