Yeo Valley latest ad, ­featuring 'boy band' The Churned, has taken the social media world by storm.

By Tuesday lunchtime fewer than three days after the ad first aired during a break in The X Factor The Churned's 'Forever' had ­received 249,004 views on YouTube and 20,051 Facebook fans were signed up to the band's page. There had been 21,112 ­visits to the Yeo Valley website and 15,480 tweets about the band.

Although The Churned failed to beat the 384,413 YouTube viewings racked up by Yeo Valley's rapping farmers last year, they attracted over 11 times more Facebook fans and more than three times as many visits to Yeo Valley's site during the same period.

The smaller number of YouTube hits reflected an effort by the company to put more focus on other forms of social media, said Yeo Valley MD Tim Mead.

"We are chuffed to the bottom of our hooves," he said of The Churned's success. "It's fantastic."

This year's hit had reached more of Yeo Valley's target audience than last year's rappers had, he added.

The video will air for a second time during The X Factor this evening and a number of other slots during the remainder of the current series.