Gangnam Style Sets New Bar for Viral Videos

London's Unruly Media reveals the most shared videos of 2012 in a year that delivered more than a few surprises.

Published

6 months ago

Categories

Technology

Topics

Internet

People

Justin Bieber, Joseph Kony, Psy

Companies

YouTube Inc

Transcript

It's the breakthrough sensation that's even bigger than Justin Bieber. Gangnam Style by South Korean Pop Star Psy became the most watched video ever posted to YouTube this year, so it's little surprise that it's also the most shared video of the year. London's Unruly Media, which compiles the Viral Video Chart, has put together a list of the year's most contagious video content. SOUNDBITE: Dan Best, Unruly Media Planning Director saying (English) "I think it's got that sort of randomness and humour about it and it really takes you by surprise." Dan Best, who heads company's social video lab says the amount of sharing has also increased dramatically. With the top 10 ads of the year, the number of shares jumped 67 percent from just shy of 17 million in 2011 to 28 million in 2012. And there were other surprises. SOUNDBITE: Dan Best, Unruly Media Planning Director saying (English) "This has been the year, obviously, of the big Presidential elections. There's no big hits from the election this year. Also, we expected in the year of the Olympics a whole range of amazing Olympics video break through and in fact only P&G managed to do it with P&G moms." This ad, called Best Job created by Proctor and Gamble for the Olympics was the fifth most shared video ad of year. SOUNDBITE: Dan Best, Unruly Media Planning Director saying (English) "The next ad after that is DC shoes. This is a series of kind of if you will stunt videos where you see a car race around a city and do lots of incredible stunts. That's for DC shoes. Number 3, Abercrombie and Fitch, Call Me Maybe. That's kind of like an internet meme or theme. You see these really fit Abercrombie and Fitch guys with their shirts off miming along to Call Me Maybe, so really great fun. Number 2 is TNT's Dramatic surprise. I think that's a reinvention of a flash mob. It's the one where you see the button in the middle of the square. You see the person come in and press it and all hell breaks loose." The most shared Social Ad of the year really isn't actually an advertisement... SOUNDBITE: Dan Best, Unruly Media Planning Director saying (English) "A kind of modern chain letter of today. It's Kony 2012. That's the charity video, put Joseph Kony away. Incredibly amazing 30 minute long piece of video. It's one of those that breaks all the rules because everyone says you should make your content short...it gets the power of the online clicktavist and enables you to make a difference simply by clicking on that piece of content and sharing it to your peer group." Kony 2012 was shared 10 million times. Still, this record breaking year will be best remembered for the most unusual of viral sensations...Gangnam Style has been shared 34 million times and is closing in on one billion views.