Ace Metrix, Mountain View, Calif., announced the top-scoring ads of the third quarter of 2014. In total, 30 ads were awarded the title “Ad of the Quarter” within their respective categories, with each one having earned the highest Ace Score within their designated categories. Within the beverage industry, ads from Unilever, Diageo, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and The Boston Beer Co. earned the title of “Ad of the Quarter.”

In the non-alcohol category, Unilever’s 30-second “Refreshing Flavor” spot for its Lipton brand received an Ace Score of 660, on a scale between 1 and 950. This marks the highest score for the overall beverage category and the highest score of all of the “funny” ads. This ad won most significantly on the components of likeability and attention, according to Ace Metrix’s blog. It also earned an emotional sentiment index score of 67, on a scale between 1 and 100.

In the spirits category, Diageo’s “Summer Sensation” commercial for its Smirnoff Ice brand earned an Ace Score of 623, which is 26 percent above the 12-month norm for spirits. The ad particularly appealed to people who had consumed spirits within the past four weeks, the company says. Plus, 38 percent of consumers indicated that the product itself was the best feature of the ad, it adds. Its emotional sentiment index score was 62.

In the soda category, Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s humorous “Jack’s Surprise” ad for its Canada Dry brand earned an Ace Score of 612. The ad excelled in the areas of likeability, attention and desire, the company says. In particular, consumers enjoyed the ad’s characters, brand, visuals and product, and 12 percent of them mentioned that the ad was funny, it adds. Its emotional sentiment index score was 53.

Finally, in the beer category, The Boston Beer Co.’s “Fresh Apples” commercial for its Angry Orchard brand earned an Ace Score of 562. The ad ranked high in terms of information and desire, the company notes. Consumers also noted that the ad’s visuals and the product itself were the best parts of the ad, it says. Its emotional sentiment index score was 50.
 
“Every day we dive deeply into the latest ad data to help advertisers determine if and how their creative is hitting the mark based on their specific objectives, closely analyzing the interplay of component scores and delving into the qualitative consumer comments to further demonstrate the ‘why’ behind the scores,” said Peter Daboll, chief executive officer of Ace Metrix, in a statement. “These 30 ads represent creative that performed best in its category from a holistic perspective, hitting on multiple cylinders to first attain attention, then impart information, reflect change for a brand, leverage relevance, generate desire and, in many cases, evoke strong emotional sentiment.”
 
To learn how each ad earned its place on the list, visit www.acemetrix.com/blog.

An “Ad of the Quarter” award for the third quarter of 2014 recognizes the highest-scoring ads of each qualifying category based on ads that debuted between July 1 and Sept. 30. The Ace Score is the measure of ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads, providing the advertising industry an unbiased resource to measure creative impact. Ace Metrix scores every national TV ad across 96 categories, creating a complete comparative database. A panel of at least 500 consumers, representative of the U.S. TV-viewing audience, scores each ad in the 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 a score that indicates positive, negative or neutral emotional impact and represents the ad’s position on an emotional sentiment index ranging from 1 to 100. Ace Metrix collected more than 1,500 ads in the third quarter, scored by more than 150,000 consumers, representing 750,000 quantitative and approximately 450,000 qualitative responses. All ads within categories that had at least 20 unique pieces of creative over the past 12 months, and at least 10 in the quarter, were considered for the award.