Band-Aid, Google, PayPal, Target and TGI Fridays Outshine Competition by Twenty-Three Percent or More
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Ace Metrix®, the standard in television and video advertising analytics, announced the top scoring ads of the third quarter of 2014. In total, 30 ads were awarded the title of Ad of the Quarter, each one having earned the highest Ace Score within their respective category. Of the winners, five ads outperformed their competitive set by 23 percent or more. Google made the top of the list for its ad featuring its search application (Ace Score 641, 30.1 percent above the Software & Websites norm). PayPal debuted an ad 29.2 percent above the Financial Services category average and achieved the second highest Emotional Sentiment Index (71 out of 100) of all top Ads of the Quarter. Ads from Band-Aid and Target used philanthropy to pull at consumers’ heartstrings, earning Ace Scores 23.9 and 23 percent above category norms, respectively. “Endless Apps,” the winning ad for the now-famous TGI Fridays promotion, received the only Ace Score above 700 this quarter at 704.
“These 30 ads represent creative that performed best in its category from a holistic perspective, hitting on multiple cylinders to first attain attention, then impart information, reflect change for a brand, leverage relevance, generate desire and, in many cases, evoke strong emotional sentiment.”
“Every day we dive deeply into the latest ad data to help advertisers determine if and how their creative is hitting the mark based on their specific objectives, closely analyzing the interplay of component scores and delving into the qualitative consumer comments to further demonstrate the ‘why’ behind the scores,” remarked Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “These 30 ads represent creative that performed best in its category from a holistic perspective, hitting on multiple cylinders to first attain attention, then impart information, reflect change for a brand, leverage relevance, generate desire and, in many cases, evoke strong emotional sentiment.”
The unique, syndicated method by which Ace Metrix gathers creative performance measures allows advertisers to compare their ad effectiveness against all other brands within their respective categories. Watch the ads and learn how each creative piece earned its place on the list at acemetrix.com/blog.
Top Ads of the Quarter, Q3 2014*
listed alphabetically by category
| Category | Brand | Ad Title |
Ace |
Gap to 12- |
ESI | ||||||||||
| Apparel & Footwear | Hanes | Hanes X-Temp | 591 | 17.5% | 46 | ||||||||||
| Appliances | Frigidaire | Super Mom | 651 | 6.1% | 63 | ||||||||||
| Auto – Luxury | Infiniti | Reverse Worries | 642 | 13.3% | 59 | ||||||||||
| Auto – Non-Luxury | Chevrolet | Best Thing Ever | 636 | 15.6% | 59 | ||||||||||
| Automotive Services | Carfax | Find What You Want | 628 | 12.7% | 60 | ||||||||||
| Beverages – Beer | Angry Orchard Cider | Fresh Apples | 562 | 10.5% | 50 | ||||||||||
| Beverages – Non Alcoholic | Lipton | Refreshing Flavor :30 | 660 | 16.0% | 67 | ||||||||||
| Beverages – Soda | Canada Dry | Jack’s Surprise | 612 | 11.5% | 53 | ||||||||||
| Beverages – Spirits | Smirnoff Ice | Summer Sensation | 623 | 26.0% | 62 | ||||||||||
| Candies & Snacks | Twix | Boss Tells Employee to Get Out | 659 | 16.2% | 44 | ||||||||||
| Financial Services – Banking, Investment & Mortgage | PayPal | Your Money Is Safe/One Touch | 663 | 29.2% | 71 | ||||||||||
| Financial Services – Credit Cards | MasterCard | One More Day | 594 | 7.8% | 60 | ||||||||||
| Household | Scott | Save The Tubes | 689 | 14.1% | 58 | ||||||||||
| Insurance | Farmers Insurance | Hiding Coverage | 613 | 14.3% | 58 | ||||||||||
| Packaged Foods | Boar’s Head Cheese | Golden Switzerland Cheese | 689 | 17.3% | 66 | ||||||||||
| Personal Care – Cosmetics | Revlon | Olivia Wilde: Glossy Wet Color | 563 | 15.7% | 58 | ||||||||||
| Personal Care – Hair | Head & Shoulders | C.J. Wilson: A Big Line | 571 | 14.8% | 46 | ||||||||||
| Personal Care – Main | Band-Aid | Supporting the Troops | 686 | 23.9% | 73 | ||||||||||
| Personal Care – Skin | Olay Skin | No Sleep Required | 598 | 16.6% | 62 | ||||||||||
| Pets | Fresh Step | Dog Thinks the Cat is Gone | 615 | 9.6% | 62 | ||||||||||
| Pharmaceuticals – OTC | Aleve | Woman Experiencing Pain | 625 | 10.9% | 43 | ||||||||||
| Restaurants – Casual Dining | TGI Fridays | Endless Apps :30 | 704 | 14.5% | 61 | ||||||||||
| Restaurants – QSR | Pizza Hut | Ultimate Hershey’s Chocolate Chip Cookie | 681 | 17.8% | 49 | ||||||||||
| Retail | Target | Supplies They Need | 673 | 23.0% | 69 | ||||||||||
| Technology – Hardware | Microsoft Surface | Power | 659 | 17.1% | 60 | ||||||||||
| Technology – Mobile Devices | Samsung Mobile Phones | Don’t Be A Wall Hugger | 690 | 15.3% | 49 | ||||||||||
| Technology – Software & Websites | Dream | 641 | 30.1% | 59 | |||||||||||
| Technology – Video Games & Consoles | PlayStation | Become Legend | 582 | 12.6% | 62 | ||||||||||
| Telecom Services | Hulu | Watch Now | 638 | 19.2% | 62 | ||||||||||
| Travel | Delta Airlines | Traveling Mystery | 670 | 18.1% | 70 |
Each of the ads within this list earned the highest Ace Score of all ads within its category, having first aired on national television between July 1 and September 30, 2014.
