It was a nail biting matchup with the underdogs prevailing in a game that came down to the last second.

Hundreds of thousands of people made their way to the Twin Cities this past Sunday to catch the action live. But for the millions of you that weren’t there in person, you haven’t missed the chance to watch and rewatch the Big Game’s always-entertaining slate of ads on YouTube.

On YouTube, fans engage with the Big Game well before the kickoff and long after the last touchdown. We saw over a 16 percent increase in viewership of ads on YouTube this year, with viewership on Living Room devices increasing by 52 percent.¹ In fact, one in every eight ads on YouTube watched on Sunday were watched on Living Room devices.²

For the 11th year, fans turned to YouTube AdBlitz to watch, cheer, and share their favorite ads. This year, we expanded AdBlitz to include even more content beyond ads for fans to enjoy -- like top football content, custom creator videos from ThreadBanger, Wong Fu Productions, devinsupertramp, and more.

The cheers and in-hub views of the ads in AdBlitz have now been counted, and … drumroll … it’s time to reveal the three ads that came out on top. The battle for these top spots was fierce this year with 80+ brands participating in AdBlitz, and more fans visiting the site than ever. In fact, in just two days, AdBlitz site traffic this year exceeded total AdBlitz traffic during the entire Big Game week last year.

The AdBlitz 2018 fan favorites are: Amazon Alexa, Bud Light, and Groupon!

Amazon’s Big Game ad takes the top spot. In this hilarious ad, Alexa loses her voice and counts on a star-studded team including Cardi B and Gordon Ramsay to come to her rescue.



Bud Light’s “The Bud Knight” came in second among AdBlitz fans, bringing their well-known Dilly Dilly creative to the Big Game with the introduction of the “Bud Knight.”



In third, Groupon and Tiffany Haddish join forces to let you know that every time you use Groupon in your neighborhood, you’re supporting local businesses.



The Big Game may be over, but you can visit YouTube AdBlitz at any time to watch and rewatch all the top videos from this year’s event. After you’ve watched the ads, test your knowledge of the Big Game's most popular spots and YouTube trends with Deja:View trivia. Play now!

Meredith Bailey, YouTube Product Marketing Manager, recently watched "Pink Belts Out the National Anthem! | Super Bowl LII NFL Pregame.”

¹ YouTube Internal Data, U.S., February, 2018
² YouTube Internal Data, U.S., February, 2018

The confetti has hit the field. We all went Gaga. The Pats have come out victorious.

While you may not have seen that coming, we’ve seen our highest ever watch time during the game, with more than 350K hours spent watching Big Game ads, marking over 15 percent year-over year-growth. If your Game Day party was anything like ours, mobile also played a huge role - 70 percent of this watch time came from mobile devices. And this is just the beginning.

Historically, the day after the Big Game kicks off several weeks of watching and re-watching Big Game ads, so make sure you check out the tenth anniversary of the YouTube AdBlitz channel and vote for your favorite by February 10 at midnight PT.

We’re already starting to see some early favorites. Some with a fresh take on iconic characters, others that introduced new heroes. But the undeniable theme of the night was ads that connected to social and political topics -- in fact, these ads accounted for nearly half of the watch time on Game Day.

Here are the top ten ads so far (based on Game Day views as of 2/6 at 2 a.m. ET):

1. Budweiser - Budweiser 2017 Super Bowl Commercial | “Born The Hard Way”
2. Bud Light - Ghost Spuds | Bud Light Super Bowl Commercial 2017 feat. Spuds MacKenzie
3. Hyundai - A Better Super Bowl | NFL Hyundai Super Bowl LI
4. Kia - 2017 Kia Niro | “Hero’s Journey” Starring Melissa McCarthy
5. T-Mobile - T-Mobile | #UnlimitedMoves with Justin Bieber | T-Mobile Commercial
6. Tide - Tide | Super Bowl Commercial 2017 with Terry Bradshaw
7. 84 Lumber - 84 Lumber Super Bowl Commercial - The Entire Journey
8. Netflix - "Stranger Things 2" - Super Bowl 2017 Ad
9. Audi - Audi #DriveProgress Big Game Commercial – “Daughter”
10. Mr. Clean - Mr. Clean | New Super Bowl Ad | Cleaner of Your Dreams

Interest in commercials didn’t stop at YouTube either. Of the top trending Google Search questions during the game, three were about the ads:

1. How old is Lady Gaga?
2. How does overtime work in NFL?
3. Who owns Alfa Romeo?
4. What is 84 Lumber?
5. How many “Pirates of the Caribbean” are there?

