MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA.— July 9, 2014—Ace Metrix®, the new standard in television and video advertising analytics, today announced the top scoring ads of the second quarter of 2014. Thirty ads were awarded the title of Ad of the Quarter by earning the highest Ace Score within their categories. Google takes the podium for the third consecutive quarter with “Play Your Heart Out” (Ace Score 667, 40 percent above norm), an ad that outperformed its category peers by the largest percentage of all the winners. Ads from Samsung Mobile and Seagram’s Escapes also outperformed their respective categories by more than 30 percent. KitchenAid debuted the highest-scoring ad of the quarter overall with its feature-packed ad that earned an Ace Score of 740, 21.3 percent above the Appliances 12-month norm.
“These 30 ads represent the best creative across a broad range of categories with diverse paths to success,” said Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “Each of these ads began with a distinctive creative brief and their effective engagement with consumers can be found not just in the Ace Score but in its many component parts – each having demonstrated an ability to command attention, to impart information, and to connect emotionally.”
Top Ads of the Quarter, Q2 2014 by Category*
listed alphabetically
| Category | Brand | Ad Title | Ace Score | Percent Above Category Norm |
| Apparel & Footwear | Hanes | Cool Passenger | 624 | 27.1% |
| Appliances | KitchenAid | Ignite Your Culinary Creativity | 740 | 21.3% |
| Auto – Luxury | Lexus | The Eyes | 653 | 18.5% |
| Auto – Non-Luxury | Chevrolet | Happy Children | 689 | 27.3% |
| Automotive Services | Firestone | Rule The World | 673 | 22.8% |
| Beverages – Beer | Crispin Cider | Fresh Pressed | 601 | 19.9% |
| Beverages – Non-Alcoholic | Welch’s | True To The Fruit | 685 | 21.5% |
| Beverages – Soda | Pepsi | Summer Flavors | 631 | 15.2% |
| Beverages – Spirits | Seagram’s Escapes | Color Your Summer | 619 | 30.0% |
| Candies & Snacks | Breyers | Parents Don’t Want to Share | 688 | 24.1% |
| Financial Services – Banking, Investment & Mortgage | GE Capital | King’s Hawaiian | 608 | 19.8% |
| Financial Services – Credit Cards | Discover Card | Same Page | 592 | 10.2% |
| Household | Dawn | Little Things Can Make a Big Difference | 722 | 24.5% |
| Insurance | State Farm | Names :60 | 659 | 26.1% |
| Packaged Foods | Sargento | Difference in Slices: L. & L. Gentine | 690 | 21.4% |
| Personal Care – Cosmetics | bareMinerals | New Serum Foundation | 523 | 10.9% |
| Personal Care – Hair | L’Oreal Hair | Reusable Hair Color | 580 | 19.4% |
| Personal Care – General | Band-Aid | Their Most Stretchable Sheer Bandage | 662 | 22.1% |
| Personal Care – Skin | Neutrogena Skin | Ready for Summer | 616 | 23.9% |
| Pets | Iams | Strong Body | 644 | 18.5% |
| Pharmaceuticals – OTC | Advil | Heal As You Sleep | 617 | 13.0% |
| Restaurants – Casual Dining | Olive Garden | Latest Inspiration | 734 | 21.6% |
| Restaurants – QSR | Baskin-Robbins | Endless Variety | 699 | 22.6% |
| Retail | Lowe’s | Renovation | 681 | 27.5% |
| Technology – Hardware | Samsung Televisions | Curved | 716 | 27.8% |
| Technology – Mobile Devices | Samsung Mobile Phones | Water Resistant | 739 | 30.1% |
| Technology – Software & Websites | Play Your Heart Out | 667 | 39.5% | |
| Technology – Video Games & Consoles | Nintendo | Take Four | 606 | 20.7% |
| Telecom Services | Verizon Fios | Long Way | 652 | 24.2% |
| Travel | Atlantis Resort | Summer Fun | 666 | 19.0% |
| 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 April 1 and June 30, 2014.
*See “Award Qualification and Methodology” below. |
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Category Standouts
Google’s “Play Your Heart Out” (Ace Score 667) outperformed the Software & Websites category average by 40 percent – the largest gap to 12-month category norm of any brand to air new creative this quarter. In fact, Google captured the top three spots in the Software & Websites category and ran the highest scoring long format ad of the quarter with its 90-second “Search On” (Ace Score 663, 38.6 percent above norm).
Samsung Mobile earned a spot on the Ad of the Quarter list with “Water Resistant,” Ace Score 739, 30 percent above the Mobile Devices category norm. The ad also earned the highest Relevance score (761) of any of the 1,500+ ads scored in the second quarter. Samsung also earned the second highest Ace Score for the Mobile Devices category (715) for its lengthier :60 Galaxy S5 feature-packed ad.
KitchenAid earned the Top Scoring Ad of the Quarter with “Ignite Your Culinary Creativity,” Ace Score 740, 21 percent above the Appliances category norm. This ad is also the highest scoring :30 ad of the quarter across all categories (both qualified and unqualified).
Dawn remains the brand with the ability to garner the strongest positive Emotional Sentiment score. Dawn’s “Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” earned an Emotional Sentiment score of 89 and is the latest ad in the brand’s long-running wildlife campaign. The ad is also the highest scoring of all Dawn’s ads dating back to 2010 with an Ace Score of 722.
Samsung Televisions earned the Ad of the Quarter for “Curved,” the ad introducing one of its latest innovations. “Curved” garnered an Ace Score of 716, 28 percent above the Technology – Hardware 12-month norm.
The most prolific category this quarter, Retail represents 21 percent of the new ads to debut in Q2. Lowe’s earned the Ad of the Quarter for Retail with “Renovation” (Ace Score 681, 28 percent above norm).
Baskin-Robbins earned the Ad of the Quarter for the QSR category with its ad “Endless Options,” Ace Score of 699, followed closely by another Baskin-Robbins ad “Online Ordering,” which earned an Ace Score of 693. In fact, these two ads are the highest scoring of the nearly 600 :15 ads to air this quarter across all categories (both qualified and unqualified).
Hoover, the third-place finisher in the Appliances category, earned the highest score among :60 ads for “Change that Changed Everything” with an Ace Score of 725. The ad also earned the highest Change score (775) than any other ad to debut in the quarter – meaning consumers felt the ad conveyed that the Hoover brand was moving in a new direction.
To watch and learn more about each of the winning ad 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 April 1 and June 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 second quarter, scored by more than 142,000 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 new 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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PR Contact: Michelle Robertson | 646-279-5775 | michelle@kerlancomm.com
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