It seems as though every few months Best Buy pops up on our radar in one way or another. In December, one of their holiday ads was named Ad of the Week; in November, we named them Brand to Watch; and even further back in August, Best Buy earned Ad of the Week for the very same campaign that this week’s winning ad falls under the Blue Shirt Beta Test campaign. This employee centric approach was a winner last year, and so they’re continuing it this year – with similar success. Likewise, Longhorn Steakhouse is showing us the steak while also appealing to some of our other appetites.
Ad of the Week: Category Overachiever
Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Beta Test ad “Stack Up” entered the Ace Metrix LIVE platform with an Ace Score of 625, which is over 26% above the Other Stores twelve-month category norm. While it is not the highest rated ad Best Buy has ever aired, it is up there; and there are multiple reasons why this ad was a hit with consumers.
The biggest reason this ad works is its relevance. The product featured (Samsung Smart TV), the adorable family and the timing of the ad (Super Bowl week) all contributed to its success. Samsung is a big brand in electronics, and the biggest brand in TVs. As The New York Times stated in a recent article, 22% of TVs sold last year were smart TVs and this year it will likely be even greater. Consumers are ready for internet-connectivity on their TV; after all, they have it on every other device.
Secondly, the family in the ad makes it that much more relatable to consumers, especially consumers with young children. Consumers with children in the home rated this spot an electrifying 16% higher than consumers without children at home.
Lastly, the timing of this ad was impeccable. “Stack Up” first aired on January 26th, exactly one week before the Super Bowl. No coincidence there, we can safely assume. The Desire score for this ad is nearly 23% above the 90-day average for the Other Stores category.
Below is the word cloud generated from the 314 optional responses consumers wrote after watching the ad. Here you can see the importance of the Samsung brand inclusion (mentioned in 9% of the responses) as well as the family (mentioned in 4% of the responses).
“Stack Up” is able to resonate with a variety of consumers on many different levels in just 30 seconds of air time. Knowing just how well this commercial plays to parents with young families can help Best Buy optimize their media buy for shows enjoyed by that particular demographic.
Watch this year’s winning Ads of the Week by Category Overachievers.
Want to look back at 2013? Watch the winning Ad of the Week Category Overachievers from 2013.
Ad of the Week: Top Ace Score
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Longhorn Steakhouse is capitalizing on people’s love of romantic dinners for two, juicy steaks and great deals. Two weeks ago Outback won Ad of the Week, highest Ace Score, for a very similar reason that Longhorn Steakhouse wins this week. Coming in with an Ace Score of 675, Longhorn Steakhouse’s “Dinner for Two $29.99” shows us the steak plus a couple other tantalizing tidbits.
The age/gender graph below is fairly typical for a Longhorn Steakhouse spot, skewing slightly more mature for men and women alike. However, the particularly high scores from men and women ages 36-50 is what really sets this ad apart.
Looking at a word cloud of the optional verbatim responses, you can see creative-specific words like “hungry”, “deal”, “made” and “want” stand out exceptionally well. In fact, a mouthwatering 12% of the free responses say this ad made them hungry. Each of these key words indicates that this ad was especially good at making consumers want to go into Longhorn Steakhouse for their deal and a nice, tender steak.
This assumption can be further confirmed when looking at the component scores, below. The score for Desire is over 11% above the 90-day Casual Dining category norm.
Much like the Best Buy ad, Longhorn is using a combination of advertising practices—scenes of delicious food, a promotion and a calculated debut—to give consumers several reasons to enjoy this spot. As is often the case with casual dining, the :15 version is an outstanding option from a media plan perspective. It came in at a healthy 646 a relatively small discount to the 675 and provides twice as much bang for the frequency buck. Talk about a good deal.
Watch this year’s winning Ads of the Week by Ace Score.
Want a look back at 2013? Watch the winning Ads of the Week with the highest Ace Scores from 2013.
