Can you imagine a world before YouTube? Well it’s hard to believe that 10 years ago the video platform didn’t even exist! As 2015 marks YouTube’s 10^th birthday, earlier this year the people of ad land and beyond were invited to vote for their favourite ads from the past decade and I’m pleased to say the results are in…

Big shout out to Turkish Airlines for taking the top spot and being crowned ‘YouTube Ad of the Decade’ for its hilarious ‘Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout’ campaign.  Actually, 2013 proved a popular year in the world of ads, with Volvo Trucks and Dove also making the top five, in addition to Always’ #LikeAGirl and of course not forgetting Volkswagen’s ‘The Force’ – which until recently held the title of most shared video ad ever!

The good news is that combined, these five videos alone have been watched for over 7.7 million hours - that's over 875 years spent watching ads! Engagement like that is hard to beat...

Take a step back in time and reminisce over the great work featured in the videos below (you can also click through to check out the full case studies on Cream). Enjoy!

1. Turkish Airlines ‘Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout’
Agencies involved: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Starcom
Year of release: 2013
Total views: 141 million+

Turkish Airlines sends sporting legends Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi on a world trip as they go head to head to see who can take the most exotic selfie.

What do you get when you cross a Justin Timberlake with a washed up lime? The new Sauza 901 tequila ad, of course!

The new three-minute spot, promoting JT’s new Sauza 901 tequila brand – which claims to be so delicious that it doesn’t need lime – features the man himself with his face literally transformed into a lime as he plays the character of Rick “Sour” Vane, who becomes a nobody after hitting rock bottom.

I could try and explain in more detail but you might prefer to watch the story unfold yourself by checking it out below:

It’s a wonderful example of a brand and celebrity working together to create what we can only expect to be some truly engaging content. 

Programmatic is arguably one of the biggest developments in the digital advertising space. When it comes to video advertising, programmatic is beginning to take off, with programmatic video ad sales in EU-5 reaching €226m in 2014, according to eMarketer, and expected to soar 63.5% this year to reach €369m by the end of 2015.

Advertisers and agencies are adopting programmatic quickly. Yet, despite being the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) marketing word of the year in 2014, more than half of marketers still don’t understand programmatic well enough to implement it.

So, to put a clearer lens on programmatic advertising, let’s explain what it is and discuss some of the key benefits it delivers to advertisers.   

Simply put, programmatic refers to the use of software to automate the purchase of digital advertising. Fundamentally, programmatic advertising lets advertisers make their video advertising investments work harder for them by allowing them to work smarter, faster and more efficiently. Efficiency and efficacy are why programmatic advertising is so effective. Programmatic advertising helps marketers reach the precise audiences they seek across screens as efficiently as possible.

Whiskas’ new hilarious cat fail video carries an important message…

Whiskas and WWF have partnered to launch a new online video campaign, created by AMV BBDO, which uses real life YouTube footage of cats doing silly things but still coming out unscathed. But the real hard hitting message comes at the end, drawing attention to the plight of tigers in the world – as few as 3,200 tigers remain in the wild.

#9lives focuses on the message that whilst domestic cats may have nine lives, tigers in the wild have just one. The campaign highlights the need for donations to help double tiger numbers within your own cat’s lifetime. Whiskas has pledged to match any donations made.

I think it’s fair to say that by now we’ve all come to learn that content featuring animals – basically anything that’s cute or fluffy – is a big winner in the viral video stakes.

Most recently we’ve seen Budweiser leading the charge with its #BestBuds campaign, but remember back to Cadbury’s Gorilla ad? What about Guinness ‘Surfer’? Or Rolo’s Elephant TV ad? The list could go on…

Well now Google is joining in on the trend with its latest Android ad ‘Friends Furever’ featuring countless adorable animals aimed at showing the world how to “Be Together. Not the same.”

And to whoever says cute animals aren’t a sure fire way of ensuring your ad goes viral: Unruly’s Viral Video Chart has tracked a whopping 376,000+ shares of the ad so far* and the ad itself has racked up a whopping 9.2 million+ views on YouTube*.

Now we’re off to look up cats on BuzzFeed…

(*Figures correct at time of writing - things move so quickly in the online world that we can't always keep up!) 

A lot can happen in a year, especially in an industry as fast-paced as ad tech. For video advertising, in particular, 2014 was undeniably a watershed year. Digital video took a giant leap into programmatic buying, experienced huge gains in both viewership and ad spend, while continuing a wave of consolidations.

With such an eventful year under our belts, I’m confident that this will be the year that online video advertising fully ‘grows up’ and comes into its own. Here are three major signs that signal why 2015 is set to be a breakthrough year for video advertising.

1. Programmatic video goes mainstream

Technology has transformed digital media buying, as advertisers and publishers continue to lay the groundwork for a fully automated video ad future. Programmatic video ad sales in EU-5 reached €226m in 2014, according to eMarketer, and is expected to soar 63.5% this year to reach €369m by the end of 2015.

Advertisers and agencies are already sold on programmatic, but in 2015 we will see publishers fully embrace programmatic technology as they begin to realise the huge opportunity it represents for efficiency and financial growth. We can also expect to see gains in open, RTB-based video ad exchanges, as advertisers seek to consolidate their video ad buys via a single programmatic platform. Both advertisers and publishers will become more empowered by data, enabling video to deliver more concrete results.

According to an eMarketer report, B2C ecommerce spend in the USA will stretch to $538.9billion in 2015 (an 11.4% increase on last year). As America holds on to its title as the largest international ecommerce market, it’s no surprise that European businesses are looking to pack up and expand to the states. To help you along, we’ve listed four tactics that every marketer should be adopting in the year ahead.

2015 US and UK Predictions

As mobile users tap away more than ever, and desktop use begins slowing down, we’re predicting big changes in marketing practises.

Social Ad Focus will grow

72% of all internet users are now active on social media (Bullas), and they’ve never been more targetable. With social ad algorithms now filtering demographic, geographic and social profiling, it’s quickly becoming one of the most affordable and efficient ways to reach your target audience.

We’ll see more Video Content 

2014 saw the rise of visual content marketing with infographics spreading across magazines, blogs and social media. But with the industry rapidly progressing, it could see the focus progress to video marketing as it offers a more engaging way to grasp the consumer’s attention.

“It’s a great time to be doing political satire when the world is on a knife edge” – John Oliver.

Chances are, you’ve seen a clip of Last Week Tonight pop up in your Facebook news feed. HBO’s new weekly late-nighter, hosted by British comedian and Daily Show alum John Oliver already has an average audience of four million, equal to HBO’s other weekly talk show Real Time With Bill Maher and fast gaining ground on primetime darlingGirls.

The volume of easy inbound traffic and social referrals generated by Oliver’s YouTube clips has been a gold mine for click-starved Web publishers.

“Each week, the Content industry observes a sacred ritual: Together, but not quite in sync, dozens of websites embed and then post the longest segment from John Oliver’s HBO show, Last Week Tonight,” dryly wrote The Awl, in a post which included a handy chart detailing the top ten publishers who milk Last Week Tonight clips for social engagement. “That John Oliver’s weekly video(s) will go viral is, at this time, a given. Whether or not the posts that embed those videos will go viral is another matter altogether.”