• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, October 2, 2015

“You’re only as good as your last picture,” goes the old movie adage, and if that’s so, some brands may be benefiting mightily from the work of advertisements that they thought reached their sell-thru date a long time ago.

New research from Visible Measures compared the ripple effect of advertising shown on YouTube and Facebook and concluded that when a brand introduces a new ad to YouTube or Facebook audience, it can also increase views of the old ads that came before it. But really, mostly on YouTube.

The measurement firm saw a ripple effect as high as 45 times for old ads in a portfolio a week after a new ad is introduced. No doubt you’ve done this before--you search for the new Super Bowl Budweiser ad and end up blubbering and tearful a half hour later after you’ve watched a bunch of cute puppies, kids, and Clydesdales from years gone by.

And YouTube is a great library. Visible Measures says that brand channels realize an “average of 53% of its views coming from their existing portfolio.” That means ad agencies that long ago were shown the door by some brands may still be working for them, which, after a few pops at Michael’s, those ad execs tell you without this white paper to back them up.

What they probably don’t know is that the oldies-are-goodies bit doesn’t work as well on Facebook where only 5% of a brand’s views are of older ads. And things get old on Facebook pretty quickly. After three days, a new spot is just about toast on that social site--there should be  “like,” “kinda still like,” and “Next!” buttons on those pages.

But on YouTube, views of some new and old ads hang there after the initial spike.  Visible Measures’ study includes a graph showing the trajectory of viewership for existing Samsung content in conjunction with the release of its Samsung LifeLIVE campaign. It topped 40,000 views in the first three days after the new ad debuted and was still at 20,000 views a week later. There are even more dramatic results for Mountain Dew and Hyundai campaign intros.

Because Facebook is not really built for the kind of video browsing that is YouTube’s bread and butter, it’s no competition. To demonstrate that, Visible Measures compared views of old content for 13 brands; for each one, there was no contest.

Similarly, for ad resonance -- basically, measuring how long a brand’s new video holds attention--the data show that Facebook usually starts hot out of the gate, but fades into near nothingness even by the third or fourth week of a new campaign. Studying 808 video ads comprising 1.6 billion views fro 548 campaigns, Visible Measures found that only in the first three days does Facebook outperform YouTube, grabbing 58% of the views. It's downhill, fast, from there. 

In April, Visible Measures said that, in the month before, brands that released their ads to Facebook and YouTube, Facebook grabbed 85% of its viewership in the first week;YouTube got only 63%. So, Facebook is trendier.

But I have watched  Jean-Claude Van Damme’s epic reverse truck-straddling for Volvo Trucks dozens of times on YouTube and I can assure you I will never buy a Volvo Truck, even if ever buy a truck. For that matter, I’m not so hot on Budweiser despite those weepy/make-America-cry ads.

One thing Facebook would seem to have all over YouTube is that my friends might recommend I watch those ad--and that’s a powerful endorsement-- but even then, I’m just never quite sure how a really cool ad recommended by friends and relatives would drive me anywhere near any part of a funnel. But that’s me.

pj@mediapost.com