In three competitive services categories this year, we had one repeat winner and two newcomers to Brand of the Year honors. In Telecom Services, HBO wrestled the title from Netflix, while UnitedHealth Group took over for Farmer’s in the Insurance category. LifeLock was the repeat winner, winning the honor over fourteen other qualifying brands in the Financial Services category. Each of these winners produced standout creative that won over consumer attention for the different reasons described below.

Brand of the Year honors are awarded to brands earning the highest average Ace Score for their 2015 body of work. See qualifications below.

Brand of the Year: Telecom Services

HBO’s body of work in 2015, which included the launch of the HBOnow app, achieved the 2^nd highest average Ace Score compared to its category norm (+12 percent above norm) and produced three of the top 10 ads in the category. Consumers consistently identified the “Product Itself” and “Visual Scenes” as best things about the ads. Each of HBO’s ads were powered by strong communication components of Change and Information, demonstrated most notably in the scores given it by consumers who “have never purchased or used the brand, but may consider it in the future.”

In a category that saw ads from 40 brands this year, with 14 of them qualifying for Brand of the Year honors, the top ad was Apple TV’s “The Future” which came out in early December. Hulu was also very strong in this category, landing four of the top twenty ads and the third most effective ad overall, “On & On.” As mentioned, it was the introduction and launch of the HBOnow app that won over consumers this year with fast-paced creative showcasing beloved shows that are available everywhere, creating appeal with the recurring line, “All you need is the internet.”

HBO’s top three ads, “All You Need”, “HBO NOW”, and “TV On the Go” all revolved around this new product. All were heavily powered by Information and Change, with “All You Need” topping the category norms for these components by 12 percent and 13 percent. Each of these ads also stirred an emotional reaction, indexing from 20 – 40 percent above the category norm on the Emotional Sentiment index. As this word cloud from consumer comments demonstrates, those viewing “All You Need” recognized the brand and were interested in the product benefits.
HBO’s ads also made an impact with lapsed customers who “have purchased or used this brand in the past.” Upon viewing “HBO NOW”, two such consumers commented:

Top Performing HBO Ads of 2015

Brand of the Year: Financial Services

Maintaining its position of top Financial Services brand year-over year, LifeLock earned one of the highest average Ace Scores (562) compared to its category norm (503, +12 percent).  LifeLock’s ads at the beginning of the year contained very simple graphics and language, which effectively established the problem their solution solves. Ads later in the year incorporated humor and relatable situations and people. Thirty percent of consumers stated that the best thing about LifeLock’s ads were their message.

Brand of the Year: LifeLock   

LifeLock’s three highest scoring ads of the year, “Fix the Problem”, “Identity Theft”, and “Protect Yourself” were highly informative and relevant. In fact, each outscore the category norm for Information by 4 to 11 percent, and for Relevance by 8 to 10 percent. The “Ad Personality” graphic below for “Identity Theft” demonstrates the power of these two ad components.

In terms of reaching specific audiences, overall scores for LifeLock’s top three ads were highest among consumers with household incomes over $75K, as well as among those with children at home. “Fix the Problem” was the brand’s highest scoring ad of the year, and an example of how the brand began injecting humor later into ads later the year. Fourteen percent of consumers mentioned “funny”, “laugh”, or “humor” in their comments about the ad.

Here are two examples:

Top Performing LifeLock Ads of 2015

ad title	brand	category	air date	score(s)
Fix The Problem	LifeLock	Financial Services	11.25.2015	622
Identity Theft	LifeLock	Financial Services	06.08.2015	586
Protect Yourself	LifeLock	Financial Services	03.19.2015	560

Brand of the Year: Insurance

In the competitive Insurance category, UnitedHealth Group rose to the occasion, topping a total of 24 brands, 10 of whom qualified for this year’s honor. The top 10 ads in the category came from seven distinct brands. Two brands in the category, Nationwide and Esurance, each had a pair of Super Bowl ads, with “Boy” from Nationwide scoring highest among them.

UnitedHealth Group’s creative focused on very relatable situations that led to the need for healthcare, and used humor to bring a bit of levity to a serious matter. The brand’s top three ads, “Our Song”, “Helps You”, and “Skateboard” all delivered very high on breakthrough components, Attention and Likeability. For Attentions, these ads ranged 7 to 12 percent above the category norm, and for Likeability, they ranged 4 to 11 percent above the norm. Consumers named the Single Best Thing about “Our Song” and “Helps You” to be the Characters, while for “Skateboard” it was the Visual Scenes.

Similarly, to LifeLock, the top two ads were most effective among consumers with household incomes over $75K and with children at home. Nearly 35 percent of comments for “Our Song” mention “funny”, “humor” or “laugh.” Two such consumers commented on “Our Song”:

Top Performing UnitedHealth Group Ads of 2015

ad title	brand	category	air date	score(s)
Our Song	UnitedHealth Group	Insurance	07.17.2015	614
Helps You	UnitedHealth Group	Insurance	11.30.2015	572
Skateboard	UnitedHealth Group	Insurance	07.17.2015	571

Interested in learning more about brand creative performance in any or all of the Services categories?  Contact us to request a category discussion.

Check out all of the Top Brands of the Year here.

Brand of the Year Qualifications

Ace Metrix scores every nationally airing television advertisement and the majority of digital video ads across 24 industries, 96 categories and is therefore uniquely qualified to report a brand’s overall effectiveness across the entire video advertising industry’s body of work over a year, as well as year-over-year. To qualify for Ace Metrix Brand of the Year, brands must have debuted five or more unique pieces of creative within a category containing more than 100 pieces of creative and five qualifying brands. Ace Metrix gathered more than 3.5 million responses, including nearly 2 million verbatim comments left optionally for the 6,500+ new television video ads in 2015. Each ad is scored against a unique panel of 500+ consumers, demographically balanced to the US census for age, gender and income. The Ace Score is the holistic measure of ad creative impact and includes data on attributes such as Persuasion, Likeability, Information, Attention, Change, Relevance, Desire and Watchability. Hundreds of qualitative consumer verbatim responses are collected for each ad and inform additional measures such as the Emotional Sentiment Index.