Press Release

Top Ads from IKEA, Intel and Peligroso Tequila Aired Exclusively Online and were Among Superlative Ads in the Areas of Attention, Likeability, and Desire, Respectively

LOS ANGELES, CA.—October 14, 2015—Ace Metrix®, the leader in measuring the impact of video advertising, today released the most notable ads of Q3 in the areas of Attention, Likeability, Perception Change, Desire Creation and Ability to Inform. Many of the top ads of Q3 skewed more toward the serious (vs. funny) and were marked by tones of emotion, drama and/or innovation. Ads from Cheerios, Guinness, Intel and IKEA (the latter, which aired exclusively online) each earned powerful component scores that exceeded their individual category norms by more than 25 percent.

“Achieving a specific objective in advertising — from changing consumers’ perceptions to creating desire or simply gaining attention or likeability — is the ultimate goal of any ad or campaign. Ace Metrix has been a leader in scientifically measuring the impact of ad creative, and brands use these metrics to understand how successful the ads are for some of their specific creative objectives. This new way of portraying the best ads of the quarter honors brands that have produced strategically impactful work,” remarked Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO.

“Regardless of screen, each of the top-performing ads we’ve identified have succeeded in spades, including ads that simply ran online like those from IKEA, Intel and Peligroso,” Daboll continued. “Ads that portrayed innovation as well as messages supporting a cause dominated our list of superlative ads. Examples include AT&T and Dick’s Sporting Goods, which each effectively promoted their own social responsibility initiatives in unique ways — AT&T through its attention-grabbing anti-texting message, and Dick’s through its moving account of why sports are an important way to keep kids out of trouble — which successfully changed consumers’ perception of the brand. It’s interesting to note that so many of this year’s top ads are marked by less slap-stick humor and more serious and even emotional messaging.”

The unique, syndicated method by which Ace Metrix gathers creative performance measures allows advertisers to compare their ad effectiveness across screens against all other brands within and across categories. Watch the ads and learn how each creative piece earned its place on the list at acemetrix.com/insights.

Top Ads of the Quarter, Q3 2015*

“Most Attention Grabbing”
Top Ads Powered by Outstanding Attention Scores

“Most Likeable”
Top Ads Powered by Outstanding Likeability Scores

“Most Informative”
Top Ads Powered by Outstanding Information Scores

“Perception Changing”
Top Ads Powered by Outstanding Change Scores

“Gotta Have It”
Top Ads Powered by Outstanding Desire Scores

* The Top Ads of the Quarter Award recognizes ads that excelled in achieving a specific creative objective, as well as a top-quintile overall Ace Score. The “web only” within the ad title indicates an ad that has only run online at the time of this release.

See “Award Qualification and Methodology” below.

Cause Ads and Those Featuring Innovation Create a Stir in Q3

Cause-based ads resonated strongly in Q3, including AT&T’s “Accident” ad, a dramatic cautionary tale against texting and driving, which won on its ability to attract consumers’ attention. Dick’s Sporting Goods, which produced a one-minute ad portraying a moving story about how sports can change the lives of kids in need, succeeded in changing consumers’ perception about the Dick’s brand.

Intel’s ad, featuring the story of an 8th grade boy who invented a braille printer using Intel Edison technology to give the blind a low-cost way to read, achieved a Likeability score 25 percent higher than the Corporate Branding norm.

University of Central Florida promoted its “Limbitless” initiative, which achieved huge Likeability scores from consumers. The ad portrays a little boy from Brazil who has a bionic 3-D printed limb thanks to the UCF initiative.

Honda portrayed its history of innovation in all areas of its business via its one-minute “Paper” ad, which was powered by Attention scores.

Consumers found Guinness’s 90-second “Gates” ad informative. The ad scored 26 percent above the average beer ad in terms of Information.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 ad starring adorable babies achieved scores that indicate the ad was successful in changing consumers’ perception of Microsoft Windows.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5’s product-focused ad “Write Anything,” which showcased its stylus, succeeded in making consumers say “I want that!”

Retail and Online-Only Ads Among Most Notable Ads in Q3

Four of the 15 Superlative Ads of Q3 fell into the retail category, more than any other category represented on the list. Included were ads from IKEA, PetSmart, The Home Depot and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Home Depot’s ad featuring its new “Color App” achieved very high Information scores, educating on how the app allows consumers to actually see what their paint colors will look like in their rooms.

IKEA’s jungle-themed kitchen ad has appeared only online to date, along with ads from Intel and Peligriso Tequila. These ads notably succeeded in the areas of Attention, Likeability and Desire, respectively.

Ads for Food Proved Both Tantalizing and Informative

Cheerios made an impression by effectively informing consumers of the famous cereal’s new gluten free status, achieving Information scores 36 percent above its category norm.

Dominos earned an outstanding Change score in “Order Anytime” by using celebrities to portray just how easy it is to order pizza via different mobile devices.

Real California Dairy served up a tantalizing ad featuring a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, prompting extremely high Desire scores among consumers.

To watch and learn more about each of the winning ad visit acemetrix.com/insights.

Award Qualification and Methodology

The Top Ads of the Quarter Award recognizes ads that excelled in achieving a specific creative objective. Top ads were determined by first calculating differences from respective category norms for each component metric (i.e. Attention, Likeability, Information, Change and Desire), which were then ranked to determine the ads that held the largest advantages based on each objective. An additional qualifying filter was the use of Ad Personality Typology, an analysis of the creative objectives which viewers considered to be most prominent within each ad; for an ad to qualify, it must have scored in the top decile (9th or 10th) of the respective metric.

Ace Metrix measures ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to video ads, providing the advertising industry an unbiased resource to measure creative impact. Ace Metrix scores every national television ad, and an expanding proportion of digital ads, across 96 categories creating a complete comparative database—Ace Metrix LIVE®. A unique panel of at least 500 consumers, demographically balanced to the U.S. census, scores each ad in the exact same manner. The results are presented on a scale of 1–950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as Persuasion, Likeability, Information, Attention, Change, Relevance, Desire and Watchability. Ace Metrix applies a natural language processing algorithm to the hundreds of qualitative verbatim responses collected for each ad, deriving additional metrics related to emotional engagement. Ace Metrix collected more than 1,800 ads in the third quarter, July 1 through September 30, 2015.

About Ace Metrix

Ace Metrix® provides technology, tools and insights that enable the advertising ecosystem to understand how and why video creative works with viewers. Advertisers, agencies and publishers rely on Ace Metrix to provide qualitative and quantitative measures, normative data and competitive insights that inform each phase of the creative lifecycle, resulting in advertising that consistently delivers results. The Company’s comprehensive suite of tools map to ad objectives, including the creative impact of persuasion, breakthrough, emotional connection, and indicators of shareability. The Company is privately held and is backed by leading venture capital firms and industry leaders including Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures and WPP.

Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for sustained insight: @Ace_Metrix.

PR Contact: Michelle Robertson   |   646-279-5775   |   michelle@kerlancomm.com

Note: Ace Metrix®, the Ace Metrix logo design, Ace Score®, Ace Metrix LIVE® and Creative Lifecycle Management® are registered trademarks of Ace Metrix, Inc. Other trademarks are property of their respective owners