LOS ANGELES, CA – February 08, 2011– Ace Metrix™, the authority in television advertising effectiveness, said today said today that Doritos’ “Pug Attack” ad was the most effective overall Super Bowl XLV ad (Ace Score* 662), and Adrien Brody’s “Crying Jean” ad for Stella Artois was the least effective (Ace Score 429). The average Ace Score for this year’s Super Bowl ads was 549. Drink and snack ads dominated Ace Metrix’ Top 10 Most Effective Super Bowl Ads list, which did not include a single beer ad.
“Overall, Super Bowl ads this year displayed much higher creative quality vs. 2010, increasing from an average Ace Score of 514 to 549,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix and author of “How to Make a Winning Super Bowl Ad. “In addition, we saw a large increase in the number of automotive ads, from eight last year to 19 this year.”
Automotive ads claimed three of the Top 10 spots on Ace Metrix’ Most Effective Super Bowl Ads list, including Volkswagen’s “The Force” and two ads from Chevrolet. (A separate release from Ace Metrix discussing Super Bowl automotive ads can be found here.)
“The top ads lead in Likeability scores, as well as key metrics like Relevance, Attention and Desire,” Daboll said. “Once again, dogs and humor pushed a button with American consumers, and Doritos and Pepsi Max’ sweep of the top four ads on our list deserve a lot of praise, not least of which because they were generated by consumers.”
Most Effective Super Bowl XLV Ads
| Rank | Product | Ad Title | Ace Score* |
| 1 | Doritos | Pug Attack | 662 |
| 2 | Pepsi Max | Love Hurts | 643 |
| 3 | Doritos | House Sitting | 635 |
| 4 | Pepsi Max | Torpedo Cooler | 634 |
| 5 | Snickers | Richard Lewis | 618 |
| 6 | Bridgestone Tires | Carma | 618 |
| 7 | Coca-Cola | Border Crossing | 615 |
| 8 | Volkswagen Passat | The Force | 603 |
| 9 | Chevrolet Volt | Discovery | 602 |
| 9 | Chevrolet Camaro | Miss Everly | 602 |
*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.
Least Effective Super Bowl XLV Ads
| Rank | Product | Ad Title | Ace Score* |
| 1 | Stella Artois | Adrien Brody’s The Crying Jean | 429 |
| 2 | SalesForce.com | Chatter.com – Evolve | 454 |
| 3 | Living Social | Man Into Woman | 455 |
| 4 | GoDaddy.com | Joan Rivers | 464 |
| 5 | Groupon | Timothy Hutton | 468 |
| 6 | HomeAway Time Shares | Smush | 470 |
| 7 | Mini Countryman | Cram it in the Boot | 476 |
| 8 | Lipton Ice Tea | Eminem | 476 |
| 9 | Dodge Ram | Strength in Numbers | 481 |
| 10 | SalesForce.com | Chatter.com Will I Am | 482 |
Among the most talked-about ads in the Super Bowl, Groupon’s ad starring Timothy Hutton was just one of the many ads starring celebrities that failed to impress consumers.
“We have proven through extensive testing that celebrities rarely move the needle on creative effectiveness,” said Daboll, author of “Celebrities in Advertising are Almost Always a Big Waste of Money.” “The problem with Groupon’s ad extends beyond the use of a celebrity, though-verbatim responses from consumers revealed that people were highly offended by the ad, and the insensitive humor didn’t appear to work.”
The only ad starring a celebrity that ranked within Ace Metrix’ Top 10 Most Effective Super Bowl Ads was Snickers’ ad starring Rosanne Barr and Richard Lewis, earning an Ace Score of 618.
“Ads starring celebrities tend to do well when the stars are weaved within the storyline. Snickers did that well this year, mimicking last year’s success with Betty White,” Daboll commented.
Eminem starred in the Chrysler “Detroit” ad that ranked among Ace Metrix’ Top 10 Most Effective Automotive Super Bowl Ads with an Ace Score of 591. However, his role in the Lipton Iced Tea ad, the 8th Least Effective Super Bowl Ad, did little to bolster the ad’s effectiveness, earning only a 476 Ace Score.
Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osborne’s ad for Best Buy, with an Ace Score of 579, was the 3rd most effective celebrity ad behind Eminem’s Chrysler ad.
Other celebrity ads that rounded out the Ace Metrix’ Least Effective list included Joan Rivers’ GoDaddy ad and Will.i.am’s Salesforce.com ad, scoring 464 and 482, respectively.
*Note: The measure of ad effectiveness is a more robust measure than mere popularity and takes into account such criteria as an ad’s watchability, likeability, relevance, information, persuasiveness, ability to alter opinion, and ability to create desire.
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.
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