February 18th, 2014

Quicken Loans and IHOP Serve Up Something Special This Week

Author

Ace Metrix

 

Money can be a difficult topic to address; and that difficulty does not escape the world of TV advertising. So, when an advertiser makes a stand-out ad about retirement plans, taxes or, in this case, mortgage loans, it quickly draws our attention. Case in point, Quicken Loans debuted an entertaining ad this past week that was both relevant and attention grabbing for a variety of consumers. Meanwhile, gearing up to celebrate the day of love, IHOP aired a high scoring, scrumptious spot that tickled the tastebuds in no time at all.

Oddly enough, this is not the first week that both Quicken Loans and IHOP have both won Ad of the Week simultaneously. Back in July 2013, both advertisers showed advertising greatness in the same week.

Ad of the Week: Category Overachiever

Quicken Loans’ commercial “Close Call” was this week’s Category Overachiever. With an Ace Score of 559, this new ad scored 24% higher than the twelve-month Mortgage category norm. Quicken Loans, so far this year, has aired two ads featuring people on US dollar bills as stuntmen who are in trouble and need to be saved by Quicken Loans. Get it? The conclusion is that Quicken Loans can save you Lincolns or, in this ad’s case, Benjamins on a mortgage.

Interestingly, men and women rated this ad nearly equally. The real differences in scoring depend on the viewer’s age. Consumers ages 21 to 35 rated this ad 11-12% higher than consumers ages 36+.

While a little shy on Information, the ad achieved a Likeability score over 7% above norm and an Attention score nearly 6% above norm. These were the key elements that drove consumers to watch for the punch line and establish the brand – with more than 9% of verbatims referencing “Quicken” by name.

Many consumers noted the entertaining, movie-like plotline of the ad. Of the 311 verbatim responses collected, 5% mentioned that the ad was “entertaining” and “clever” while 6% found it to be “funny”.

Unfortunately for Quicken Loans, with the ad’s intense storyline, the :15 version scored nearly 10% lower than the winning, :30 version. Most notably, the shorter cut was lost on men 50+ and women ages 21-49. This means Quicken Loans needs to carefully decide which version to air during what programming to make sure its media buys are optimized for the viewing 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

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, IHOP debuted its sweet, new ad “Love Those Crepes”, which entered our database with an Ace Score of 664. As cute couples of all ages enjoyed IHOP’s delectable, fresh creation, the popular breakfast restaurant showed off some of its tasty crepe toppings. 

While the ad skewed slightly younger and female, on average, respondents from every age/gender demographic scored the ad well above norm.

The Desire score for “Love Those Crepes” is especially delicious, coming in nearly 13% above the 90-day Restaurants category norm. This 30-second spot pairs Information with Attention-getting visuals just as well as cream cheese pairs with crepes and fruit. Both of these scores came in well above the scores for the average Restaurant ad.

IHOP’s delicious visuals worked. Ten percent of consumer respondents mentioned that this ad made them “hungry”. Many other optional verbatims also mentioned that the crepes looked “yummy” or “delicious”.

Fortunately for IHOP, it only takes 15 seconds to make someone hungry—especially if you entice them with fruit-topped sweet cream cheese crepes! The :15 version of this ad, came in only about 3% lower than the 30-second cut. In fact, in the shorter version, every female age demographic rated the ad higher than the :30 version. For IHOP, this means they can save some sweet cash by showing the :15 cut during female-targeted programming.

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.

 

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