Well, it finally happened. We’ve reached the 1,500-subscriber milestone on our YouTube channel. And to celebrate, we’re taking a look back at some of the most-viewed clips of all time. We had a lot of fun digging through the archive to come up with this shortlist. Come along as we reflect on these bits of mini-cinema that range from PSA to BTS with some shenanigans thrown in for good measure.
Back in spring 2016, we were busy promoting RecruitNY, a major initiative of our longtime client the Firefighters Association of the State of New York. To get volunteer fire departments to sign up to host an open house during this statewide recruitment event, we offered the Ultimate Recruitment Tool Kit to a handful of lucky departments. Said kits full of promotional signage and collateral included a sky dancer to draw attention to their event. When they arrived at the office, we had to test them out and – whether we needed to or not – we fired them up all at once. Here is a glimpse of the wackiness that ensued. Want more from behind the scenes of an ad agency? Take a closer look Inside ABC with this playlist.
Another highly-viewed video comes from efforts to create an impactful public service announcement for Onondaga County’s McMahon Ryan Child Advocacy Center. Like most nonprofits, they were operating on a limited budget. We cooked up a low-cost concept that integrated disturbing stats sure to catch the attention of anyone watching and ultimately raise awareness of McMahon Ryan’s admirable mission. Another PSA we did for MRCAC was close behind in view count.
Made by ABC for FASNY’s statewide volunteer firefighter recruitment campaign “Is There a Fire in You?”, a 30-second spot got its “talent” from a statewide casting call we did to feature a real-life volunteer firefighter. We actually got two, as the other commercial featured Jeff. This one is Jessie’s story, a half-minute tale that not only got plenty of rotation via paid media, but also helped earn ABC a shoutout in the New York Times for its unique approach.
This clip brought our YouTube viewers behind the scenes of a heartfelt surprise from Visions Federal Credit Union. We chose to draw attention to their brand with a hidden-camera project that followed supposed grocery store bagger Ty Muse, aka Visions’ president and CEO, as he surprised shoppers by paying for their goods. The random act of kindness was intended to draw attention to the in-store branch Visions was opening in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, market. It made a huge splash on Visions’ social media and this racked up some decent view counts on our channel as well.
Speaking of Visions, our very first broadcast spot for them made the most-viewed cut. The live-action commercial that follows a lifetime in 30 seconds was choreographed by our friends at the Redhouse Arts Center and took upward of 40 takes to produce. You can take a look behind the scenes of this robust production in our Behind the Scenes: Visions Federal Credit Union “Life Is Unscripted” video.
This PSA for SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) had quite a wide audience when it premiered during a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin. Famed singer/songwriter Kenny Loggins, who penned hits for the Footloose and Top Gun soundtracks, was so touched by SAVE’s message that he and his band helped us cut an alternate version of the spot that you can see here.
And, of course, our infamous Holiday Videos have earned us plenty of views over the years, especially “Santa Rebrand” in 2016. When ol’ Kris Kringle himself approached ABC for a fresh look and messaging, we went ahead and created one of our best campaigns to date. So good was it, in fact, it landed on national TV when the CW picked it up on its “Greatest Holiday Video Countdown” special. It also made AdWeek’s national list of agency holiday greetings when it was released.
So here’s another cheers to 1,500 subscribers who have given our channel upward of 1.5 million views since we first started uploading our collection of 112 videos back in 2009. We produce a lot of content these days, so if you haven’t already, you might want to subscribe yourself – and don’t forget to click the notification bell!