With both Mothers and Fathers Day falling in the second quarter, tributes to parental love were a common theme among the most heartfelt ads. On top of that, many had more to do with corporate branding than pushing products, indicating these companies are creating a strong emotional connection with viewers through storytelling.

The following list is based on our Heartfelt metric. Scores measuring the strength of emotional connection are passively derived by applying NLP and machine learning techniques to voluntary viewer verbatim comments. Only 12% of ads in our database register any signal on this metric, but the top ad from Hallmark joins the ranks as one of the most Heartfelt ads of all time.

2019 Q2’s Most Heartfelt Ads:

*Breakthrough capability (combination of Attention and Likeability components) was used as the tie-breaker for third place.

All five leveraged storytelling to pull at heartstrings, as shown in the heatmap below. With a focus on building narratives, brands and products were not woven in until the end or were subtly mentioned at the beginning so as not to take away from the impact of the Messages. This left an impression of Corporate Responsibility, which some viewers acknowledged in their verbatims. Despite the focus on narratives over products, Brand Recognition was above 80% for all except PGA Tour Superstore. 

Hallmark’s “Mom’s Love is for Always” tapped into heartwarming emotions that established relevance for the product in consumers minds. Whether a mother themselves or a child, viewers could relate to the narrative in the ad. A card is a must for most who are celebrating Mother’s Day, making the connection of the product to the story more credible and contributing to one in two viewers reporting positive purchase intent.

With a slogan that includes the word “love,” Subaru continues to build its brand image around heartfelt emotions. As was the case for “Comforting Blankets.” On top of having their heartstrings pulled, viewers learned something new and Likeable about the brand as shown in the ad personality below. The absence of products saw this ad underperform with near term auto intenders, but resonated well above norms with those at least one year out from their next purchase.

In “Dwayne Wade,” Budweiser paid tribute to Wade’s impressive career with an emphasis on his honorable community efforts off the basketball court. The Characters and the Message came through as the Best Things about the ad demonstrating that Dwayne and his interactions with fans as well as his mother really resonated with viewers. The success of the ad was driven by the emotional impact’s Breakthrough capability as well as Information about his influence outside of basketball.

The only Father’s Day spot to make the list is the short but sweet “Love Dad” from PGA Tour Superstore. The Likeability of the sincere display of love from Pro Golfers and their Messages was the driving force behind the creative.

Another Mother’s Day spot on our list is Kohl’s “Reasons to Love Mom.” While less Heartfelt, Kohl’s built stronger Relevance than the Hallmark spot with more personal statements from employees about what their moms mean to them.  

Congrats to the most Heartfelt ads from Q2!