Ace Metrix Announces Top Ads of 2011

January 4th, 2012

Ace Metrix Announces Top Ads of 2011

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—January 4, 2012—Ace Metrix, the authority of television advertising effectiveness, today announced the most effective ads overall and across 23 different categories for 2011, a list that represents the top one-half of one percent of all television ads to break in 2011. KitchenAid’s minute-long ad demonstrating its innovative food processor is the Ace Metrix Ad of the Year, achieving the highest Ace Score (699) of all ads in 2011. The Ace Metrix 2011 Top Ads list is the only list that represents the effectiveness of the top television creative by category as derived from a ranking of every new ad to air nationally in the year.

“Storytelling was a powerful creative tool for advertisers in 2011, as we saw from KitchenAid’s Ad of the Year and ads from Google that have put them on the map as a true brand marketer,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. “But to be a top ad, you need to deliver more than just ‘likeability,’ which is just one of the many criteria that go into an Ace Score. The highly effective ads on this list need to score well with consumers on multiple dimensions, such as relevance and information. It is an extremely high bar to be on the Ace Metrix ‘Ad of the Year’ list, which represents the best of the best. Our hats go off to the agencies, brand teams, and production teams that achieved this honor.”

In addition to storytelling, product innovation was a dominant theme for 10 of the 23 top category ads.

“Ads that demonstrated product innovation clearly knocked the socks off of consumers,” Daboll said. “The KitchenAid ad did this, as well as ads for Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft Kinect, BMW, and Kindle—which replaced Apple’s iPad as the top tablet ad this year. But what was interesting is that brands that you don’t immediately associate with innovation– like Lysol, Sears, and Columbia—used this kind of messaging very effectively too.”

Many of the top ads of 2011 also included messaging that demonstrated:

Philanthropy, like Coca-Cola’s top-ranked “Arctic Home” ad that benefits the World Wildlife Fund or MasterCard’s “Stand Up to Cancer” Ad featuring Ray Romano.
Value for money, like Olive Garden’s top-ranked “Something New for Lunch” ad, which also portrays appealing food imagery and achieved the second highest combination of relevance and desire of all ads in 2011 – a key sweet spot for restaurant advertisers.
Environmental themes, like BMW’s top-ranked “Ch-Ch-Changes” ad that broke during the 2011 Super Bowl and promotes the company’s “advanced diesel” technology.
Humor, like Snickers’ top-ranked ad portraying sharks participating in a focus group, which drove high “watchability” scores.
Patriotism, like Budweiser and State Farm’s September 11th Tribute ads, the top ads of the year in the alcoholic beverage and insurance categories, respectively. These ads’ persuasion, likeability, and attention scores were instrumental in distancing them from other ads in their categories.

The Ace Metrix Ads of the Year, by Category

Category	Brand	Ad Title	Ace Score	Length	Air Date
Airlines	American Airlines	No, Thank You	654	1:00	5/27/11
Alcoholic Beverage	Budweiser	9/11 Tribute	665	1:00	9/11/11
Apparel	Columbia Men’s Apparel	The Jacket Reflects Heat To You	634	0:30	9/18/11
Candy & Gum	Snickers	Focus Group	668	0:30	1/11/11
Casual Dining	Olive Garden	Something New For Lunch	674	0:15	10/3/11
Corporate Branding	GE Corporate Branding	Elephant Dances For Technology	641	0:30	1/12/11
Financial	MasterCard	Ray Romano: Stand Up To Cancer	646	0:30	7/23/11
Household	KitchenAid	Food Processor	699	1:00	10/17/11
Insurance	State Farm Auto Insurance	Thanks	662	1:30	9/11/11
Luxury Auto	BMW	Super Bowl 11: Ch-Ch-Changes	670	0:30	2/6/11
Mobile Phone	Apple iPhone	The All New Camera	659	0:30	10/30/11
Non-alcoholic beverage	Coca-Cola	Arctic Home	683	0:30	11/6/11
Non-Luxury Auto	Nissan	Vision	652	0:30	8/21/11
Packaged Foods	Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cooking Creme	Woman Doesn’t Know What To Cook	650	0:30	2/7/11
Personal Care	Lysol Skin	Happy Family Healthy Family	614	0:30	3/7/11
Pet Care	Freshpet	Fresh Meat And Veggies For Dogs	603	0:30	8/29/11
Pharmaceutical OTC	Aleve	Get A Pain Free Holiday	621	0:30	11/7/11
QSR	Pizza Hut	All Your Favorites In One Box	662	0:15	11/18/11
Retail	Sears	14 Wrenches In 1	644	1:00	11/6/11
Tablet	Kindle	Instruction We Find In Book Is Like Fire	671	0:30	10/15/11
Telecom Services	AT&T	Woman Screams At Tarantula	634	0:30	5/16/11
Video Games & Consoles	Kinect	Sensor Turned Voice & Movement To Magic	683	1:00	11/4/11
Websites	Google	Dear Sophie	661	1:30	5/3/11

*Definition: Ace Score is the measure of ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads. Respondents are randomly selected and representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience. The results are presented on a scale of 0-950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as relevance, persuasion, watchability, information, attention, etc.

Ace Metrix will reveal the Brand of the Year 2011 on Monday, January 9, 2012.

About Ace Metrix
Ace Metrix is the industry authority in measuring and understanding the impact of advertising creative. Through patent-pending Ace Score™ measurement technology, Ace Metrix collects and measures the consumer impact of every nationally breaking TV ad in near real-time. Through its Creative Lifecycle Management™ suite of products, Ace Metrix provides actionable creative analysis, from ideation through real-time in-market performance optimization, to many of the world’s leading advertisers and agencies. Ace Metrix works with leading global advertisers. For more information, visit www.acemetrix.com

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