Press Release

Ads from AT&T Wireless, Discover Card, E*Trade, Google, Purina and Smirnoff Ice Outperform their Respective Categories by Over 20 Percent

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA.—July 9, 2015Ace Metrix®, the standard in television and video advertising analytics, today announced the top scoring ads of the second quarter of 2015. In total, 31 ads received the Ad of the Quarter title, each one having earned the highest Ace Score within their respective category. Ads from AT&T Wireless, Discover Card, E*Trade, Google, Purina and Smirnoff Ice outperformed their competitive set by at least 20 percent. Google’s “Keep Questioning” ad earned an Ace Score of 654, which was 30.2 percent above the Software and Website category norm. In addition, iRobot Roomba’s ad “Kids Play on Floor” earned the highest Ace Score of the quarter with a score of 689.

“We tested approximately 2,000 ads during Q2, nearly 1,200 of which debuted on national television. It’s our pleasure to acknowledge the brands that delivered outstanding creative that resonated with consumers from a holistic Ace Score perspective and across multiple dimensions of persuasion,” remarked Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “The standout ads from this quarter really focused on the product education, informing consumers of new features and functionality. Ads from AT&T, Discover Card, E*Trade, and Purina all tap into what we call the professor personality to inform and reach consumers. These brands were able to break through the clutter by delivering excellent creative that drives brand performance.”

The unique, syndicated method by which Ace Metrix gathers creative performance measures allows advertisers to compare their ad effectiveness against all other brands within their respective categories. Watch the ads and learn how each creative piece earned its place on the list at acemetrix.com/blog.

Top Ads of the Quarter, Q2 2015*

listed alphabetically by category

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, 2015.

*See “Award Qualification and Methodology” below.

Category Standouts

Of the nearly 1,200 television ads Ace Metrix tested with consumers in the first quarter, only 31 are awarded the title of Ad of the Quarter and only seven scored 20 percent above their respective category norm.

Google’s “Keep Questioning” (Ace Score 654) outperformed the Software & Wireless category by 30.2 percent – the largest gap to 12-month category norm during the second quarter. The ad scored high with viewers powered particularly by Relevance.

E*Trade’s “Intuition’s” ad is one of the only top scoring ad’s to feature a celebrity, using Kevin Spacey to tout the feature of the new bar code scanner in the E*Trade app. The ad was the top performer in the Financial Services – Banking, Investment and Mortgage category, with an Ace Score of 618, 22.7 percent above the category norm.

Also focusing on the Information metric to promote the new freeze feature, Discover Card “Freeze” ad scored high in the Payment Card category, earning 659 and 20.9 percent above the category.

AT&T Wireless (Ace Score 652, 22.1 percent above the category average) touted the durability of the Samsung phone, scoring high in Relevance and Information metrics.

Purina’s “Helping Pets” ad (Ace Score 674, 20.4 percent above the Pet category average) also focused on Information as well as likeability as the ad touted the benefits of the Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind product for older dogs.

To round out the top six ads that scored well above the category norm, Smirnoff Ice took the Alcohol Beverage category with its “Refreshing” ad. With a focus on Information and Change metrics, the ad featured the Watermelon Mimosa flavor, earning an Ace Score of 593, 22.1 percent above the category average.

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 on television between April 1 and June 30, 2015. The Ace Score is the measure of ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to video ads, providing the advertising industry an unbiased resource to measure creative impact. Ace Metrix scores every national television ad, and an expanding proportion of digital ads, across 96 categories creating a complete comparative database—Ace Metrix LIVE®. A unique panel of at least 500 consumers, demographically balanced to the U.S. census, 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 1–100. Ace Metrix collected more than 2,000 ads in the second quarter, nearly 1,200 of which debuted on national television. 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 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.