Of the 10 most-watched YouTube pre-roll ads, 60% are considered by us as being content assets.

From Rick Mercer, to Jon Hamm the most-watched YouTube ads of 2020 in Canada are really interesting as over half of them are more content plays rather than pure advertising plays.

There are 3 well-known Canadian personalities making appearances, there are 2 music videos and 1 history-focused recreation (that one is a surprise for me, for it to appear in this Top 10 of the year).

I invite you to visit the page Google prepared for this and take note of these content plays:

  1. Rick Mercer’s rant on travel in Canada | Explore Canada
  2. A Cart Apart – A No Frills Track
  3. IGA x Bleu Jeans Bleu – Oublie pas tes sacs (vidéoclip officiel)
  4. IKEA Canada | Make the Most of Home | Episode 1 with Marcy Mussari
  5. Heritage Minute: Liberation of the Netherlands
  6. Jon Hamm Thanks Canadians

I see this as a great example of how content can be a driver of attention, and audience growth (your amplification targeting is of great help in this).

It is sad these pieces were mostly used to interrupt people while they were wanting to watch a YouTube video that interested them, but nonetheless, it shows that content, not necessarily pure-play ads, work great when building and engaging your audiences.

Struggling to get performance out of your content? If your content team is living through content chaos on a daily basis, schedule a quick call with us to discuss Content strategy and content operations. We can help you get all your ducks in a row.