The 10 Most-Watched Indian Ads on YouTube in March 2017

OnePlus tops the charts.

March is a tricky time of the year for the advertising industry in India. Brands tend to be relatively low-key when it comes to spending on advertising in this month, as their teams are busy strategising for the year ahead. However, we did see some really nice ads this month that touched upon interesting themes.

Brands like Vicks, Star Sports, Google and AirAsia leveraged International Women's Day to run thought provoking adverts. Asian Paints came up with a beautiful series of branded videos called Where the heart is giving a sneak peek into the personal lives and homes of celebrities. Colgate launched an ad about water conservation. It is heartening to see the Digital Video Advertising landscape in the country slowly mature from running just TVC ads to telling branded stories. Hopefully, we'll see more thought provoking brand stories in the months to come.

So without further ado, let us dive in and look at the top 10 video ads by Indian brands on YouTube for the month of March:

Note:

- All the stats here are updated until April 9, 2017.

- Only advertisements launched in March of 2017 are considered.

- The list does not include ads (about the video content) by other content provider platforms like Netflix India and Hotstar.

- The overall audience sentiment that is mentioned below each advertisement is based on - number of views, likes, dislikes, watch time and comments.

10. Baleno RS - Made of Speed

With over 7.9 Million views, the TVC showcasing the latest Baleno RS by Maruti Suzuki is at number 10.

9. Vodafone SuperNet 4G - The Data Strong Network

The new Vodafone TVC Showcasing its 4G network is at number 9 with over 8 million views.

8. Vaseline Healthy White

The recent attack on Nigerians in Greater Noida brought back an old debate to the forefront of social discourse in the country - racism by Indians. The unsavoury comments by BJP MP Tarun Vijay against the skin color of South Indians, a few days after that incident just went on to add some more meat to this whole debate. The controversies have fuelled raging discussions in social media (This video by Rahul Subramanian went viral recently) and as expected, fairness brands are in reputation management mode now.

The latest TVC featuring the fairness cream product by HUL owned brand Vaseline is a good example to analyse this. The video has got over 5,000 dislikes and the comments had to be disabled owing to strong negative sentiment by the viewers.

7. Vicks - Generations of Care #TouchOfCare

I would consider this the best ad of the whole leaderboard. Beautifully narrated and shot, the 3 and a half minute video has clocked over 8.8 million views and has been received extremely well by the audience.

6. Bingo! - Pout #ApnaAsliFlavour

Bingo has always come up with funny and entertaining ads that go with its quirky brand image. Their latest TVC is at number 6 clocking over 9 million views.

5. #SamsungPay - Mobile Payment Service

Cashless payments is all the rage in India these days thanks to the historic currency demonetization decision that the government took last November. Samsung is now entering the fray with its cashless payment solution Samsung Pay. The new ad showcasing this offering is at number 5 with over 10 million views.

4. Durex Jeans

When the world's largest condom brand Durex announced that it will be launching Durex Jeans, many mistakenly assumed that it would be a condom made of jeans! It turned out to be something which is not so groundbreaking - a new packet design that fits even in body-hugging denim pockets! The Ranveer Singh starrer video ad has clocked over 11 million views so far on YouTube.

3. Airtel - India's Fastest Network

Airtel has launched another ad featuring the annoying Airtel girl. Whether people like her or not, this girl has surely made a name for herself because of these ads that Airtel aggressively promotes across all the mediums.

2. Cornetto - Alia plays Cupid with the MiniDisc

With summer approaching, ice cream brands cannot afford to miss out on advertising during this time of the year. Experts are predicting that it is going to be a scorching hot summer in India this year and I'm sure brands like Cornetto and Kwality Walls will advertise aggressively over the next couple of months as well.

1. The crorepati ad by OnePlus

(Video Courtesy : Being Logical)

OnePlus has hit the bull's eye with its latest ad featuring Amitabh Bachchan and AIB's Rohan Joshi. The ad created by BBDO and shot in the popular Kaun Banega Crorepati format has clocked over 13 million views so far and the audience sentiment has been quite positive. OnePlus had to face its share of trouble as Sony Pictures Networks India filed a copyright infringement plea over the format of the advertisement. The ad is not blocked however and is still raking in views adding to its 13 million+ count.

(The author is product marketing manager at Vidooly, a YouTube audience development and analytics firm.)