We asked, you voted: Your favorite YouTube ad of the past decade

The wait is over. The moment has arrived. We’re about to unveil your favorite ads from the last decade on YouTube. But first, we want to thank you. From ad makers to fans, you came out in droves to vote (and tweet) for your favorite ads and help us, in partnership with the Webby Awards, recognize 10 years of great branded videos on YouTube. So in celebration of YouTube’s 10th birthday, we’re pleased to share the results:

Congratulations to Turkish Airlines and the teams at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Starcom for making your favorite YouTube ad of the past decade: Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout.



Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout, the follow-up to their 2012 Legends on Board spot, was an instant hit on YouTube. In fact, the video, which pits two of the world's biggest sports superstars against each other in a game of selfie-shooting one-upmanship, skyrocketed to 25M views in the first three days! Cleverly combining the world's newfound 'selfie' obsession with the star-power of Kobe Bryant and Messi, the ad found it's way to the top of both the December 2013 and Cannes Special Edition YouTube Ads Leaderboards.

Rounding out the top five vote-getters:

In second place: Volkswagen's 2011 Big Game spot, The Force (Deutsch Los Angeles, MediaCom), delighted viewers with a little boy dressed as Darth Vader, attracting over 8 million views before anyone saw it on TV.



In third place: Always #LikeAGirl (Leo Burnett, Starcom MediaVest Group) challenged and shattered negative perceptions of what it means to do something "like a girl."



In fourth place: Volvo Trucks' The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Forsman & Bodenfors) took live truck testing to an epic new level.



In fifth place: Dove Real Beauty Sketches | You're more beautiful than you think (Ogilvy Brazil, PHD, Mindshare), a social experiment showing women that when it comes to their beauty, sometimes they can be their own worst critics.



Combined, these five videos have been watched for over 7.7 million hours1. That's over 875 years people chose to spend watching ads! Congrats to all of the winners and nominees and thanks again to all who voted.

We often get asked: what's the secret to success like this on YouTube? So we took a look at the 20 nominees—20 examples of iconic, breakthrough digital marketing—to see what stood out. From authenticity to interactivity to memes, we identified 10 trends to cap off YouTube's 10th birthday month: A Decade of YouTube Ads: The Top Ads and the Trends That Define Them.

And if you're really feeling brave, find out how well you know YouTube with our 10th birthday trivia game at youtube.com/10.

#10YearsofYouTubeAds

1 Google Internal Data