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Viral Chart: Google has gone all 'Chocolatey' in a new ad deal with Nestlé

By Mel Peck

September 5, 2013 | 5 min read

Trending this week is an interesting (if somewhat unlikely) partnership between Google and KitKat, or more precisely, Nestle. The association of a chocolate bar with a mobile phone may not be immediately obvious, but in a surprise move earlier this week, Google announced that it will be calling the next Android operating system KitKat.

The decision is undoubtedly likely to bring with it a fair bit of PR for the Nestle brand but in an interview with the BBC, Google representatives made it clear that neither side was paying the other. John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, explained that the idea had been to come up with something fun and unexpected and the KitKat brand fitted nicely with what Google was looking for.

The KitKat Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages have already been rebranded to feature the little Android mascot covered in chocolate, but the pièce de résistance of the campaign is undoubtedly the hilarious spoof video promoting the release of the new Android KITKAT 4.4. The ad spot features the "Chief Breaks Officer" excitedly talking through all the design features that went into making the chocolate bar the ultimate snack product. With lines like, "Every corner, every edge, every finger of every bar has been carefully considered and crafted to create a beautifully immersive and multi-sensory experience," it’s clearly poking fun at Apple's well-known product introduction videos! It's a pretty neat idea and with nearly a million views since it was released on Tuesday it’s certainly proving popular.

Also new in the chart is a video from Qatar Airways. The company officially launched the start of its partnership with FC Barcelona last month and to mark the beginning of the three-year deal, has released an ad spot featuring a whole host of the club’s players both old and new.The video, produced by 180 Amsterdam, is set on the fictional football island of FCB, (if you’re wondering… imagine a world with buildings in the shape of giant trophies, streets overflowing with billboards and sporting murals, and everything coordinated with the team’s signature maroon and blue colour scheme!) With cameos from the likes of Messi, Piqué and good old Gary Lineker, who all take on various day jobs (from taxi drivers to customs officials), it’s quite a fun little feel good ad designed to position the airline’s partnership with FC Barcelona as a new ‘team’ that unites football fans all over the world.Clocking up an impressive view count of close to 3 million and counting, the ad has gone straight to the top of this week’s viral chart. It’s not the first time we’ve seen an airline/ football duo top the listings either. Last year, the Turkish Air ad featuring Leo Messi and Kobe Bryant became one of the most viewed videos of the year, and with the 2014 World Cup just around the corner, we’re expecting to see more and more brands building relationships with footballers and ramping up their advertising in an effort to cash in on the impending sports mania.

Over in the UGC chart, the fall out from the Miley Cyrus twerking ‘incident’ at the VMAs last week is still sweeping across the web. Of course, that kind of WTF, celebrity car crash footage is exactly the kind of thing the interweb goes mad for and as expected we’ve seen a LOT of parody response videos already, including a rather amusing reaction from the crew of the Star Ship Enterprise. But in light of recent media coverage we’ve also noticed a relatively obscure little clip from 5 years ago resurface and suddenly go viral. Cast your mind back to 2008, when Miley was only just a little bit crazy. The folk at news satire site, The Onion, released a spoof news article discussing the common decline of popular teen celebs and predicting that Miley Cyrus would be ‘depleted’ by 2013. It turns out that some of their expectations were surprisingly spot on and the video has enjoyed a massive viral lift this week with over 8 million views and counting.

Continuing the Miley Mania theme, if you fancy recreating those legendary dance grooves, check out this hilarious instructional video from HowToBasic, as demonstrated by a plucked chicken! Also worth a watch is The Ultimate Handshake Video by Nigahiga - (learn how to master a handshake for pretty much every social occasion, there's even a special handshake song!).For all of the chart news and the full run down of the most shared online videos this week, check out The Drum Viral Video Chart, powered VAN, or follow @JoinVan to stay up to date with the latest industry news and YouTube gossip.Join the Viral Chart mailing list for weekly updates on top trending videos!

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