*See “Award Qualification and Methodology” below.
Category Standouts
Of the 1,500+ ads Ace Metrix tested with consumers in the third quarter, only 30 are awarded the title of Ad of the Quarter. Google’s “Dream” (Ace Score 641) earned the highest score compared to its category average, 30.1 percent above the 12-month Software & Websites category norm. This is the fourth-consecutive win for Google, whose latest campaign, “Okay Google,” has performed exceptionally well, leveraging the brand’s strong product appeal and relevancy among consumers.
While funny ads are not always effective, a number of this quarter’s top ads use humor, making the ads both informative and entertaining. Hanes aired the most effective funny ad with the debut of “Hanes X-Temp,” which scored 17.5 percent higher than the Apparel & Footwear 12-month average. Likewise, Twix, Lipton, Chevrolet, Head & Shoulders, Olay, Farmers Insurance, Canada Dry and Fresh Step each aired winning creative that incorporated humor into a variety of situations—from the everyday to the absurd. Perhaps on the more absurd end, Lipton’s “Refreshing Flavor” not only had the highest Ace Score (660) of all the funny ads, it also incorporated the brand’s new mainstay, The Muppets.
In addition to Lipton, Hanes, Revlon and Head & Shoulders feature celebrities – each playing themselves – providing authenticity to their inclusion in the ads.
Band-Aid aired “Supporting the Troops” (Ace Score 686) to take home not only the title for the Main Personal Care category, but also to earn the highest Emotional Sentiment Index (71 on an index of 100) as well as the highest Attention and Likeability scores of all ads of the third quarter winners. Band-Aid was accompanied by Target to also debut a philanthropic piece. Target’s ad “Supplies They Need” (Ace Score 673) took home the quarter title for the Retail category, which accompanies its previously awarded title of top 2014 Back to School ad.
The highest scoring ad from the winner’s list comes from TGI Fridays whose “Endless Apps” campaign has consistently pulled strong Persuasion scores. This ad earned the highest score in each of the Persuasion components of any Casual Dining ad in the quarter, with a Desire score, in particular, that was 30 percent above the current norm.
To watch and learn more about each of the winning ads visit acemetrix.com/news/blog.
Award Qualification and Methodology
An Ad of the Quarter award recognizes the highest scoring ads of each qualifying category based on ads that debuted between July 1 and September 30, 2014. The Ace Score is the measure of ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads, providing the advertising industry an unbiased resource to measure creative impact. Ace Metrix scores every national television ad, across 96 categories creating a complete comparative database – Ace Metrix LIVE®. A unique panel of at least 500 consumers, representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience, scores each ad in the exact same manner. The results are presented on a scale of 1–950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as Persuasion, Likeability, Information, Attention, Change, Relevance, Desire, and Watchability. Ace Metrix applies a natural language processing algorithm to the hundreds of qualitative verbatim responses collected for each ad, deriving a score that indicates positive, negative, or neutral emotional impact and represents the ad’s position on an Emotional Sentiment Index ranging from 1 to 100. Ace Metrix collected more than 1,500 ads in the third quarter, scored by more than 150,000 consumers, representing 750,000 quantitative and approximately 450,000 qualitative responses. All ads within categories that had at least 20 unique pieces of creative over the past 12 months, and at least 10 in the quarter, were considered for the award.
About Ace Metrix
Ace Metrix® is the standard in television and video analytics, dedicated to delivering better, faster and more cost-effective solutions for evaluating video advertising within competitive context. Through the Ace Metrix LIVE® platform, companies can now access timely, actionable data wherever, whenever they need to, enabling real-time advertising campaign optimization. Combining leading edge technology and patent pending methodology, Ace Metrix is revolutionizing the way marketers measure themselves and their competitive landscape. The Company is privately held and is backed by leading venture capital firms and industry leaders, including Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures and WPP.
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