Ad Age Viral Video Chart For Week Of Jan. 18

Ad Age lists the top ten viral videos for the week of Jan. 18.

New entries this week are topped by a viral video for Air New Zealand, a funny if borderline distasteful mockumentary on older ladies (a.k.a. cougars) on the hunt for young men. It debuts at number two with more than 832,000 views. Right below it is Google’s entry into the chart, a viral promoting Nexus One that got about 723,000 views. It’s a video of toy ninjas fighting over Google s smart phone created by YouTube stop-motion animation phenom Patrick Boivin. Adidas also managed to break into the chart with the TV spot for its Star Wars Collection.  The nifty creative, featured here before, uses moments from the films to depict how wearing shoes or apparel from the line might whisk one to a galaxy far, far away. It pulled in a little more than 517,000 views.

Evian’s devil children on wheels are still at number one, getting nearly 1.2 million views for the week.

Ad Age’s chart includes number of views for the week and percentage change in views for videos that stayed on the chart. The list is compiled by Visible Measures.

Check out the full list and watch the videos at Ad Age.

Gaming On IPad

Joystiq gives a glimpse of hands-on with games at Apple s iPad unveiling.  The video shows iPhone game app versions of EA’s Need For Speed Shift and Gameloft shooter N.O.V.A. in action on the tablet computer. Joystiq says enhanced versions of the games were shown during the keynote but the ones available for hands-on were simply what s on iPhone. Seeing how the games control on the much larger iPad might be the most interesting part of the video, or in the case of this hands-on with N.O.V.A., the somewhat painful part.

 

Watch it at Joystiq.

‘Vanquish’ Debuts

Bayonetta and Mad World creator platinumgames has released the debut trailer for its anticipated title Vanquish. WIRED says the game is rumored to be from Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, and that a leaked document pegs it as another platinumgames title published by Sega. All of that will soon come to light no-doubt. In the meantime, the first glimpse sets up a futuristic shooter with a clean art style, and it does that using plenty of well-crafted CG mixed with a smattering of FMV. No word on which game systems will get it, Sega CD included.

 

Watch it at GameTrailers.

Battle Of The Band Games

Writing for Ad Age, Anthony Young has an excellent piece comparing marketing campaigns between MTV Games for The Beatles: Rock Band and Activision for Guitar Hero 5. Young breaks down each publisher s efforts in different categories, such as television, social media, or experiential marketing, then uses a star-rating system to grade their effectiveness. It’s the closest thing the game industry could have in a Coke versus Pepsi branding face-off.

 

Read it at Ad Age.

A Look Down The Channel

Writing for Industry Games, James Brightman has an interview with Bob Geistman, senior executive at software distributor Ingram Entertainment and chairman of the retail trade organization Entertainment Merchants Association. Brightman speaks to Geistman on topics affecting game industry retail as his organization prepares for the Game Supply Conference taking place next month. Topics covered mostly focus on how Ingram and its game publisher partners are coping with the impact of the economy. Geistman also offers some quick bits on broken street dates and the growth of digital distribution.

 

Read the interview at Industry Gamers.

Super Bowl Ad Aficionados Alert

Adweek has launched their online hub for everything related to advertising’s biggest night. Keep in mind, if you find what happens between game breaks more important than the game, there is bound to be spoilers here for you.

 

 

Sony To Stir Up God Of War Interest At 7-Eleven

Sony has partnered with 7-Eleven and Mountain Dew on a co-promotion campaign for God of War III, reports Ad Age. As part of the campaign, God of War’s Kratos will get his own frozen Slurpee drink, a fitting dark-meets-sour blackberry-lime concoction for the troubled hero created by Mountain Dew and available at 7-Eleven convenience stores. The drinks will come in God of War branded cups, which Ad Age says will contain codes for downloadable content that includes in-game items. The co-promotion will extend to TV with spots aired during the Mountain Dew sponsored Winter Dew Tour on NBC. There’s also an internet component with online display ads and a social media push through Facebook. Sony said the campaign precedes a much larger effort starting March and leading up to game s launch on March 16.  Ad Age adds that according to NPD data, Sony’s recent port of the franchise to PlayStation 3 with God of War I & II Collection sold about 380,000 units. Read more at Ad Age.

A Million Reasons To Buy ‘MLB 2K10’

Take-Two s 2K Sports division is launching a major giveaway for Major League Baseball 2K10. As reported in CNBC, the publisher is launching a contest giving the first person who pitches a perfect game in the videogame a $1 million lump sum prize. The contest starts when the game releases on March 2 and runs for 60 days. Players are qualified when they start the game in default setting. Once they pitch a perfect game a game where no opposing player reaches base they receive a code that 2K Sports will use in determining if it qualifies them as being the first. The game also has to be recorded so it can be verified by official videogame scorekeeper Twin Galaxies. CNBC says 2K Sports was unable to secure an insurer for the giveaway because it couldn’t calculate the odds of winning. Read more at CNBC.

Xbox 360 Dominates 2009 Game Rentals

Rentrak Corporation has released a couple of data sets to Industry Gamers, showing the top 20 most rented games and the top 20 most advertised titles of 2009. Games for Xbox 360 dominated Rentrak’s list of most rented games for the year, which Industry Gamers says were ranked based on consumer spending. The top five rented in descending order are Bethesda s Fallout 3, THQ’s UFC 2009 Undisputed, Activision s Modern Warfare 2, Capcom’s Resident Evil 5, and Microsoft’s Gears of War 2, all for Xbox 360. For its list of most advertised titles for 2009, Rentrak monitored ads placed in retail store circulars. The firm’s top five for the category in descending order are Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort, Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 for Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii Fit, and two EA titles in EA Sports Active for Wii and Madden NFL 10 for Xbox 360. See the full top 20 list for each category at Industry Gamers.