With the Olympic Games more than halfway through, Ace Metrix took a snapshot to see how the ads were performing, among official sponsors and non-sponsors. Overall, the company tested 135 Olympic-themed ads since the beginning of the year, with an overall average Ace Score of 577. An “Ace Score” is tallied using six factors most likely to influence consumer behavior including relevance, likeability, information, change, attention and desire—as well as re-watchability, purchase intent and brand linkage. Additionally, qualitative verbatim responses are the source for processing scores of emotional sentiment and humor.
The Ace Metrix reviewed official sponsor and non-sponsor ads and concluded that sponsor ads are outperforming non-sponsors by 15 points.
The official sponsors top 10 ads include top scorer Dick’s Sporting Goods with the “The Contenders” as the top-ranked Olympic sponsor commercial at the halfway point of the Rio Games. It’s 60-minute ad entitled “The Contenders” earned an Ace score of 665 points and first ran in March 2016.
This is a top honor considering there have been 100 official sponsor ads, earning an average ace score of 581 with 36 non-sponsor ads with an average ace score of 565. Additionally, 75 per cent of all ads tested featured an athlete while the main themes focused on international stories and images, with a small amount of the ads using humor.
The second best score went to the ad by the brand Bounty featuring the 30-second spot entitled “Allyson Felix: Faster than Kloe,” which aired on May 30 this year with a score of 657. Next, Proctor & Gambles two-minute ad “Thank You, Mom – Strong” garnered 653 points while Chobani’s “Team USA & Chobani Present Cooking with Marlen Esparza aired on July 7 and garnered a score of 652.
Rounding out the top of the list is Samsung’s one minute and 40 second ad, “The Anthem-Rio 2016 Olympic Games” aired on July 22 and scored 651. Additionally, Bridgestone’s 30-second spot first aired on April 22. Entitled “Unstoppable” it garnered 644 points. Samsung’s “The Greatest View” aired on July 1 and scored 641 points. Hershey’s “Hello from Home U.S. Olympic Wrestler,” a 2:10 spot, aired on June 26 and garnered a score of 639. The feminine hygiene brand Always aired “#LikeAGirl Keep Playing” on June 28 and scored 536. Hershey’s “U.S. Olympic Hopeful Hello from Home,” another 2:10 spot aired on June 26 and scored 635.
For non-sponsors, the top ten ads by Ace Score were:
Pizza Hut, “Pizza for the Games”: 646 Apple iPhone, “The Human Family — Shot on iPhone,”: 645 Gatorade, “Never Lose the Love”: 640 Core Power, “Simone Biles Chooses to Be Awesome”: 615 Speedo, “Speed Fit”: 605 Adidas, “Morgan Brian: Speed Takes Creativity”: 594 Ford Motor Company, “Unstoppable”: 594 Under Armour, “Rule Yourself – Michael Phelps”: 586 Adidas aired “Cyclist’s World”: 573 Nintendo, “Olympic Games”: 570
