Emotional Ads Dominate in Ace Metrix’s List of Top Breakthrough Ads of Q2

CPG Powerhouses Procter & Gamble and Unilever Lead the Way with Attention-Grabbing and Likeable Ads Celebrating Moms and Dads

LOS ANGELES – Ace Metrix, the leader in measuring the impact of video advertising, released a list of the top ten Breakthrough ads from the second quarter of 2016. The Ace Score components of Likeability and Attention combine to form the Breakthrough dimension of an ad, which measure an ad’s ability to break through the clutter and get noticed. Remarkably, eight of the ten top ads of Q2 struck a heartfelt chord, proving that telling an emotional story is an effective way to connect with viewers.

Emotional Ads Dominate in @Ace_Metrix List of Top Breakthrough Ads of Q2

Gillette’s “This Father’s Day, Go Ask Dad” earned the highest Breakthrough ad of the quarter. The 2:36 digital ad tugged at the heartstrings by having fathers teach their sons skills such as tying a tie and shaving. Viewer verbatim responses used words like “touching,” “heartwarming” and “cry” in abundance when describing the ad. Ads from Procter & Gamble corporate and Unilever’s Dove Skin, in second and third place on the list, show that CPG brands are leading the charge in creating ads that connect with their consumers via emotion, and also featured mothers and fathers in their ads this quarter. The top five list of biggest Breakthrough ads was rounded out by ads from Google and Apple Mobile Phones.

“Strong emotion really drove Breakthrough this quarter, with ads from Gillette, P&G, Dove and Fitbit featuring mothers and fathers. We also saw that humor, with Apple’s use of Cookie Monster and Johnsonville’s employee created ad, still has a place in creating an ad that can grab attention and be highly likeable,” said Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “We have said time and again that high quality ads grab attention and make viewers want to watch them. This is shown in the huge number of online views these ads have received on social media. Even in the age of ad blocking technology, ads with strong and effective creative are watched, sought out and shared among peers.”

Another theme represented by three of the top ads was that of home and all that homes symbolize. Lowe’s three-minute ad “House Love” tells the story of two homes and their young residents falling in love. In Zappos’ tearjerker ad “Box Home” a boy builds a home for a homeless man with various materials, including Zappos boxes. Viewers used words including “beautiful,” “sad” and “powerful” to describe the story. Coldwell Banker’s “This is Home” uses a catchy song set to user-generated visuals depicting all the things that make a house a home, evoking words like “sentimental” and “adorable.”

Half of the ads on the top ten list were digital-only ads, with nine out of ten 60 seconds or longer, giving enough time to tell a full story and connect with viewers. With the exception of Johnsonville and Apple, each ad was described with words like “inspirational,” “heartfelt,” and “uplifting.” Apple’s ad was called “hilarious,” “comical,” and “humorous,” while Johnsonville’s ad was called “funny” and “cute.”

Below are the ads ranked by Breakthrough, which combines the Attention and Likeability component scores.

Top Breakthrough Ads of Q2, 2016

Honorable Mention

Mazda’s “Racing Line: Alive Day” is another exceptional Breakthrough ad. It first ran on TV in June and would have made our list, had it not been released digitally in 2014. This is a tremendously emotional ad that tells the story of ex-Marine Liam Dwyer who, after losing his leg in Afghanistan, becomes a winning racecar driver for Mazda. The ad received a 764 Attention Score and 745 Likeability Score. “Uplifting,” “inspirational” and “powerful” were popular words used by viewers to describe the ad.

Ace Metrix measures ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to video ads, providing the advertising industry an unbiased resource to measure creative impact. Ace Metrix scores every national television ad, and an expanding proportion of digital ads, across 96 categories creating a complete comparative database—Ace Metrix LIVE®. A unique panel of at least 500 consumers, demographically balanced to the U.S. census, 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 Attention, Likeability, Information, 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 additional metrics related to emotional engagement. Ace Metrix collected more than 1,945 ads in the second quarter, April 1 through June 30, 2016.

About Ace Metrix

Ace Metrix® is the standard in television and digital video analytics, dedicated to measuring the impact of video ad creative. We provide data and insight to enable marketers and creative teams to produce more impactful work, test and adjust creative executions in real-time, and understand what creative drivers impact their brand KPI’s. 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.

Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for sustained insight: @Ace_Metrix.

Note: Ace Metrix®, the Ace Metrix logo design, Ace Score®, Ace Metrix LIVE® and Creative Lifecycle Management® are registered trademarks of Ace Metrix. Other trademarks are property of their respective owners.