It’s only been four months since the last edition of Ads Worth Spreading, TED‘s yearly series highlighting the best advertisements available on YouTube, but 2013’s top spots have already been determined. Ten ads topped TED’s selection criteria, and they are currently featured on YouTube as the best video marketing campaigns that 2012 had to offer.
As with last year’s selection, the ten ads represent a diverse variety of advertising techniques and styles. Some are big-budget bonanzas, while others utilize a lo-fi “viral video” style. Some are funny, some are quite serious, and other still are whimsical and fun. All ten have been arranged in a single playlist for easy viewing.
It’s no surprise that several of the year’s most popular ads made the cut, including the Fine Bros approved ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ video and Dodge Ram’s Super Bowl-featured ‘Farmer’ spot
. Nonetheless, TED did well to not just select the ads with the most views. Several under-the-radar choices (i.e. less than one million views), including two related to the Summer Olympic Games, are featured right alongside the ads with tens of millions of views.Altogether, the ten chosen ads have been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube, but they are impressive for their varied approaches to user engagement more than their view counts. If there’s one thing that Ads Worth Spreading teaches us every year, it’s that there are many different ways to make a successful appeal. Of course, nothing makes quite as big a splash as staging an elaborate action sequence in a Belgian town square. If you’re looking to ascend to the top, that’s your safest best.
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