14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube has had quite a good run in 2010, but if there is one thing that defines the year for the mammoth video site, it's the fact that advertisers are finally making full use of what YouTube and online video have to offer. Instead of TV commercials made to work on the web, we're finally seeing great ads created for the web first and foremost.
YouTube has created a short list of some of the greatest ads on the site in 2010. Some are epic though traditional videos, like the World Cup Nike ad, which wouldn't work on TV because of their length, while others like the Old Spice campaign, took full advantage of YouTube, Twitter, the real-time and social web.
They may be different in style, size and scope, but they all leverage one of YouTube's unique advantages. Of course, it's in the site's best interest to highlight the videos that end up making it money, but it's a compelling list nonetheless.
The initial Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" video got over 25 million views. It's a great ad, explaining its popularity, but it was essentially still a TV ad that made in online.
The followup though, took the whole thing to another level. For two days straight, Isaiah Mustafa, the actor in the ads, and his team poured out near real-time responses to any interesting tweet, blog post, or YouTube video request. The hundreds of videos, most of which were surprisingly funny given how fast they were made, ended up making some 100 million views.
The second ad that YouTube highlighted is Nike's "Write the Future" which got about 22 million views. It's perhaps the direct opposite of the Old Spice videos, a high-budget, polished, star-studded epic. But at three minutes long, it would be near impossible to run it uncut on TV. For YouTube though, it's the perfect length.
Another great YouTube ad of 2010 is Tipp-Ex's "A hunter shoots a bear!" In it, users were able to provide their own takes on what the ad should be like, with some incredibly funny and sometimes not safe for work results.
New Zeeland's Hell Pizza "Deliver Me to Hell" didn't get the number of views others in the list got, but it's no less interesting. Users take full control of the story and can decide what happens next, granted, making the 'wrong' choice may mean the characters get eaten by zombies.
You can check out the couple of other ads that YouTube deemed interesting. But the best part about this list is that, you've probably seen most of these ads already, or they wouldn't have made it in.