Unruly has released its first in a series of quarterly reports examining trends in social video advertising. The report, which looks at video ad shares across verticals and brands in Q1, highlights an encouraging performance by FMCG brands, and a relatively lackluster showing from auto manufacturers. All told, FMCG ad campaigns generated almost 8.7 million shares during the quarter, up 78.2% from Q4 2012, and representing 25.3% of all shares. The vertical was propped up by Budweiser’s “Brotherhood” Super Bowl ad, which became the second most-shared Super Bowl ad ever, with 2.4 million shares. The ad was recently cited as one of the top 10 most effective TV ads of the quarter, by Ace Metrix.
While Budweiser appears to have scored a hit with its ad, auto manufacturers did not fare quite as well with their campaigns. While the number of shares generated by auto manufacturers grew by 378% quarter-over-quarters, such growth is to be expected given their investments in the Super Bowl. The vertical’s leading brand, Ram (with its “Farmer” spot) could manage only one-third as many shares as Budweiser’s 2.4 million.
The researchers question whether or not Ram could have overtaken Budweiser if they had launched their ad prior to the Super Bowl, noting that Budweiser enjoyed a peak of activity on February 1st, before the big game. Data from Kontera, reported by MediaPost, also has found that brands benefited from pre-releasing their ads.
Meanwhile, the entertainment sector emerged as the top-performing vertical for the quarter, with 9.8 million shares, representing 28.7% of the total shares. The vertical owed much of its success to a single campaign from Universal, which advertised for Fast & Furious 6 during the Super Bowl and with an extended look trailer 2 days after the game. Together, the trailers generated more than 4 million shares, or 41.6% of the vertical’s shares.
Other Findings:
- Entertainment (-1.3%), sports (-12.7%) and apparel (-43%) brands each saw their number of shares dip from Q4.
- In the FMCG/CPG category, Pepsi’s “Test Drive” ad has already become the 10th most shared branded ad of all time. The ad’s success highlights the positive performance of “prankvertising,” or ads in which pranks are played on the “unsuspecting” public.
- With 17% of all shares, tech (including telecom) was the 3rd strongest performing vertical.
About the Data: All data in the report is supplied by Unruly Analytics, a cloud-based dashboard currently in beta which measures content from 1,300 brands across all verticals.
The data collected is from January 1, 2013 until March 31, 2013. Some of the data used in Unruly Analytics also powers the Unruly Viral Video Chartâ„¢. Unruly Analytics tracks 1,300 global brands and counting.
