Week 52 Top Viral Brand Videos – Desigual Rules The Charts

Guten tag! As they like to say in Germany. It turns out that this is a very apt greeting because the top video of this week’s top 5 viral brand videos comes from Germany. Infact, four out of the five videos are non-English videos – surprise much given that everyone in America was celebrating Christmas?

It might be that people in Germany and Italy were also short on time because the average length of the viral videos this week was just 39 seconds. I mean, who’s actually got the time to devote a whole minute to a single video when there’s partying to do?

For this week’s viral videos, I had to fire up Google Translate to figure out what on Earth was going on.

#1/ Desigual Germany, Ich Habe einen Plan

The most viral video for the last week comes from Desigual. I’m evidently no longer one of the cool kids because I’ve never heard of the brand before, but a quick search later shows that it seems to be a global fashion brand with European roots. Apparently its design ethos is to create positive feelings and tolerance of others – which Desigual believes is best achieved by naming its latest collection Sex & Love.

Desigual has launched a global campaign called #ihaveaplan and created a various videos with local language voice overs for each country to target customers around the world. While people in America were busy opening their presents, people in Germany were glued to YouTube, watching ‘Ich Habe einen Plan‘ (I have a plan). The video oozes sex appeal and shows a woman getting dressed up for a night out (New Year’s, perhaps). To be sure that this blog post was as accurate as possible, I did have to sit and watch this video several times, but all in the name of research!

The video has clocked up an impressive 120,000 views (minus the 64 views coming from my computer) in just over a week although it hasn’t generated much in the way of comments and Likes.

#2 Peugeot UK, Just Add Fuel

This video from Peugeot UK seems to have gone viral for the wrong reasons judging by the comments and number of Dislikes. Infact, I think it’s a terrible advert full stop. The premise is that ‘Gary’ has lost his cat, but since you don’t know ‘Gary’, you don’t have to worry about his lost cat. The tenuous connection is that when you buy a new Peugeot (apparently, there are people that do), they give you three years free car insurance, servicing, warranty and taxes. You, as the owner, just need to add fuel and ‘not worry about things that affect you’. Given how much fuel costs in the UK, I’d say it’s a damn good deal.

At the time of writing this blog it had 170,000 views since it was posted on 20th December, but in the last 24 hours, that has mushroomed to 270,000 views, which would put it in the top spot if this was done a day later. The number of Dislikes has also doubled in the last 24 hours to 42. This video is definitely going viral, but Peugeot need to be careful about the backlash it has generated with the phrase “Don’t worry about things that don’t affect you”.

#3/ Desigual Italy, Ho un Piano

Here we have the Italian version of Desigual’s #ihaveaplan campaign. Similar in style to the German video, an attractive lady is seen prancing around her stylish apartment in skimpy clothes – titillation for the youth of YouTube, perhaps? According to my colleague, who speaks better Italian than I do, the video is about a lady who is planning to take a break from work and go travelling to Asia to explore and experience new things. As with the German version, this video was published on 21st December and has racked up 119,000 views, but hasn’t generated much response in terms of Likes or comments.

#4/ Coca-Cola Brazil, Acredite na Magia

We all know it’s Christmas when we see the first Christmas advert from Coca Cola (err, Holidays are Coming?). In this advert, Coca Cola brings the same magic to a community in Bethany Piaui in Brazil. Dubbed Acredite na Magia (Magic of Christmas), there is a real life Coca Cola truck decked out in lights and a Santa Claus delivering gifts (footballs, what else?!) to the children. An emotional video, it doesn’t matter what language you speak, the joy on the kids’ faces has no language barrier.

Since it was uploaded on 20th December, the video has generated nearly 700,000 views, gained 670 Likes and over 200 comments. A debate has started about whether it’s ethical for a company like Coca-Cola to leverage a community like Bethany Piaui for its marketing purposes.

#5/ Desigual Italy, Ho un Piano

And here’s another Desigual video again. If it looks familiar, it’s because it is the same as #1’s video but with an Italian voice over. Nevertheless, it had to be watched several times to be sure. Evidently the Italians would much rather watch a lady getting dressed than celebrate a Buon Natale (Merry Christmas) with their family. As with the other videos from Desigual’s #ihaveaplan campaign, this Italian video was also uploaded on 21st December. In that time it has generated 117,000 views but with little engagement from the viewers.

It’s very interesting that the most viral brand videos in the last week of the year have nearly all been non-English ads. The Desigual ads with their sex appeal, colors and New Year theme have seen the highest growth rates in the last week. The Desigual ads centres around the message “La Vida es Chula” (Life is cool). Through the varied ads, it captures the thoughts and plans of three women whose different personalities are expressed through the brand’s latest collection slogan: Sex, Fun and Love.

Launched initially in Spain and France, where it was a roaring success, it was aired in Germany and Italy only last week and its success is clearly seen through the fast growth rate in its views. All its ads are also actively promoted through its other social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter and its own website.

I’m sure the marketing team at Desigual can pat themselves on the back for this effort and award themselves a nice little Christmas bonus. That’s all for this week, I have a New Year’s party to plan, have a great and safe New Year, see you in 2013!

Methodology

All data has been compiled and analyzed from the Unmetric application which tracks dozens of metrics to enable brands to benchmark themselves against competitors and their industry sector. Gain access to all this data by claiming a 10 day free trial.