Dive Brief:

• Starbucks is the king of online holiday video, at least in terms of most views according to research from Visible Measures, per a report in Ad Age.
• The review of online video from brands around Christmas, Black Friday, Thanksgiving and other year-end holidays, found Starbucks more than doubles the views of H&M, the brand in second place. The view metrics used in the study include organic views and paid video ads.
• Starbucks’ “Here’s to the Holidays” video has racked up more than 76 million views followed by videos from H&M, John Lewis, Duracell, Apple, Tiffany & Co., Marks & Spencer, Bulgari, Tesco and Amazon.

Dive Insight:

One takeaway for marketers about the list as a whole is the popularity of holiday online video, even for brands that don't make the top five. Amazon’s “Holiday 2017” video has already surpassed 16 million views, an impressive number even though it puts the brand in tenth place. Online video content has certainly been hyped by the marketing industry for the last several years and results like these from major global brands are proof the tactic is reaching a large audience.

In Starbucks case in particular, the runaway success of its holiday video is noteworthy given how the brand's views more than doubled up on its closest competitor. The results shouldn't come as a surprise, however. The brand has built a reputation for sharing fun content all year long and for its holiday promotions, with customers looking forward to each year’s new holiday cup design and efforts such as this year’s fourth annual Starbucks for Life contest that offers its fans a variety of prizes including the grand prize of Starbucks for life. This year, the brand even rolled out a limited edition Christmas Tree Frappuccino. 

H&M's entry for the holidays is interesting because it's a short film with a star-studded cast including Nicki Minaj, Jesse Williams and John Turturro that tells the story of a fantasy world where a little girl tracks down the evil brother of Santa Claus. The retailer treated it like a feature film, releasing a trailer several weeks before the full video became available.