While companies can benefit from targeting niche markets, many brands also want to create content that is accessible to mass audiences as well. By looking at two of the most successful video advertisements of all time, as identified by AdWeek, advertising agencies may be able to cash in on that particular "special something" these ads have captured, which led to their mass appeal.

New twists on old favorites
Most consumers enjoy ads that feature a figure or concept that they are familiar with, but that have a new idea or revamp a classic.

One of the most popular ads of all time – garnering 16 million views to become one of the most-watched ads ever on YouTube – demonstrates this advertising concept. The spot is the 2011 Honda ad featuring Matthew Broderick as his classic Ferris Bueller character taking a much-needed day off once again, nearly 26 years after his starring turn in the classic John Hughes movie.

Average Joes – or Janes – in the spotlight
The idea of natural beauty was taken on by Dove in a big way with their 2006 ad "Evolution," in which time-lapse photography showed how much makeup and digital altering goes into many billboard images.

While consumers continue to be drawn to the attractive spokesperson, research from the University of South Alabama has shown that consumers are also more drawn to ads that feature people that are "similar to themselves." This ad, in many ways, supplies both, and may be why it is so popular.