BrandTotal Top Ads: December 2021

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BrandTotal Presents: The Top Performers Across Social Media for December 2021

Welcome to BrandTotal’s Top Ads, where we present the brands that led the way on social media this month. You’ll see what worked and why, how the leading brands are generating social media success, and a whole lot more!

BrandTotal’s Top Charts include three categories: 

  • Top 5 Most Engaging Ads, measured by reactions and comments
  • Top 5 Most Loved Ads, measured by the most positive emotions captured in BrandTotal’s sentiment analysis
  • Top 5 Spenders, those ads with the highest spend behind them 

BrandTotal: A Quick Primer

BrandTotal’s platform gives a unique view into what brands in any industry are doing on social media, which can be benchmarked against a set of competitors or other brands of interest. Brands can compare themselves against others and assess consumer sentiment around different strategies, zero in on which tactics are driving share of voice, and discover what themes and trends are emerging. Perhaps most importantly, all of this can be seen in BrandTotal on both public posts as well as highly targeted, otherwise-invisible “dark” ads that brands are running, which often form the majority of brand campaigns. This gives the most complete picture of a brand’s performance, its competitors’ strategies, and a clear and actionable path to success.

Top 5 Most Engaging

  1. Swarovski: Holiday wonders https://www.instagram.com/p/CVvvGycA5AY 
  2. Gymshark: Reminder https://www.instagram.com/p/CUdEV7EMLvR 
  3. Amazon Video: Reacher https://www.instagram.com/p/CW_Vl32jg77 
  4. Spiderman https://www.instagram.com/p/CW9VU8xAAUS 
  5. Amazon Prime Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CW9VU8xAAUS 

Top 5 Most Loved Ads

  1. American Express: Platinum x Kehinde Wiley https://twitter.com/AmericanExpress/status/1465750656367665161 
  2. Best Buy: Same day delivery https://twitter.com/BestBuy/status/1463223190612762625 
  3. T-Mobile: #5Gsfor5G giveaway https://twitter.com/TMobile/status/1476108230027882497 
  4. Apple: all-new AirPods https://twitter.com/Apple/status/1470842317347061761 
  5. Nike: Meg Thee Stallion Yardrunners Collection https://twitter.com/Nike/status/1468689543289315331 

Top 5 Spenders

  1. Stadia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7aci2UH2QA 
  2. Oculus https://twitter.com/714758552/status/1458241297471262723 
  3. Honey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM0GwkY2BJY 
  4. YouTube Spotlight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od721Ey6GuY 
  5. Discover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxeq0gj_O1U 

The Top 5 Lists

Top 5 Most Engaging

The Top 5 most engaging ads this month were all Instagram ads. The Top 5 list was split between content-oriented ads from Amazon Video, Spiderman, and Amazon Prime Video; and physical products in the form of Gymshark and Swarovski. The #1 most engaging ad from Swarovski leads with a breathtaking visual of a model dripping in crystals. The #2 most engaging ad from Gymshark features a powerful slogan that’s easily shareable: “This is your reminder not to skip the gym this week.” The ad’s description, “Tag someone that needs the reminder” further reinforces the message of liking and sharing the post. Amazon had two entries in this list: one which featured a trailer for the popular “Reacher” series, and another that leveraged a well-known meme.

 

Top 5 Most Loved

In this month’s “Most Loved” ads, it was American Express in first place with its collaboration with Kehinde Wiley on Twitter. The ad copy promises “Like this tweet to reveal a surprise!” which is part of the reason for the positive sentiment around the ad. Best Buy collaborates with Rome Green Jr for its cute same delivery ad, featuring a gift for Mom. T-Mobile shows that giveaways and sweepstakes are evergreen, with its #5Gsfor5G giveaway. Apple promotes its new AirPods in a colorful video ad on Twitter, and Nike teams up with Meg Thee Stallion to round out the Top 5. Interestingly, all of the most loved ads this month were on Twitter.

Top 5 Spenders

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of this month’s top spenders are backed by global giants, At #1 is Google-owned Stadia, with its Riders Republic promotion. In at #2 is Facebook/Meta’s Oculus’ Quest 2. Coming in at #3 is Honey, who have consistently appeared on this list – with the brand’s collaboration with Linus and its $5,000 PC giveaway. At #4 is YouTube, with its Channel Membership campaign. In 5th place is Discover, with an innovative video campaign – that features no video. This audio-only ad showcases the brand’s Cashback Match. 

Get more from your social media campaigns

The BrandTotal competitive social advertising intelligence platform grants users exclusive access to the moves that leading brands are making in their paid social media campaigns, including “Dark,” highly targeted campaigns otherwise hidden from the public’s view – paired with how consumers responded to those ads, including consumer sentiment, consumer engagement, and other key metrics. 

This gives marketers the most complete picture of a brand’s performance, its competitors’ strategies, and a clear and actionable path to success. All of these observations, insights, and critical lessons are only available if you’re using the BrandTotal platform. You can see overall trends, specific campaigns, even down to per-ad granularity.

Would you like to see the power of BrandTotal for yourself? Request a demo today.

About BrandTotal

BrandTotal is a leading social competitive intelligence and brand analytics platform, enabling brand marketers to make decisions based on data, not feelings. BrandTotal was founded in 2016 and serves customers in North America, Europe, and Israel. Headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Israel, BrandTotal’s customers range from well-established Fortune 500 brands to the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer challenger brands. The company is funded by world-class VC firms INcapital Ventures, Flint Capital, NHN Investment, One Way Ventures, FJ Labs, Glilot Capital Partners, and Keshet Dick Clark Productions along with early support from Microsoft Accelerator and Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator. Find us at www.brandtotal.com.

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