Beats, Apple, Nintendo: The top 10 YouTube ads in June

1. Beats by Dre: Made Defiant – The Mixtape feat. Neymar Jr., Kane, Ozil and Mendy

Beats by Dre has recruited four of football’s biggest stars and one of the world’s best-known film directors for its 2018 World Cup ad.

Continuing the brand’s ‘Made Defiant’ campaign, the short film titled ‘Defiant Mixtape, volume 1′, follows the story of young Russian prodigy Andre who is dealing with local bullies. He is seen kicking a football around his kitchen when he’s sent outside to the play park by his mother.

The film then travels around the world, depicting the challenges that football greats Harry Kane, Mesut Özil, Benjamin Mendy and Neymar Jr faced in their journey to where they are today. The ad, which was directed by Guy Ritchie and narrated by Peaky Blinder star Paul Anderson, focuses on the notion of turning an obstacle into an opportunity.

The campaign is designed to promote Beats by Dre’s new ‘Decade Collection’, which the featured players are wearing throughout the film.

Creative agency: In-house
Media agency: PMG

2. Apple: Behind the Mac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0Zy0jP_eU

Apple keeps the storytelling simple in this spot for its Mac laptops. It shows people working on their MacBooks, making art, poetry and music, but rather than focusing on what the laptop can do, it instead focuses on users’ passions, even if it leaves them frustrated.

The full campaign features 12 stories of real individuals, including entrepreneur Peter Kariuki who developed an app that aims to make roads in Rwanda safer, musician Grimes and blind photographer Bruce Hall. Each one features in this hero video, which is soundtracked by Daniel Johnston’s song ‘The Story of an Artist’.

Creative agency: Media Arts Lab
Media agency: OMD International

3. Google: The new YouTube Music app is here

Launched, as the title suggests, to coincide with the release of an updated YouTube Music app, this spot runs through all the new features available on the service – from better search functionality to playlists that fit your mood.

It also marks the launch of the app in 12 more countries, including the UK.

Creative agency: Hook
Media agency: Essence

4. Google: Make Google do it

Google may have come in for some criticism when it demoed its Google Assistant calling a hair salon to make an appointment – complete with ‘ummms’ and ‘errrs’ so it sounded like a real person – but its ‘Make Google Do It’ campaign attempts to turn the issue on its head by suggesting getting a computer to do tasks is actually empowering.

This UK version of a global campaign features stars including David Walliams and John Boyega asking the AI assistant to help with tasks such as taking a great selfie or apologising after a party got a little out of hand.

Creative agency: R/GA
Media agency: Essence and OMD

5. Nintendo: Fortnite – E3 2018 trailer

Another ad celebrating the launch of a new product – this time the arrival of Epic Games’ Fortnite games on the Nintendo Switch. The popular game, which has had more than 1 million downloads, sees a small group of humans forced into survival mode after 98% of the Earth’s population suddenly disappears.

Creative agency: In-house
Media agency: the7stars

6. Domino’s: Staying at home with Jimmy Bullard – Episode Two: Memories

Creative agency: VCCP
Media agency: In-house

7. Red Bull: The Great British Swim – can it be done?

Creative agency: In-house
Media agency: Reprise Media

8. Hovis: Soft white TV ad 2018 – Good Today. Good Always

Creative agency: Pablo
Media agency: The Social Partners

9. McLaren Automotive: The new McLaren 600LT – The edge is calling

Creative agency: In-house
Media agency: EMO

10. Paddy Power: Introducing the Paddy Power ‘Drunk Tank’ – it’s here to clean up racing

Creative agency: In-house
Media agency: MediaCom

The top 10 YouTube ads are measured using total viewing figures and length of time people watched.