Insurance isn’t usually a category you think of when discussing holiday ads, and rightfully so. The last time an insurance company even ran a holiday ad was in 2011. Nationwide just bucked the trend though, airing a new holiday ad that rises above the rest—its newest ad earns the title of Category Overachiever this week. Meanwhile, TGI Fridays gets consumers’ mouths watering with five juicy flavors of ribs in its high scoring Ad of the Week.
Nationwide’s new holiday ad, “The Grinch And Santa,” features its home protection plan. Consumers awarded the Christmas-themed spot an Ace Score of 628, which is 15% higher than the Other Insurance category norm. The spot features a woman who, in ninja-like fashion, replaces all a family’s stolen belongings before they even notice anything was missing.
While men in each of the three age groups rated the ad nearly identical, the ad skewed slightly older for women. Women ages 50+ rated the ad the highest, awarding the spot an Ace Score of 666, which is 6% above the ad’s overall Ace Score.
While the spot scored above norm across each of the six components of Persuasion, it especially shined in terms of Likeability and Attention—both important components of breakthrough for an ad. Likeability scored especially high, 14% above the 90-day norm, while Attention scored 13% above norm.
Five percent of consumers even mentioned how well the ad held their “attention.” Of the 358 comments consumers left for the ad, 13% also mentioned “Nationwide.”
We’ve already seen more than 50 holiday-themed spots this season; however, this is the first one from an insurance brand. Much like last year, most holiday ads thus far come from major retail brands. We’ll be keeping a list though just in case another insurance brand wants to play Santa.
Watch this year’s winning Ads of the Week by Category Overachievers.
Consumers awarded “Happy Friday” a high Ace Score of 680, smothering 104 other ads to have debuted last week. The beginning of the ad sports a jingle that sounds extremely familiar, however, viewers quickly realize that this is indeed an ad for TGI Fridays, not that other rib-slathering restaurant brand.
“Happy Friday” was able to succeed nearly equally across each of the ad’s components. Most notably, the ad achieved scores above 700 in Likeability, Attention and Desire.
While 29% of consumers found the tasty racks of ribs to be the best thing about the ad, 20% were still simply entranced by the visuals of TGI Friday’s meat, spices and sauces.
The ad’s word cloud reveals just how captivating this spot is for consumers. Three hundred twenty-nine consumers chose to leave feedback on the ad. Thirteen percent of those mentioned how the “Happy Friday” “made” them hungry. Another 8% described how delicious the food “looked.”
When we asked consumers to identify which brand the ad was for (post-viewing), 81% correctly identified TGI Fridays. However, the jingle in the beginning of the ad still threw off two of the survey’s respondents who thought the ad was for the other big rib restaurant.
