• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 14, 2015

Raw content. Not the videos, but the topics. The theme for so many of the top video content in YouTube's July Leaderboard. Last month marks debuts from Coffee-mate, Nature Valley, and Nitro Circus Tour, but the one thing that is more noticeable in the top videos in July compared with past months is the way the brands and partner agencies explored creativity to send a message in their content.

Some of the more interesting connect with nature. While the Leo Burnett agency created a campaign for the Always brand focusing on how girls should stop thinking about limitations to become "unstoppable," the agency 360i highlighted natural ingredients by exploring the "natural" theme by going natural to promote its Natural Bliss coffee creamer. The video shows a cafe where men and women baristas ware painted on clothing.

The top 10 YouTube Ads in July racked up 80,985,235 views and 139,245,862 minutes watched, a total of 264 years and 274 days.

With several months of experience, GoPro now stands at No. 1 for the entire year, marking its fourth and fifth times they have landed on the Leaderboard in 2015. This month's the No. 3 spot takes thrills to the next level with an action-packed adventure, and the No. 8 spot features a water skiing squirrel. The real innovation comes back to "raw" in nature, topics and creativity.

In July it's about the empowering messages like the return of Always #LikeAGirl's "Unstoppable" that encourages girls to break boundaries of what society says they cannot do. Nature Valley asked consumers to #RediscoverNature after discovering that today's youth no longer play outside the home and spend too many hours in front of the television or on electronics.

Coca-Cola took the message into the dark with a social experiment in dining to remove labels. It's sort of a play on content these days, where marketers create video content without advertising products, but rather rely on the message to connect consumers with the brand. Encouraging viewers to avoid using labels, Coca-Cola hosted a dinner party for several men. They sat around a table in the dark talking about what makes them unique. When the lights came on, the men were surprised at each of their appearance -- the attitude didn't seem to match their looks. Coca-Cola symbolically removed their brand name from their cans.