Based on emotional impact from consumer generated data.
LOS ANGELES—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Today Ace Metrix, the leader in measuring video advertising effectiveness, released its lists of Super Bowl ads that stood out to viewers based on emotional impact. Results are generated from consumer data, where each ad is rated by more than 500 real world viewers all across the country.
“The day after the Super Bowl seemingly everyone wants to put out a list of what they thought were the best ads of the Big Game. After millions of dollars in creative production and the most expensive media buy, careers can be made and lost,” said Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “But most of these lists are opinions of industry insiders, not representative of how viewers received the ads.”’
Daboll continued, “Let’s remember that many of the Super Bowl ads are trying to accomplish different objectives—some purely entertaining, some tug at heartstrings, and others push specific products. So to judge them based on the same criteria doesn’t say whether they were successful in their own right.”
Using Ace Emo, which quantifies an ad’s emotional impact compared with tens of thousands of ads, Ace Metrix is able to recognize the Super Bowl LIII ads that stood out to viewers for one of the following emotions: Funny, Heartfelt, Ingenious, Eerie, and WTF. The methodology is based on deep Natural Language Processing and machine learning analysis of hundreds of viewer reactions to every ad – in their own words.
Funniest Super Bowl LIII Ads:
Based on Ace Metrix’s Funny emotional metric, the stronger an ad’s signal the more universally appealing the humor. Five of this year’s funniest benefitted from a celebrity’s star power and acting prowess save for Bud Light, which continued its Bud Knight saga to help evoke a humorous response.
| Rank | Brand | Ad Title | Length |
| 1 | Bubly | Can I Have a Bublé? | 0:30 |
| 2 | NFL | The 100-Year Game | 2:00 |
| 3 | M&M’s | Bad Passengers | 0:30 |
| 4 | Bud Light | Medieval Barbers | 0:15 |
| 5 | Hyundai | Elevator | 1:00 |
| 6 | Avocados from Mexico | Top Dog | 0:30 |
| 7 | Bud Light | Trojan Horse Occupants | 0:15 |
| 8 | Bud Light | Special Delivery | 1:00 |
Most Heartfelt Super Bowl LIII Ads:
These rankings were derived from Ace Metrix’s Heartfelt emotional metric, which is evoked when an ad is moving (whether it’s happy, sad, or bittersweet) as a result of the story, message, characters, visual scenes, or all combined. While humor can be polarizing, heartfelt ads have the power to connect with all viewers. Likeability was one of the strongest components for each of the following ads.
| Rank | Brand | Ad Title | Length |
| 1 | Verizon | The Coach Who Wouldn’t Be Here | 1:00 |
| 2 | Microsoft | We All Win | 1:00 |
| 3 | Verizon | The Team That Wouldn’t Be Here | 0:30 |
| 4 | Job Search For Veterans | 1:10 | |
| 5 | 100 Billion Words | 1:00 | |
| 6 | NFL | Inspire | 0:30 |
Most Ingenious Super Bowl LIII Ads:
The following was derived from Ace Metrix’s Ingenious emotional metric, which triggers when an ad is seen as clever, or viewers find the product/service innovative. These ads benefit from memorability as their unique qualities tend to leave a lasting impression.
| Rank | Brand | Ad Title | Length |
| 1 | Bubly | Can I Have a Bublé? | 0:30 |
| 2 | Hyundai | Elevator | 1:00 |
| 3 | Mercedes Benz | Say The Word | 1:00 |
| 4 | Bud Light | Special Delivery | 1:00 |
| 5 | Audi | Cashew | 1:00 |
Most Eerie Super Bowl LIII Ads:
Derived from Ace Metrix’s Eerie metric, these ads make viewers feel uneasy or scared, often as the result of (really) weird or scary ad content. Brands may purposefully try to connect through this non-traditional emotion as a way to generate that “can’t look away even if you really want to” attention. Consequently, Attention scores were the strongest component for each of the five most eerie ads.
| Rank | Brand | Ad Title | Length |
| 1 | TurboTax | RoboChild | 0:45 |
| 2 | Burger King | #EatLikeAndy | 0:30 |
| 3 | Mint Mobile | Chunky Style Milk | 0:30 |
| 4 | Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer | The Pitch | 0:30 |
| 5 | Colgate | Close Talker | 0:30 |
Most WTF Super Bowl LIII Ads:
Derived from Ace Metrix’s WTF metric, which signals when the message is confusing, or when there’s no connection between the ad and the brand advertised, leaving viewers with that “WTF did I just watch?” reaction. Advertisers that spark WTF emotions tend to forego classic campaign metrics in order to make a statement, wow with cinematic visuals or both. Some brands knowingly go this route for the Super Bowl as a way to generate buzz around their ad, while others may have had no intention of ending up here.
| Rank | Brand | Ad Title | Length |
| 1 | Turkish Airlines | The Journey | 0:30 |
| 2 | Burger King | #EatLikeAndy | 0:30 |
| 3 | Expensify | Expensify This | 0:30 |
| 4 | TurboTax | RoboChild | 0:45 |
| 5 | Avocados from Mexico | Top Dog | 0:30 |
| 6 | Bud Light | Joust | 1:00 |
You can find a detailed analysis on the Ace Metrix website, here.
About Ace Metrix Inc.
Ace Metrix measures 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 and digital ad 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 Attention, Likeability, Information, 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 additional metrics related to emotional engagement.
Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for sustained insight: @Ace_Metrix.
PR Contact: Sammi Scharninghausen 650-468-7603 | sscharninghausen@acemetrix.com
Note: Ace Metrix®, the Ace Metrix logo design, Ace Score®, Ace Metrix LIVE® and Creative Lifecycle Management® are registered trademarks of Ace Metrix. Other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
