Ace Metrix releases Quarterly Top 10 on impactful TV ads

The Ace Metrix Quarterly Top 10 for Q2 says “Wash Away” for P&G Dawn Ultra dishwashing liquid, scored the top spot – an Ace Score of 699 out of a possible 950, with 734 for persuasion and 653 for watchability.

The winning score is based on analysis from the ads’ run date of April 7, 13 days before the explosion of the Deep Water Horizon oil rig setting off the Gulf Oil spill.

In further analysis conducted by Ace Metrix on 6/25, the ad scored 35 points higher for an Ace Score of 734. The extreme jump in Ace Score demonstrates the heightened consumer awareness brought about by the Gulf Oil spill and consumers overall concern about environmental impact of the spill.

In the ad retest key elements of the Persuasion score showed dramatic increases: likeability jumped by 40 points, relevance jumped by 60 points and desire jumped by 58 points, demonstrating the impact external events can have on the overall persuasiveness of television advertising. At the same time, the watchability scored remained almost constant between the two tests validating the consistency of the Ace Metrix methodology.

The Dawn Ultra ad is even more noteworthy for making a mark in a product category, household detergent that typically does not feature high-scoring creative. A typical ad in the category achieves an Ace Score of 526, as compared to Dawn’s score of 699. While resonating strongly across all demographic groups, the Dawn ad was particularly impactful with young people.

The 30 second spot, via Publicis Groupe’s Kaplan Thaler Group, NY, also highlights a $1 per bottle donation to various wildlife groups, and is part of a larger ongoing cause-related marketing effort by Dawn started over 20 years ago after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

For the Ace Metrix Quarterly Top 10 women rated all the ads higher than men. The highest performing ad among women was the Starbucks “The Big Picture” ad, which ranked sixth with an Ace Score of 681. The highest performing ad among men was Activision’s “Call of Duty: Black Opps” ad, scoring a 693 Ace Score among males and a 630 Ace Score overall.

The Apple iPhone “Face Time” ad, breaking late in the quarter on June 27th, ranked second with an Ace Score of 696. Also showing the power of new products, the “Orange Complains About Being a Pretzel” ad for Mars M&M’s, introducing the new pretzel M&M’s, ranked third with an Ace Score of 690. Other top ads included Wonka brand “Oompa Loompa Sings” scoring 687 and Samsung’s Refrigerator “Designed with Everyone in Mind” scoring 685.

The complete Ace Metrix Quarterly Top 10 for the quarter: