The YouTube Leaderboard consists of the ten most popular paid ads uploaded during the prior month. YouTube views are inherently self selected – meaning those people chose to watch it. To be among the top ten of all ads viewed online in a month is a great achievement and speaks to the ability for that ad to resonate with a particular audience.
Ace Metrix scores are based on how everyone would respond to the ad, providing actionable data to marketers contemplating placing their online ads more broadly, digitally or in front of a television audience. To be both among the top viewed ads online and achieve a top quintile Ace Score or high Emotional Sentiment index is the remarkable confluence of great viral appeal and broad demographic appeal.
Ads with lower Ace Scores indicate that while the ad certainly resonates with a market – thus the repeat and accumulated views – the ad lacks broad appeal of multiple demographics.
For more details behind the data, contact your Ace Metrix representative.
BUDWEISER: Puppy Love
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #1 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
28,385,510
Uploaded by: Budweiser
Creative agency: Anomaly
Media: Busch Media Group
This puppy-licious ad was not just a favorite on YouTube, but it was also the second most effective ad to air during Super Bowl XLVIII. Extremely high Likeability and Attention scores set this a-dog-able ad over the edge – it is rare that we ever see component scores over 800. Males and females of all ages swooned for this puppy’s love. So much so, that it scored an Emotional Sentiment Index (ESI) of 83, which is nearly 46% above Budweiser’s ESI norm.
It is worth noting that this ad earned 14 million more views in January than Duracell’s ad, which is number two for the month. And, even more impressively, for January’s YouTube Ad Leaderboard, this ad had latest upload date – January 29th – meaning it only had 3 days to amass its 28 million views.
DURACELL: Trust Your Power
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #2 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
14,249,169
Uploaded by: Duracell
Creative agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Media: MediaVest
“But I’ve been deaf since I was three, so I didn’t listen.” This inspiring, goosebump-inducing creative didn’t air on TV, but, taking second place on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard, it was a wildly viral success digitally. Duracell is known for its heart-pounding story lines, so this type of creative isn’t out of the ordinary for the brand – but it was still extraordinary.
“Trust Your Power” scored particularly high in the components for Attention and Likability, both about 8% above the Batteries category norm. The only score that dipped below norm was Relevance, likely because some consumers surveyed do not follow or watch football. Men ages 21-35 and women ages 39-49 scored the ad the highest. In the ad’s word cloud, the word “very” is used in 14% of the verbatims, with most of those verbatims also including the word “inspirational.” Although Duracell’s brand name and tune is only in the ad for a couple seconds at the very end, it still was noted in 9% of the verbatim responses.
PROCTER & GAMBLE: Thank You Mom
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #3 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
12,798,038
Uploaded by: Procter & Gamble
Creative agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Media: MediaVest
Procter & Gamble is no stranger to creating Olympic ads dedicated to moms. It’s “Thank You Mom” campaign for the 2012 Olympics was also created by W+K and garnered mass amounts of media attention. However, this year’s ad for the 2014 Sochi Olympics has been a glowing success both on TV and YouTube.
While men and women alike rated the ad highly, women’s scores were, on average, still 7% above men’s scores. Women ages 36-49 especially loved the ad, awarding it a high score of 700. Likewise, parents with children at home gave the ad an average Ace Score of 705, 15% above that of consumers without children at home. Attention, Likeability and Relevance were the ad’s stand-out components with Information trailing just a couple points below norm. Of course, this is not surprising given that the ad is not focused on any specific product. With this viral success under P&G’s belt, it will be exciting to see what its campaign will be for the Rio 2016 Olympics.
OLD SPICE: Mom Song
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #4 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
7,920,998
Uploaded by: Old Spice
Creative agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Media: Wieden + Kennedy
Creative agency W+K must be an expert on moms. Along with P&G’s ad, this is the second viral ad about moms W+K had for the month of January.
The ad’s target market, younger men ages 16-35, scored this ad the highest; however, women ages 16-21 and 36-49 weren’t too far behind. After reading the verbatim responses from the women ages 36-49, it seems they find the ad completely relatable – their little boys growing into men, which is both a sad and happy experience. Overall, 28% of consumers mentioned that the ad was “funny.” However, another 7% said the ad was “creepy,” with women ages 21-35 mentioning it most often – no wonder they didn’t enjoy the ad as much!
SodaStream: Sorry, Coke and Pepsi. (Uncensored)
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #5 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
7,692,913
Uploaded by: SodaStream
Creative agency: Humanaut
If one thing is for certain from looking at the scores to the right, Scarlett Johansson knows how to get the Attention of men. Men rated this ad nearly 10% higher than the score women awarded the ad. It is also noteworthy that Change brought an at norm score. In the verbatims, many consumers noted that they were intrigued by SodaStream’s product.
It is likely that the “uncensored” tagline of the ad solicited many intriguing views. The Super Bowl version of the commercial scored only 4 points higher than the uncensored version, indicating that for consumers, it didn’t matter whether or not Coke and Pepsi were mentioned in the ad. However, we all know that for network executives, it is a very different story.
VOLKSWAGEN: Wings
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #6 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
5,700,801
Uploaded by: Volkswagen
Creative agency: Argonaut
Over the last couple Super Bowls, Volkswagen has always made us smile with its funny commercials. You may remember its viral “The Force” Super Bowl ad from 2011 (arguably its most clever Super Bowl ad in recent years). Although the 2014 Super Bowl was 19% less funny than previous year’s, “Wings” still brought 16% of surveyed consumers to mention how “funny” the ad was. However, the ad seemed to go beyond funny and also drew many consumers to mention that the ad was “cute,” “entertaining” and “good”. For all these additional reasons is perhaps why this ad is #6 on the January YouTube Ad Leaderboard.
With “Wings,” Volkswagen and Argonaut created a well-rounded 60-second ad, scoring highest in Attention and Likeability without leaving behind other important factors like Information, Change and Desire. Overall, men scored the ad nearly 9% higher than women. Interestingly, the Ace Score awarded by men ages 50+ had the largest score gap of each of the six gender/age splits, scoring the ad 23% above their gender/age norm.
JAGUAR: Rendezvous
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #7 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
5,341,766
Uploaded by: Jaguar
Creative agency: Spark 44
Media: Mindshare
While Jaguar may say it’s good to be bad, for Jaguar, it is also good to be really good. “Rendezvous” won high scores from every age and gender demographic, so it’s no wonder why this ad was viewed over a million times a day for the four short days it was up in January. The actors, the entertainment factor, the movie-like quality and, of course, the car are all the reasons consumers loved this ad. Men ages 21-49 may have awarded the highest scores to the ad, however, women 21-35 gave the ad an Ace Score nearly 18% above their age/gender norm. With a Desire score 13% above the Luxury Auto desire norm, many consumers commented that, after seeing this ad, they would be much more likely to consider a Jaguar for their next vehicle. In fact, surveyed consumers who are thinking about purchasing or leasing a new car in the next six months awarded this ad an Ace Score of 664, 8% above the ad’s overall Ace Score.
DANNON OIKOS: The Spill
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #9 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
3,075,878
Uploaded by: Oikos Yogurt
Creative agency: Poptent, Vinizius, Y&R
Media: Dannon Connections Team
Oh, poor Jesse. Danny Tanner and Joey are always up to something that’s ruining his mojo…or his hair. While Information was lacking in the ad (5% below the Dairy Information norm), we can likely all agree that that was not the point of the ad. “The Spill” was the 4th most funny ad of the Super Bowl, only being beat by the two Doritos spots and Audi’s “Doberhuahua.” The ad’s age/gender Ace Scores came in above norm for every demographic break. However, as may be expected, women rated the ad 11% higher than what men rated it. Additionally, the Full House generation (consumers ages 21-35) awarded the ad the highest score of all age segments, with an Ace Score of 623.
CHEERIOS: Gracie
YouTube Ads Leaderboard #10 Ranked Ad for January 2014
VIEWS IN JANUARY
2,449,391
Uploaded by: Cheerios
Creative agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Media: Zenith Optimedia
Although the original Cheerios ad “Good For Your Heart,” which features the same family, was considered controversial by some, consumers welcomed back Gracie and her family in this heartwarming Super Bowl spot. Men ages 21-35 and women ages 26-49 posted the highest scores for the adorable spot. Their verbatim responses reveal that they loved the family and how cute the ad was. Of course Likability garnered the highest component score of the six components, coming in 11% above the Cereals category norm. While the first Cheerios ad “Good For Your Heart” talked about how the cereal is heart healthy – posting an Information score above the norm – “Gracie” didn’t have such mention, which resulted in a low Information score and a couple consumers confused about what Cheerios had to do with the rest of the storyline. However, along with the Likeability of the ad, the Emotional Sentiment Index (ESI) was a solid 19% above Cheerios’ average brand ESI of 58. With the mention of babies and puppies from an adorable family, we can’t say we’re surprised.
