Who wins the ad popularity contest?

With 2014 coming to a close, Google Canada has given advertisers a retrospective “best of the year” list of their own, looking to YouTube to see which ads and branded videos earned the most views in Canada this year. Sitting at the top of the list is TD’s #TDThanksYou video, which earned more than 18 million views since being released in July.

Google compiled the top 10 list using an algorithm that not only looked at the total number of views, but what percentage of those views were organic versus paid.

This year, the top ads have a total of more than 384 million views. If you were to add up all the time spent watching those 10 ads, it would clock in over 700 years of combined viewing time. At least online, the days of the 30-second spot seem to be long gone: the top 10 ads have an average length of 2:39 minutes, with TD’s video hitting 3:56 minutes.

Going for a deeper connection with the audience online also seemed to pay off in 2014: seven of the top 10 ads (and all of the top five) utilized some emotional tone to get its message out.

Seven of the top 10 ads came out of the U.S., with one coming from the U.K. and two coming from Canada. Leo Burnett was behind both of the Canadian-born ads, TD’s #TDThanksYou (where it worked with Diamond Integrated Marketing) and Always’ #LikeAGirl.

Read on the see how 2014’s top ads ranked:

#1 #TDThanksYou
Brand: TD Canada
Creative Agency: Diamond Integrated Marketing and Leo Burnett
Media Agency: Starcom

[iframe_youtube video = “bUkN7g_bEAI”]

#2 Puppy Love
Brand: Budweiser
Creative Agency: Anomaly
Media Agency: Bush Media Group

[iframe_youtube video = “uQB7QRyF4p4”]

#3 #LikeAGirl
Brand: Always
Creative Agency: Leo Burnett
Media Agency: SMG

[iframe_youtube video = “XjJQBjWYDTs”]

#4 First Kiss
Brand: Wren
Director: Tatia Pilieva

[iframe_youtube video = “IpbDHxCV29A”]

#5 Patches
Brand: Dove
Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Media Agency: Mindshare

[iframe_youtube video = “EGDMXvdwN5c”]

#6 Drogba vs. Messi: #EpicFood
Brand: Turkish Airlines
Creative Agency: Crispin Porter Bogusky
Media Agency: Starcom

[iframe_youtube video = “BrI7VRfqgo4”]

#7 Most Shocking Second a Day Video
Brand: Save the Children UK
Creative Agency: Don’t Panic

[iframe_youtube video = “RBQ-IoHfimQ”]

#8 The Amazing Baby & Me 2
Brand: Evian
Creative Agency: BETC
Digital Media Agency: MEC

[iframe_youtube video = “pyV57QlGUGI”]

#9 Dear Kitten
Brand: BuzzFeed, Purina
Creative Agency: BuzzFeed

[iframe_youtube video = “G4Sn91t1V4g”]

#10 World’s Toughest Job
Brand: American Greetings
Creative Agency: Mullen

[iframe_youtube video = “HB3xM93rXbY”]