Emotional and purpose-driven messages help ads break through the holiday clutter
LOS ANGELES – Ace Metrix, the leader in measuring the impact of video advertising, released a list of the most liked ads from the holiday season, according to U.S. consumers. Analysis revealed that this holiday season, a majority of brands opted to focus on deals or promotions in their ads, versus only six percent of ads using emotion. Despite a smaller number of ads, the emotional ads scored higher in Likeability by viewers overall, with six of the top ten ads touting emotional themes.
@Ace_Metrix reveals most liked ads of the holiday season. Emotional & purpose-driven messages break through clutter.
Not surprisingly, retail ads made up the largest group of ads during this timeframe with 188 ads. Overall volume was lower compared to last year, with 362 ads tested this year compared to 403 in 2015. Santa made an appearance in 12 percent of the ads, as did holiday music. Only two percent of ads used a celebrity.
Duracell’s ad in partnership with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals earned the most liked ad overall, employing strong visuals from Star Wars Rogue One and capturing the spirit of giving gifts that can inspire imagination. Amazon and Kohl’s both earned two spots each among the top ten ads. Amazon’s popular ad featuring a Priest and Imam who both used Amazon Prime to buy each other the same gift was the highest ranked retail ad coming in at the number two spot, while a humorous ad featuring Seth Meyers landed at number five and was the only ad featuring a celebrity in the top ten list. Both of Kohl’s ads were part of their #GiveALittleMore campaign, which includes stories of Kohl’s associates, as well as narratives about people helping others this time of year.
“While the majority of the holiday ads this year featured deals or promotions, the top ads were able to break through and rise above the clutter by connecting with viewers on an emotional level to earn strong Likeability and Attention scores. Congrats to Duracell for creating the most liked holiday ad this year overall. The combination of holidays, philanthropy and a tie in to Rogue One, resulted in a well liked, visually appealing ad that played into emotion and grabbed viewers attention,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. “Kohl’s and Coca-Cola ads featured good deeds while Hallmark, Amazon and Apple struck an emotional chord with viewers. Hallmark reminded us to recognize the people in our lives that helped us in 2016, Apple’s ad with Frankie spread the message of inclusion and Amazon’s ad featuring the touching relationship between the Priest and Inman stressed unity in the current divisive geo-political environment,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix.
“All of these top ads stressed Santa and Christmas less than in prior years, but still captured viewers’ emotions by stressing giving and giving back, and the importance of friends and family. These brands created brilliant ads with positive messaging reflecting the spirit of the season without being too heavy handed,” added Daboll.
Below are the top 10 most liked holiday ads of 2016.
| Rank | Brand | Ad Title | Ad Length |
Likeability |
||||||||
| 1 | Duracell | 1:10 | 780 | |||||||||
| 2 | Amazon | 1:20 | 764 | |||||||||
| 3 | Hallmark | 0:30 | 758 | |||||||||
| 4 | Kohl’s | 1:00 | 757 | |||||||||
| 5 | Amazon | 0:30 | 750 | |||||||||
| 6 | Apple | 2:00 | 749 | |||||||||
| 7 | Coca-Cola | 0:30 | 748 | |||||||||
| 8 | Kohl’s | 0:30 | 744 | |||||||||
| 9 | Pillsbury Baking | 0:30 | 741 | |||||||||
| 10 | PetSmart | 0:30 | 738 | |||||||||
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.
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.
