From Burberry to McDonald's & everything in between: YouTube Video Analysis

YouTube videos aren’t always re-purposed television commercials. In fact, usually they shouldn’t be. Burberry’s latest four-minute video conveys the perfect luxury holiday tone, while McDonald’s is effectively leveraging YouTube to dispel myths about its food. Brands can tell a full story on YouTube, unlike on television. Skeptical? Watch this week’s Videos of the Week.
1. GoldieBlox: GoldieBlox vs the Big Sister Machine

Why it works: An homage to Apple’s 1984 ad, the Big Sister Machine ad from Goldie Blox achieved more than 260,000 views, thanks to its excellent SEO behind the ground-breaking action figure release. According to Pixability’s YouTube Search Ranking Finder, the video is on the Top 10 list for keywords such as “Goldieblox,” “Construction toys for girls,” “Metric,” “Help I’m alive,” and “Big sister.”
Areas for improvement: The call to action near the end of the video is hard to spot due to its brief two-second appearance and less-than-ideal placement at lower right corner. The call to action also does not appear on mobile devices.
Key Takeaways: Great initiatives and SEO will generate views, but brands need to pay more attention to call-to-actions, which are essential on YouTube to drive viewers to continue their experience with the brand.
2. BBM: Yours to Control – “The Dive”

Why it works: BBM fights its way back into the market with its new messenger capabilities, now available on iPhone and Android. Using Pixability’s software, the video ranks highly with YouTube tags “BBM” (15th) and “Message Retraction” (3rd). With hundreds of thousands of views, the video has earned a very positive sentiment rating with a 9-1 like-to-dislike ratio.
Areas for improvement: BBM didn’t optimize this video for SEO, and is therefore missing out on search traffic. The video’s description is short and does not use enough keywords. The tags are also lacking in number and focus.
Key Takeaways: SEO is an important consideration that is often overlooked when launching videos on YouTube.
3. John Lewis: John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014 – #MontyThePenguin

Why it works: With the video’s powerful soundtrack and story, “Monty the Penguin” has an extremely positive sentiment rating with its viewers (63-1 like-to-dislike ratio). Pixability software discovered the following keywords ranked #1 in search: “John Lewis,” “John Lewis ad,” “John Lewis commercial,” “Christmas Ad,” “Xmas Ad,” “advert.”
Areas for improvement: John Lewis ads on YouTube are well-known, but SEO could lead the videos to show up for other topics users are searching for, including holiday gifts.
Key takeaways: Great storytelling still trumps all when it comes to YouTube advertising.
4. McDonald’s: Our food. Your questions. What are McRib patties made of?

Why it works: Another video from McDonald’s that removes objections among the most demanding viewers. The video ranks high for brand keywords in Pixability’s Search Ranking Finder, which helps McDonald’s win more search traffic. McDonald’s videos in general get a lot of engagement, and the brand does great job in moderating conversations and comments around their videos.
Areas for improvement: Even though the video performs well for both views and engagement, McDonald’s is constantly criticized for trying to be “all things to all people” with no clear target. This often results in negative comments and a lot of dislikes. Giving more information in video descriptions might help to attract more relevant viewers to the channel and increase positive engagement.
Key takeaways: YouTube mission to dispel myths around the food they make is a great strategy so far. Serial content keeps viewers coming back week after week.
5. Burberry: From London With Love

Why it works: Great example of brand story content from a high-end fashion brand. The celebrity cast, powerful soundtrack, and theatrical style of this video gets the audience to connect emotionally with the holiday tone. Burberry found the perfect mix of including both product and story in a longer video. It’s also great to see how this brand took advantage of special features, including Interactive Annotations, to engage with consumers across multiple platforms.
Areas for improvement: Burberry ranks well for terms related to the video, but could use longer descriptions and tags for better overall search ranking.
Key takeaways: High production value paired with a holiday tone works just right for long-form brand story videos that are popular on YouTube, especially among luxury brands.