YouTube Names Amazon Super Bowl Spot Its Top Ad for 2022

The Mind Reader Super Bowl ad from Amazon took home the crown as YouTube’s top ad for 2022.

Google creative director Maria Perazzo said in a blog post Thursday, “Creative is more important than ever and becoming much more relevant to performance advertising. On YouTube, brands are crafting content that viewers don’t want to stop watching—layered with practical and beautifully visualized product details and differentiators. Taking the concept of ‘brandformance’ to a new level—an updated strategy well suited for the non-linear media world, where optimization is about adding function to great storytelling to drive action, without killing the creative.”

YouTube shared three trends it mined from its list of the top 10 ads of the year on its platform:

• Being human is cool. So is a little bit of self-awareness: On YouTube, humor and relatable imperfection can show that a brand gets its audience, and that’s reflected in how products and services are advertised. Amazon’s Mind Reader ad featuring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost showcases the greatness of mundane couplehood through self-aware humor.
• (Convergence of) form and function, and the funnel: We see with ads like Apple’s that wonderful storytelling drives interest and engagement—but this is smartly paired with practical and well-illustrated product details and differentiators, combining trademarks of awareness branding with those of consideration and action.
• Breaking down barriers and driving hopefulness through music: Use of music is not novel, and neither is the idea of big brands partnering with music icons, but what seems to be a sticking point and will continue to surface is a focus on breaking down social barriers, unifying around ecological themes impacting the world and a sustainable united future. Whether connecting the literal goal of the century to the World Cup, BTS evoking excitement and nostalgia to promote travel or Chevrolet’s partnership with Zé Felipe shining a light on agribusiness, well-orchestrated use of music can charge creativity emotionally and do something more.

YouTube’s top 10 ads of 2022 were:

1. Amazon, Amazon’s Big Game Commercial: Mind Reader (U.S.)
2. Telecom Egypt, WE 2022 Ramadan Campaign (Egypt)
3. Clash of Clans, Welcome to CLAN CAPITAL! Clash of Clans New Update! (U.S.)
4. Apple, The new MacBook Air | Supercharged by M2 | Apple (U.S.)
5. Hyundai Worldwide, Goal of the Century x BTS | Yet To Come (Hyundai Ver.) Official Music Video (U.S.)
6. Imagine Your Korea, Feel the Rhythm of Korea with BTS – BUSAN BLUES (South Korea)
7. HBO Max, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts | Official Trailer | HBO Max (U.S.)
8. Netflix, All of Us Are Dead | Official Trailer | Netflix (U.S.)
9. Chevrolet Brazil, Zé & Zê – Feita Pra Mim (Videoclipe Oficial) (Brazil)
10. Squarespace, Sally’s Seashells (Extended) | Big Game Commercial 2022 (U.S.)

YouTube also debuted its #2022InShort campaign Thursday, an influencer campaign highlighting seven content themes from the year with interactive elements that let viewers play along. The seven trends are:

• Trick Shots: Videos of the most incredible trick shots, often with elaborate, seemingly impossible setups. Dude Perfect has paved the way for trick shots, setting YouTube records since 2009, and, following in their footsteps, a new generation of Shorts creators are leaning in.
• Cute Pets: In 2022, one in three global Generation Zs say they’ve used YouTube to find content for their pets to watch. And the popularity of this content has carried over onto Shorts, with many pet owners, both with existing channels and new ones, showcasing their furry friends in short videos.
• Weirdly Mesmerizing (My Face is Plastic ASMR): Yes, mesmerizing videos have been on YouTube for years, but their popularity in short form video shows how audiences are seeking out quicker moments of relaxation/soothing content. In 2022, we’re also seeing newer versions emerge that use technology (video effects) to give a fresh perspective.
• Watch Me Work: This year on Shorts, we’ve seen a growing interest in videos showing the process of creation, from songs, to the launch of small businesses, to people doing their everyday jobs, and a big interest in making food overall.
• Visual Twists (Horror Beauty Look Reveals): Visual twists and reveals (before/after) have always been big in internet culture, and that process only speeds up with the rise of short-form video content (Real or Cake, How It’s going etc.). There are many ways we can showcase this trend on YouTube, but horror beauty feels particularly endemic to YouTube due to our strong catalog of both horror and beauty content; with this trend forming a new remix of both genres in 2022.
• Race to the End: The channel How Ridiculous and its balloon-pop-racing videos—released over the past year—have already become the most popular videos on the channel. Even ESPN‘s Sports Nation picked up one of its balloon-popping Shorts, giving credibility to the trend and showing how “amateur sports” started on YouTube have a home in a professional ecosystem.
• Memes (Corn Kid): The internet revolves around memes. And the meme of the year is Corn Kid, which feels like the anthem of 2022. While Corn Kid was seemingly everywhere across the internet in 2022, its origins started on YouTube—and we have a lot of short content about it. The original interview came from YouTube channel Recess Therapy and then got songified by longtime YouTube natives The Gregory Brothers. (The Gregory Brothers also recently songified another big short-form video song, “Chrissy Wake Up.”)