The Big Game may have been called, but the battle for top ad is still in play. Check back next week to find out this year’s winner of YouTube AdBlitz!

Deborah Powsner, YouTube Ads Marketing, recently watched “Patriots vs. Falcons | Super Bowl LI Game Highlights.”

Every year, a few Big Game ads stand out from the pack and keep us smiling long after the last play … like your daughter’s first date, that time Liam Neeson wanted revenge, or the year we met whatever this is.

Today, we’re kicking off YouTube AdBlitz for the tenth time, a destination where you can come watch and vote for all your favorite Big Game ads.

To continue to spotlight excellence as part of our AdBlitz program, we've made two key changes. First, in addition to our main list of AdBlitz winners, we'll be recognizing top performers in individual categories, like automotive and food & beverage. Second, we've seen more and more traditional in-game advertisers choose to launch ads around the Big Game versus during the actual broadcast. This year, these spots will also be eligible to compete in AdBlitz.

In honor of AdBlitz's ten-year anniversary, we’re also taking a look back at the top 20 Big Game ads from the past nine years that have stood the test of time. Collectively, these ads have racked up more than 440M minutes of watchtime along the way.

Of course as much as we love Big Game ads, they also represent just one slice of all the football-related content people watch on YouTube. Overall, watchtime for football-related content has grown over 90 percent year-over-year.¹ Given this huge interest, it’s no surprise that the NFL’s YouTube channel, which they unveiled two years ago, just passed the 1 billion views mark, a huge achievement.

In looking at the ads that made our top 20 list, we noticed a few things.

The ad your ad could smell like: Iconic ads continue to thrive on YouTube long past their initial release. Some of the most memorable ads from previous years, like Old Spice's “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” (2010), Ram Trucks’ "Farmer" (2013) and GoPro and Red Bull’s “Red Bull Stratos - The Full Story” (2014) collectively garnered over 5M views in 2016, years after their original airing. And combined, these ads have driven over 92.5M lifetime views.

Advertisers use the force … of uploading early. Advertisers that upload early do better overall. The share of Big Game ads released on YouTube before game day grew over 200 percent from 2008 to 2016, due to a combination of more advertisers releasing their television spots early on YouTube as well the growing popularity of teasers. Among YouTube's Top 20 ranking, 90 percent of the ads listed were released on YouTube before the Super Bowl that year, including Volkswagen’s “The Force” and Budweiser’s “Puppy Love.”

Pokemon goes global: Just as the Big Game has become a global moment, so have the ads. Outside the U.S., Super Bowl ad viewership on YouTube has grown over 28x since 2008. In 2016, the three countries outside the U.S. that watched the most Super Bowl ads on YouTube are Canada, the United Kingdom and Russia. Some of the most popular Super Bowl ads internationally included: Pokemon’s “#Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial,” Coca-Cola’s “Coke Mini (Hulk vs. Ant-Man),” and Heinz’s “Wiener Stampede - Extended Cut.”

Our full AdBlitz 10-Year Anniversary report is here along with the full list of the top 20 ads of the past nine years. We encourage you to take a look and come up with your own insights. And of course check back with AdBlitz before, during, and after the Big Game to see and vote for this year’s additions to the catalog of iconic Big Game ads.

Tara Walpert Levy, Vice President of Agency & Media Solutions, recently watched “NFL 2016: Part One” -- A Bad Lip Reading of the NFL.”

¹YouTube Data, U.S. Classification as American Football video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube, January - November 2016.

Another football season is in the books, but the Big Game ads continue to live on - on YouTube. While there’s been plenty of Monday morning quarterbacking about the best Big Game spots, fans have been weighing in this week by voting for their favorite ads on YouTube AdBlitz.

All the votes have now been tallied, and it’s time to reveal the Top 5 winners. With more brands and more overall ads competing in this year’s YouTube AdBlitz than ever before, the competition was fierce. But one brand rose to the top as the clear-cut fan favorite:

Congratulations to Pokémon! With over three times as many votes as the second place ad, and more votes overall than the other four winners combined, Pokémon has been voted by fans as the YouTube AdBlitz Champion of 2016!

