Report: A Fifth Of 2014’s Most Shared Ads Were Sports-Themed

Unruly has discovered just how obsessed the online masses are with sports-themed ads. The marketing technology company released its Top 20 Global Social Video Ads Chart and noted how a fifth of 2014’s most-shared videos were related to sports.

The most-shared video was Activia and Shakira’s “La La La” ad/song combo, with over 5,819,822

shares across Twitter, Facebook, and other online platforms. Those numbers now make it the most-shared ad of all time, beating out Volkswagen’s 2011 Super Bowl ad “The Force” (which held its top position for three years with 5,278,399 shares).

“Activia’s collaboration with Shakira for the video ‘La La La’ rose to the top by capitalizing on World Cup fever and the current trend for ‘trackvertising,’ where a brand and musical artist co-release a video which is both a musical track and an ad,” explained Unruly’s US branch President Richard Kosinski, in the release.

“Musical choice can play a critical part in success or failure because it offers a shortcut to emotional engagement with the viewer and eliciting an intense emotional response is the best way to generate social shares. Releasing the spot with Shakira – who this summer became the first person to reach 100 million Facebook likes – and tying the campaign to a social cause by partnering with the World Food Programme all contributed to the success of this record-breaking video.”

Two other sports-related ads, both from Nike, made it into the top ten, undoubtedly driven there by World Cup fanaticism. “The Last Game” took 3rd place with 2,151,148 shares, and Winner Stays” took the 8th spot with 1,431,422 shares.

Nike’s “Game” was narrowly beat out by 20th Century Fox’s “Devil Baby Attack”, which took 2nd place with 2,153,236 shares, making Fox’s ad the most-shared film-related promo of 2014.

Unruly also noted how the speed of sharing video ads nearly doubled in 2014. “We saw 42% of shares occur in the first three days following campaign launch – up from 25% in 2013,” said Kosinski. The marketing company attributes a lot of this growth to things like the popularity of the “trackvertising” method mentioned above, and brands using emotion and social causes to compel viewers to action. (For more info on this year’s trends, download the company’s Social Video Trends of 2014 report).

Unruly collected data from Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere from January 1, 2014, to November 19, 2014. The marketing tech company didn’t count video views, which don’t necessarily reflect virality.

Check out full Top 20 Global Social Video Ads Chart below: