LOS ANGELES, CA–April 5, 2011 – Ace Metrix™, the authority in television advertising effectiveness, today announced the Ace Metrix Quarterly Top 10 national ads for the first quarter ending March 31, 2011. Candy ads dominated the list with Mars brands nabbing four out of the Top 10 spots. An ad for Snickers Peanut Butter called “Focus Group” scored as the most effective with an Ace Score™ of 668, compared to the “Candy and Snack” category norm of 585. Mars also scored with three M&M brand ads in the Top 10. Overall candy, snacks and packaged foods dominated the quarter with 8 out of the Top 10 spots; two technology ads rounded out the list.
“Mars hit several home runs across this quarter. The top Snickers ad shows that funny still works. It scored high across all demos and was particularly strong with the all-important 16-20 age bracket,” commented Peter Daboll, chief executive of Ace Metrix.
“It’s also good to see Kraft in the Top 10 with two of their highest scoring ads ever, the ‘Choco-Beast’ Jell-o ad and the Philadelphia cooking cream ad.”
“In Q1 we saw the seasonal pattern of advertising take shape, with the volume of new ads in technology, retail, and credit cards declining from the holidays peaks in the fourth quarter, and an increase in new ads in consumer goods such as food, candy, snacks, detergent, health and beauty, and travel,” continued Daboll.
Online Videos Nab High Scores
During the quarter Ace Metrix expanded its service to measure creative effectiveness of online videos. Several tech videos scored especially high including two for the Microsoft/Asus Eee Slate ,“Drawing”, outscoring all the top TV ads with an Ace Score of 684, and “Date Night” with a score of 656.
Two other videos with effective creative include “Smart Cover” for Apple iPad 2, which has generated almost 400,000 YouTube views since March 2, with an Ace Score of 666, and Intel’s “The Chase” with Ace Score of 653 and over 2 million views since January 27.
“All of these videos worked with consumers, but they achieved their high scores differently. For instance, the iPad video appealed to a more female-centric audience, while the Intel creative scored highest with the male demo. This insight could clearly make a huge difference in a television media buy for either of these creatives,” continued Daboll.
Celebrity Ads Continue to Disappoint
Five out of ten of the least effective ads of the quarter featured celebrities, including two with Russell Simmons for the Rushcard Pre-Paid Visa from M&T Bank, a Toyota Tundra ad with race car figure Joe Gibbs, and a Danone Yogurt ad with Dylan & Cole Sprouse.
“Use of celebrities continues to be hit or miss, mostly miss. It’s amazing that a full 50% of the least effective ads of the quarter feature celebrity spokespeople. Clearly something’s not working”, continued Daboll.
In January 2011 Ace Metrix published a study “Celebrity Advertisements: Exposing a Myth of Advertising Effectiveness,” that looked at more than 2,600 television ads over the course of 2010 and found that fewer than 12 percent of ads using celebrities exceeded a 10 percent lift versus average industry norms.
Top 10 Most Effective Ads of Q1 2011*
| Brand | Ad Title | Air Date | Overall Ace Score* |
| Snickers | Focus Group | 1/11/2011 | 668 |
| Doritos | Pug Attack | 2/6/2011 | 662 |
| M&Ms | Red Can’t Say He Loves Her | 1/9/2011 | 660 |
| Jell-O Temptations | The Choco Beast | 3/22/2011 | 654 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tablet | Feel Free | 3/12/2011 | 650 |
| Philadelphia Cooking Creme | Woman Doesn’t Know What to Cook | 2/7/2011 | 650 |
| Pepperidge Farm | Starting with Rich Milk Chocolate | 1/24/2011 | 646 |
| Dell | Switchable Lab | 3/19/2011 | 646 |
| M&Ms | Patrick Warburton Turns into a Orange M&M | 1/10/2011 | 645 |
| M&Ms | It’s Them or Gary | 2/13/2011 | 643 |
*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. Based on Ace Metrix data collected from January 2009.
Top 10 Least Effective Ads of Q1 2011*
| Brand | Ad Title | Air Date | Overall Ace Score* |
| Chrysler Dodge | Haiku for You | 3/21/2011 | 315 |
| M&T Bank Rushcard Pre-paid Visa | Russell Simmons: Everyone Should be Empowered | 1/31/2011 | 324 |
| Mutual of Omaha | Rock & Roll: Joe | 2/19/2011 | 338 |
| Miller High Life | Rob Talks About Football | 3/8/2011 | 378 |
| House of Blues | Leave Your Blues at the Door | 2/17/2011 | 385 |
| M&T Bank Rushcard Pre-paid Visa | Russell Simmons: Rush Card | 1/17/2011 | 390 |
| Dos Equis | Stay Thirsty My Friends | 3/21/2011 | 391 |
| Toyota Tundra | Joe Gibbs: Racing Mixes it Up | 1/23/2011 | 391 |
| Best Buy | Green Day’s New Live Album & DVD | 3/16/2011 | 391 |
| Danimals Yogurt | Dylan & Cole: Crush Their Way | 1/31/2011 | 393 |
*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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