YouTube recently released the March 2016 edition of its Ad Leaderboard, showcasing the top ads people chose to watch in the 31 days of the month. This month’s iteration features powerful, emotional entries from Disney, Under Armour, and McDonald’s, and yet another ad from the 2016 Presidential Election.
Super Bowl ads dominated last month’s leaderboard, but now the political Super Bowl is starting to occupy more and more spots. Our Principles PAC returns to the Leaderboard after making its first appearance in January 2016. Their spot, which focuses on real quotes Donald Trump made about women, is the fourth election ad this year (and fourth ever) to crack the list, as political video advertising continues to mature in the YouTube era.
Notably, ads from Always, McDonald’s, and DU Group all showcase socially conscious messages. The McDonald’s McCafe ad from Taiwan features a teenage boy coming out to his father, a spot that stirred up controversy in that country and made headlines in the U.S. and elsewhere.
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The Olympics are still months away, but Under Armour’s ad featuring Michael Phelps for its Rule Yourself campaign, sheds a light on what it takes to become the greatest in the world – and is the first Olympics-themed ads to make the Leaderboard so far this year. Check it out, along with the other ads that made the Top 10 (alongside their monthly view count) in the links below:
- Always #LikeAGirl – Girl Emojis, 18.1M views
- DU Group: Gift, 9.8M views
- Samsung Galaxy S7: Champagne Calls, 8.6M views
- iPhone 6s – Timer, 8.1M views
- UNDER ARMOUR | RULE YOURSELF | MICHAEL PHELPS, 4.7M views
- Our Principles PAC – Quotes, 3.2M views
- Barbie Spy Squad Recreation | Spy Squad | Barbie, 2.1M views
- 麥當勞McCafé 讓對話更有溫度｜「接納篇」, 2M views
But wait! There’s more. In true YouTube fashion, the video giant has begun introducing their ad leaderboards with ‘react’ style videos featuring industry thought-leaders and their reactions to the most popular ads from this month. The react videos featured frequent Tubefilter contributor and founder of Epic Signal, Brendan Gahan along with Google Zoo employees Seth Barron and Kim Snow, as well as Eddie Revis of Collins Media.
