SA's top ten most popular YouTube video ads in 2012

1. OLX Motorbike Advertisement
2. Nando's Diversity Campaign
3. Gumtree Property Advertisement
4. Nando's: Last dictator standing
5. OLX Treadmill advertisement
6. Tropica: You're a sip away from Jamaica - Flash Mob
7. Walka Handheld TV
8. Santam "Back at ya" Advertisement
9. Gumtree Kitchen Advertisement
10. Liquid Capital TV Advertisement

Other popular contenders in the running for the top 10 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

Google SA, country manager Luke Mckend said, "2012 has been a great year for online video advertising. Brands are increasingly taking advantage of the social nature of online video by creating ads that are likely to be shared, liked and commented on."

"Our TrueView ad formats, which enable viewers to skip an ad or choose which ad they want to see, have taken this trend to the next level. The power of choice and the opportunity for greater viewer engagement is driving more creative, entertaining video advertising than ever before."

With YouTube becoming a standard buy for most branding campaigns, advertisers need to be sure their ads stand out. Here are a few tips and tricks for advertisers of all sizes to take advantage of YouTube:
Tell a story - The best way to get your message across is to get the audience interested. Adding a narrative to your advertising can capture the attention of your audience.
Engage the community - Be part of the conversation. Enable comments on the channel and videos and engage users through platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Create original content - Create the type of content that has proven to be successful online - think humorous music videos, short-form series, kittens.
Promote your videos - Consider paid media options. TrueView ads and YouTube masthead promotion can be an effective way to start getting views.
Be clear and concise - Have a clear and accurate title, meaningful description and good keyword tags so the audience can find you through search.
Make it interactive - One of the best things about the web is that often viewers aren't just passively watching the content but can participate in it, combining the best of technology and creativity.

Notes:

YouTube displays global views for each video so we 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.

YouTube metrics

• 4B hours of video watched/month
• 72 hrs of video uploaded every minute
• On average, spending on YouTube was approximately 2.4 times more efficient than the equivalent television spend.
• YouTube has 200 times more video advertisers than the average US television network
• YouTube has twice as many advertisers using TrueView as we did last year

• The top 25 funded channels are averaging over 1 million views a week.
• Daily account sign-ups have doubled y/y
• If our top 5 YouTube channels were stacked against cable channels, they would be in the top 20 in terms of viewers

• 1 out of 4 YouTube views in the world come from mobile devices
• 1 billion mobile views a day
• Daily net subscriptions are up 50% since Q4
• 65% of our in-stream ads are now skippable
• 1 trillion views in 2011
• 800M unique users visit YouTube each month (5/2/12)
• Partners have more than doubled their revenue for the fourth year in a row
• Thousands of partners are now making six figures

YouTube

YouTube is claimed to be the world's largest online video community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch, and share original videos. YouTube aims to provide a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original-content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC, is based in San Bruno, California, and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.