Global creative video production agency, Chimney, has conducted an efficiency study into how the top 1500 Australian companies use their YouTube channel, naming Virgin Mobile as leader in their 2016 ‘YouTop 100 survey.’

A similar survey was conducted in 2014, which featured Australian companies such as Nestle, the Bank of Queensland and Ford Australia in its top ten.

This is the first year Virgin Mobile has appeared on Chimney’s YouTop 100, beating out Google Australia and Samsung Australia to round out the top three.

The research also shows a 92 per cent increase in the amount of activity since the 2014 report, while the amount of videos uploaded each month among the YouTop100 counts for a 215 per cent increase, jumping from 18,000 uploads per month to 56,617.

Chimney studied the active channels views and videos to determine the ranking, which is the total number of views divided by the total number of videos on the channel in the last 12 months.

Bo Thorp, commercial director of Chimney said the study was conducted to demonstrate the importance of having an active YouTube channel.

“As moving image experts, storytellers and passionate audiovisual creators, we wanted to highlight how companies are using their YouTube channels,” he said.

“We truly care about quality films and believe great content comes first. Though YouTube is but one place to showcase this material, it’s one of the most engaging platforms for consumers.

“Naturally the bigger brands with the larger spend get a high placement, but it also surprises me how YouTube is seen as a dumping ground for ads – there is so much more one can do to increase engagement.”

Of the 1,500 top companies the survey looked at, 940 (62.6 per cent) have YouTube channels, but only 490 (32,6 per cent) of these are so called active (that have uploaded at least 12 videos in the last 12 months).