As we wrap up the year, it’s time to share the top 10 ads of 2014 on YouTube Malaysia. This list represents the creatives that resonated the most with audiences across the country and celebrates the brands that performed best on YouTube Malaysia through a combination of popularity (organic views) and promotion (paid views).

Compared to last year, Malaysian brands and themes have flourished on the leaderboard this year, with eight out of the top ten ads featuring strongly Malaysian topics. This shows the growing maturity of the video ads market in the country as well as our appetite for it.

Many of the ads evoke memories of times gone by, when Malaysians led less complicated lives. Petronas, Astro, Malaysia Airlines and Nissan all hark back to a bygone age, focussing on the timeless values of family, community and the simpler pleasures of life. These ads feature moments when Malaysian families come together such as Hari Raya and when communities come together for Hari Merdeka. The popularity of the ads can be explained by the advertisers understanding what resonated with their Malaysian viewers — there’s a significant appetite for nostalgia.

Castrol, AmBank and Maxis chose to look at contemporary Malaysian life. Maxis uses the point of view of a foreigner living in Malaysia to poke gentle fun at Malaysian greetings lost in translation. AmBank went with an upbeat Hari Raya vibe. With this year’s world cup, football was top-of-mind for fans around the world, and Castrol realised this was as true in Malaysia too, giving a witty dissection of footie fans behaviour. The star-studded Nike “Winner Stays” ad is also testament to the popularity of the beautiful game.

All the top 10 video ads are well beyond the classic 30 second TV ad slot; three of the ads are above the five minute mark with the in-house inspired ‘Terbang’ by Malaysia Airlines outstripping the rest at an epic nine minutes thirty-nine seconds. This shows that with YouTube’s engaged audience, they enjoy brands telling longer stories as long as they can relate.

The creativity found in these ads bodes well for online video to reach new heights of engagement and impact in 2015.

The top 10 ads on YouTube Malaysia in 2014:

About YouTube
YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC is based in San Bruno, Calif., and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.