YouTube crowns Amazon with top ad, OMD as top media agency of 2018

Amazon made it to the top of YouTube’s year-end ad leaderboard with its “Alexa Loses Her Voice” Super Bowl spot. Posted on YouTube on January 31, the ad has generated 50.1 million views this year, beating out the number 2 ranking top video — YouTube Music’s “Open the world of music. It’s all here.” — by more than 10 million views.

YouTube also tipped its hat to two agencies that saw numerous clients named to the top ads of the year list.

Why you should care

As we come to the end of 2018, many platforms are releasing year-in-review lists, but YouTube’s ad leaderboard is worth special consideration by marketers. Ranked using an algorithm that factors in organic and paid views, watch time and audience retention, YouTube’s ads of the year list highlights the leading advertisers on the platform. It also gives video advertisers a frame of reference for video ad view-counts on YouTube.

YouTube also recognized two ad agencies. OMD was ranked by YouTube as the top media agency and Weiden+Kennedy earned the top creative agency spot. Both agencies were acknowledged based on the number of clients to make it into YouTube’s ad leaderboard lists.

Nike, Groupon, Samsung, Apple, Gatorade and LEGO ran some of the most popular ads on YouTube this year. Groupon’s “Who Wouldn’t” spot, that ranked sixth with 21.5 million views, was the brand’s official Super Bowl ad. (Groupon’s six-second ad that was part of the same Super Bowl campaign was named the top bumper ad of the year.)

#6: Groupon 2018 Super Bowl Commercial “Who Wouldn’t” (21.5M views)

LEGO made the list twice: the toy brand joined Turkish Airlines for a safety video which earned more than 25 million views for Turkish Airlines, making it the fifth most watched YouTube ad of the year. A Lego Jurassic Park spot squeezed into the list at number ten with 10.9 million views.

#5: Turkish Airlines Safety View with LEGO movie characters (25.3M views)

#10: LEGO Jurassic World “Pick Your Path” (10.8M views)

You can view YouTube’s full list of top ads for the year at: YouTube Global year-end 2018 Ad Leaderboard.

More on YouTube’s top ads of 2018

• The top ten ranking videos earned a combined 300 million minutes of watch time and one million likes. Amazon’s Alexa spot earned the most likes with more than 232,000.
• YouTube says this is the first year-end list to include three animated spots: Turkish Airlines ad with LEGO characters, Gatorade’s “Heart of Lio” ad and the LEGO Jurassic World spot.
• YouTube also ranked its top TrueView for Action ads in a separate ad leaderboard, with Grammarly winning the top spot.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.