Press Release

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA.—July 9, 2013—Ace Metrix®, the new standard in television and video advertising analytics, today announced the 10 most effective ads of the second quarter, a list that celebrates exceptional creative versus its own competitive set. Dawn’s philanthropic “Saving Animals from Oil Spills” earned the highest overall Ace Score for the quarter (Ace Score 685), and a seat on the most effective list, performing 20.6 percent above the Cleaners category norm. AT&T’s “Whatever-Proof” topped the list with the brand’s highest scoring ad of the year (Ace Score 626), 23.9 percent above the twelve-month Telecom Services category norm of 505. Further, “Whatever-Proof” is the highest scoring AT&T ad over the last year. Target’s semi-philanthropic ad “A Great Thing: Kate” earned the second spot on the list with a score of 636, 22.8 percent above the Discount Stores norm and is the highest scoring Target ad to date.

“Categories such as Appliances, QSR, Casual Dining, and Mobile Devices tend to generate higher scores, closing in on a norm of 600, while other categories, like those in Alcoholic Beverages, Personal Care and Finance industries struggle to attain a norm of 500,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. “This quarter’s list celebrates the ads that rose well above the competition, scoring 20 percent or more above their respective category norms, including some incredibly effective ads from categories like Mortgage, Cleaners, Beer and Banking – proving that great creative can come from anywhere.”

Top 10 Most Effective Ads of Q2, 2013

Definition:  The Ad of the Quarter honor is awarded to the top 10 ads with the highest percentage gap to the twelve-month category norm to debut nationally between April 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013. The Ace Score is the measure of ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads.  A unique audience representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience, scores each ad the exact same way. 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. An Emotional Sentiment Index is also available for each ad and is represented on a scale of 1 – 100, generated using a natural language algorithm applied to the hundreds of verbatim responses collected for each ad. All ads within categories that had at least 20 unique pieces of creative over the past twelve months, and at least five in the quarter, are considered for the award. 

Dawn Cleans Up

Dawn’s “Saving Animals from Oil Spills” (Ace Score 685) achieved not only a score 20.6 percent above the Cleaners category twelve-month norm, but it is the highest scoring of the nearly 1,400 ads scored this quarter.  The ad is the second highest scoring Dawn ad to date, the first being “Dawn Saves the Wildlife” (Ace Score 699) which introduced America to the philanthropic nature of the brand in April of 2010.

“Dawn consistently delivers strong creative with the majority of their ads achieving above norm and upper quintile status. Brand recognition among their standard product ads average 18 percent, an outstanding achievement,” said Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO.  “This ad, however, where the focus is on using the daily cleaner to ‘do good’ in the world not only achieved the highest Relevance (711) component score of the winner’s circle this quarter – but 24 percent of the 229 optional qualitative responses from consumers mentioned Dawn by name.”  

Dawn’s “Saving Animals from Oil Spills” earned scores above 700 for every Persuasion component with Attention and Likeability attaining 760 and 766 respectively. The ad also drew the highest Emotional Sentiment Index score of the winners’ circle at 71 – well above the twelve-month rolling norm of 46.

*Brand recognition refers to the frequency of verbatim comments that include the brand name or derivative specifically- in the case above “Dawn.”

Brand Bests 

This quarter’s list includes brands debuting their highest scoring ads in a year or more, including AT&T, Lending Tree and Wells Fargo. Target’s award winning ad “A Great Thing: Kate” is the highest scoring of all the nearly 350 ads for the brand dating back to 2010. A second ad in the campaign “A Great Thing: Mike” is also a top quintile ad (Ace Score 610), scoring 17.8 percent above the Discount Stores twelve-month category norm.

Second only to Dawn on this list, Hallmark’s “Leaving Your Imprint” earned an outstanding Emotional Sentiment score of 64, two points above the brand’s already strong Emotional Sentiment norm. The Hallmark ad and the Walgreens “Don’t Panic” ad earn two spots on the list for the Retail – Other Stores category, achieving the highest scores of the 125 ads to debut in the quarter within the category.

Netflix’s “Watched Ahead” clearly connected with consumers earning Relevance (679) and Desire (614) scores both more than 23 percent above the category component norms and an Ace Score of 579, 20.6 percent above the category norm for Websites.

Samsung’s 90-second version of a Graduation Day-themed campaign drew an Ace Score of 665, second only to its  “The Best of a Phone and Tablet” from February of 2012 (Ace Score 686). An Information score of 757 makes this ad the 4th highest scoring ad in terms of Information to date and the ad’s 725 Change score is the highest seen across all categories this quarter.

Angry Orchard Cider debuted “Fresh Apples” this quarter into an undisputedly polarizing category of Beer, earning an Ace Score of 579, 20.1 percent above the Beer category norm.

Wells Fargo’s “Conversation” takes viewers on a journey through touching moments throughout history and our recent past earning the highest Attention (692) and Likeability (675) scores of all ads in the Financial industry this quarter.

Award Qualification and Methodology

The Ad of the Quarter honor is awarded to the top 10 ads with the highest percentage gap to the twelve-month category norm that debuted nationally between April 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013. 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 85 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 the exact same way. 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 collected approximately 1,400 ads in the second quarter. All ads within categories that had at least 20 unique pieces of creative over the past twelve months, and at least five 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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