Viral Chart: A Crowd Sourced Viral Win for Heineken!
February 28th, 2013 by Melanie PeckThe DRUM Viral Brand Chart – Top trending video ad campaigns
Clocking up 15 million views and over half a million shares this week, Google shot straight to the top of the Viral Brand Chart with a futuristic new promo ad for Glass, the latest gadget to whip interweb tech lovers into a frenzy. The video highlights the device’s web integration, live video streaming, geo-technology and loads more features. It looks a bit like something you might see in a futuristic sci-fi film, but don’t get too excited, it’s not going to be commercially available until 2014 and is likely to come with a pretty hefty price tag!
Entering the listings at number 2 is Heineken, with an amusing viral video documenting the brand’s somewhat unorthodox process of finding the next Heineken sports intern.
We all know that job interviews can be a bit formulaic; some companies might try and spice things up a bit, (anyone who’s been through the VAN interview process is probably familiar with drawing diagrams of sheep and cheese on toast), but Heiniken took things a step further with an elaborate marketing stunt to put unsuspecting candidates to the test. Hidden cameras captured a series of comedy moments, from awkward hand holding, to medical emergencies, and people escaping from ‘burning buildings’. The campaign also included a big social media push lobbying the public to vote for their favourite candidate, followed by an elaborate welcoming ceremony for the successful applicant.
Crowd sourced marketing is becoming increasingly popular; it’s a great way to encourage engagement and sharing and boost the virality of content. Plus, getting the public involved adds a more personal dimension to campaigns.
Despite missing out on the top spot in the chart this week, The Candidate has an impressive share to view ratio of over 10%, (compared to the 1.4% share ratio of Google Glass), showing that despite probably having a lower media spend, it’s proving highly popular with online audiences.
The DRUM UGC Chart – top trending homemade and entertainment virals.
Top of the UGC Chart this week is a lesson on how NOT to style your hair, from YouTube vlogger, Tori Locklear. After an attempt to show the world how to use a curling iron resulted in her burning off a big chunk of hair, she uploaded the clip to YouTube and it instantly went viral, clocking up over 16 million views. The teenager was even invited to appear on The Ellen Show earlier this week to chat about her overnight viral stardom.
Elsewhere in the listings, the Harlem Shake dance craze is still going strong with more new videos popping up every day, but this week it looks like a new meme is sweeping the web… remember ‘Goats Yelling Like Humans’? Well, apparently they also like a good old sing song and t’interbebs new favourite thing is splicing clips of ‘shouting’ goats into pop song choruses! Music videos of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Usher are just a couple of the trending virals to get the ‘goating’ treatment this week.
Squeak of the week:Now for my favourite video in the UGC chart this week; tiny baby squirrel gets adopted by a cat, thinks it’s a kitten and learns how to purr!
For all of the chart news and the full run down of top videos on the internet this week, check out The Drum Viral Video Chart, powered VAN, or follow @JoinVan to stay up to date with the latest industry news and YouTube gossip.