 

Here are the rest of the Top 5 - all fan favorites as determined by your votes. Second place belongs to T-Mobile’s “Drop The Balls” starring a completely faultless (this time) Steve Harvey:

 

In third place is … T-Mobile again! This time featuring a very agreeable Drake:

 

It would be hard to imagine a Big Game ads season without puppies, monkeys or babies. So Mountain Dew Kickstart came to the rescue, snagging fourth place with PuppyMonkeyBaby:

 

Finally, KFC became the first brand ever to make the YouTube AdBlitz Top 5 without airing their ad during the Big Game’s national TV broadcast. The ad aired during the CBS live stream of the Big Game, connecting with fans online who then came to YouTube AdBlitz to cast their votes.

 

Visit YouTube AdBlitz to watch all of this year’s Big Game ads.

Posted by Natalie Marchant, YouTube Sponsorships Program Manager, recently watched "Beyoncé & Bruno Mars Crash Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show | NFL."

Whether it was the heartfelt family story or that we couldn’t resist a good revenge, football-related content on YouTube has been getting bigger each year, with fans tuning in to watch food, music, comedy and highlight videos all related to the Big Game. Last year, we hit a new record on YouTube - with 840 million minutes worth of Big Game ads watched on YouTube, more than twice as much as the previous year.1

For the past seven years, we’ve been watching and voting for our favorite Big Game ad on YouTube AdBlitz - a one-stop place where you can catch all the action around the Big Game. This year, tune in to our AdBlitz website before, during and after the game to find:

• Game Day commercials: Missed out on an ad because of a snack run? Tune in to YouTube AdBlitz on game day to easily find and watch all the ads in one place. Last year, more than 300,000 hours of Big Game ads were watched on YouTube while the game was being played.2 In fact, during the game watchtime for ads surpasses watchtime for other well-known YouTube genres, like how-to videos.
• Teaser gallery: Starting today, the YouTube AdBlitz will host a gallery of Big Game ad teaser videos. Each year, advertisers release their game day ads earlier and earlier on YouTube, and are even creating teaser ads for their ads. Brands that release their ad on YouTube before the game receive an average of 2.2x more views than those that waited until game day to post an ad.3 Tune in now to be in the know.
• Original content: We invited some of your favorite YouTube Creators to produce an exclusive series for YouTube AdBlitz themed "How to Win Game Day" that we’ll release the week leading up to the game. The series will be hosted by Jake and Amir with Flula as the band leader. And we’ll also release football-themed videos from some of our biggest creators, including videos from MyLifeAsEva, Hannah Hart and fouseyTUBE.
• Vote for your favorite: Don’t forget to have your say on your favorite ad. After the game ends, visit the YouTube AdBlitz website to vote for and share your favorite commercials. You can start voting as soon as the game ends on February 7 and will have until 11:59 p.m. ET on February 10 to cast your vote.

There are millions of moments that bring everyone together during live events - the play that clinches the game, or that “left shark” performance during the halftime show. To help brands be a part of these conversations in a way that's timely and relevant, today we're opening our Real-time ads beta to more brands including Wix.com, and we plan to roll it out more broadly later this year. With Real-time ads, brands will be able to instantly run an ad across YouTube, hundreds of thousands of apps, and over 2 million sites in our Google Display Network with a message that ties directly to the big moment people just experienced live.

Check out YouTube AdBlitz today to watch ad teasers ahead of the game. Then tune in on game day to watch and vote for your favorite ads. To learn more about how we watch football-related content on YouTube, visit our YouTube Trends Report to catch up on more stats.

Posted by Natalie Marchant, YouTube Sponsorships Program Manager, recently watched “Aaron Rodgers' Amazing Hail Mary: The Miracle in Motown! | Packers vs. Lions | NFL.”

Sources:

1. Google Data, January–December 2015 vs. January–December 2014, Global, Classification as a football related "food," "video game," "sports," "comedy and humor," "advertising" or "music" video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube.
2. Google Data February 1, 2015. Global. Classification as a “big game” ad or “how-to” video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube.
3. Pixability Industry Study. Super Bowl 2015 YouTube Ads.