The 20 Most-Shared Ads of 2011

It's one thing to sit in your grubby little basement and enjoy the year's best commercials online by yourself. It's another thing to share them with others. Unruly Media's Viral Video Chart tracks the latter—shares rather the views, a metric that favors pass-around versus overall exposure. Last night in London, Unruly unveiled the world's 20 most-shared commercials of 2011. Check them out below. There are plenty of familiar spots—No. 1 is no surprise—but some unexpected ones as well. Unruly says one of the more notable trends of 2011 was a significant increase in shares compared to views. In 2011, the top 20 ads generated 25 million shares, a nearly five-fold increase from 2010 levels. The ratio of shares to views is interesting, too. In 2010, one in 39 people who viewed video content went on to share it online. This year, one in 10 did. "The fact that the No. 1 ranking video this year earned close to eight times more shares than last year's winning ad is just further proof of the rise of the epic ad in 2011," says Unruly COO Sarah Wood. "More brands are realizing the potential of social video to build a high-impact, long-term emotional connection with their audience."

20. Westfield Stratford City
    100 Years of Style: East London (529,832 shares)
    
21. Samsung
    Unleash Your Fingers (542,851 shares)
    
22. Pepsi
    Unbelievable David Beckham (543,812 shares)
    
23. Trace Urban
    Eklips for Trace (687,528 shares)
    
24. Channel 4
    Danny MacAskill: Industrial Revolutions (696,190 shares)
    
25. McDonald's
    BFGF (756,141 shares)
    
26. Red Bull
    The Art of Flight: Travis Rice (810,453 shares)
    
27. Ojai Valley Taxidermy
    Chuck Testa (830,036 shares)
    
28. Carlsberg
    Bikers in Cinema (899,550 shares)
    
29. Call Of Duty
    Modern Warfare 3: The Vet vs. the Noob (922,218 shares)
    

1. Nestle Contrex
   Ma Contrexperience (950,988 shares)
   
2. Nissan
   Poneis Malditos (956,661 shares)
   
3. Call Of Duty
   Modern Warfare 3: Reveal Trailer (1,062,829 shares)
   
4. David Cornfield Melanoma Fund
   Dear 16-Year-Old Me (1,072,004 shares)
   
5. Twentieth Century Fox
   Planet of the Apes: Ape With A20K-47 (1,132,201 shares)
   
6. Kia Soul
   Party Rock Anthem (1,424,110 shares)
   
7. T-Mobile
   Royal Wedding (1,733,419 shares)
   
8. T-Mobile
   Angry Birds Live (1,783,607 shares)
   
9. DC Shoes
   Ken Block's Gymkhana Four: The Hollywood Megamercial (2,028,238 shares)
   
10. Volkswagen
    The Force (4,713,179 shares)