Experiential ads on YouTube—as well as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter—will feature interactive components including:

• Plunger Challenge: Inspired by Chris Ivan’s popular video, users can test their plunger skills in an interactive game.
• Toothpaste Challenge: In this game of accuracy, players can unlock a box from MrBeast, a big lump with knobs (corn) and other rewards stemming from this year’s top Shorts memes and creators.
• Real or Cake Quiz: Natalie Sideserf’s Real or Cake series exploded on YouTube Shorts this year, so the platform is letting people test their “Real or Cake” skills from a series of iconic YouTube images from 2022
• Snap Lens: For those who watched Brodie That Dude or scary clown makeup tutorials in 2022, these lenses let them get completely immersed in visuals.

Creators were asked to highlight their favorite clips from 2022 and, once the #2022InShort campaign goes live, viewers can use the sound to create their own #2022InShort.

YouTube senior director, brand and media Sara Pollack said in the blog post, “Creative content exploded on YouTube Shorts in 2022. From epic trick shots and cute pets to weirdly mesmerizing ASMR, we wanted to design a marketing campaign that celebrates the fun side of the year. YouTube Shorts are being watched by 1.5 billion logged-in users every month, many of whom are Gen-Z subscribers, and racking up more than 30 billion views per day. Our new campaign, #2022InShort, is an opportunity for fans to relive some of the most popular themes of 2022—in short. For even more fun, people can explore our annual top 10 lists to take a deeper dive into the most popular videos, creators and artists from the year.”

YouTube’s top Shorts of the year were:

1. Shangerdanger Diver Cracks Egg at 45 ft Deep #Shorts
2. Hingaflips Sarah Trust Challenges
3. Brodie That Dood Come with me to shave my fluffy dog! #doggrooming #grooming #goldendoodle
4. Chris Ivan Dave and Busters Bet Me 1000 Tickets I Couldn’t Do THIS…
5. Jay & Sharon That GAP Between Your Car Seat and Center Console
6. Adrian Bliss Welcome to the stomach #shorts
7. Zack D. Films This Magic Trick EXPLAINED ???? (America’s Got Talent)
8. ILYA BORZOV Social experiment | What would you do?
9. PaulVuTV Wife surprises husband at his office with pregnancy reveal! ????❤️ #Shorts
10. NichLmao If you catch it… YOU KEEP IT w/ MY GF (Funny) #shorts

The top 10 videos of the year were:

1. Technoblade, so long nerds
2. Guardian News Watch, the uncensored moment Will Smith smacks Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars, drops F-bomb
3. Dream, hi, I’m Dream.
4. NFL, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar & 50 Cent FULL Pepsi SB LVI Halftime Show
5. MrBeast, I Built Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!
6. Mark Rober, Pranks Destroy Scam Callers- GlitterBomb Payback
7. Jaiden Animations, Being Not Straight
8. Kane Pixels, The Backrooms (Found Footage)
9. The Try Guys, what happened.
10. First We Feast, Millie Bobby Brown Needs a Milkshake While Eating Spicy Wings | Hot Ones

The Google-owned video platform’s top songs of 2022 were:

1. Encanto Cast, We Don’t Talk About Bruno
2. Kodak Black, Super Gremlin
3. Jessica Darrow, Surface Pressure
4. Bad Bunny, Tití Me Preguntó
5. Future, Wait for U ft. Drake, Tems
6. Bad Bunny, Chencho Corleone, Me Porto Bonito
7. Karol G, Becky G, Mamiii
8. Imagine Dragons x JID, Enemy
9. Karol G, PROVENZA
10. Lil Baby, In A Minute

2022’s top creators were:

1. MrBeast
2. NichLmao
3. Airrack
4. Ryan Trahan
5. Isaiah Photo
6. Brent Rivera
7. Dan Rhodes
8. Luke Davidson
9. CoryxKenshin
10. Ian Boggs

The year’s breakout creators were:

1. NichLmao
2. Airrack
3. Jooj Natu ENG
4. Shangerdanger
5. David The Baker
6. Kat
7. Dayta
8. Devin Caherly Shorts
9. MDMotivator
10. Charles Brockman III (TheOnlyCB3)