Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Pandora and Sherwin-Williams among those recognized

Ace Metrix, the leader in measuring the impact of video advertising, today released its review of 2019’s top performing ads based on emotional connections and cultural perception. Out of dozens of measures for creative effectiveness, Ace Metrix recognized the Most Empowering, Best Storytelling, Funniest and Coolest.

“To welcome in a new year, we always like to look back at that ads that shaped the last. Unlike many other “top ads” lists, these aren’t the product of industry insiders and top level executives. Instead, they represent the most effective judged by US consumers,” said Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO.

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The Most Empowering list originates from Ace Metrix’s new Cultural Perception scoring system, which measures the positive and negative impact of purpose-driven advertising and ultimately helps brands assess the risks and rewards of achieving emotional connections as they relate to cultural and social subjects.

Lists for 2019’s Top Ten Storytelling, Funniest and Coolest originate from Ace Metrix’s emotion measurement platform, Ace EMO. Scores for the fifty-seven emotional metrics are passively derived from voluntary respondent verbatim comments using Natural Language Processing and machine learning analysis.

With over 8,400 video ads analyzed in 2019, and over 3 million viewer comments, the following ads distinguished themselves by achieving the highest quantifiable levels of emotional and cultural impact in 2019.

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2019’s Most Empowering Ads

The Empower score measures the positive impact of an ad’s message, indicating when viewers find it encouraging, inspiring or motivating. In lieu of product-forward, blatant promotions, the most empowering ads focused on brand building narratives that revolved around purpose. These motives are reflected in the emotional connections viewers formed with these ads with all achieving signal on Inspiring, Heartfelt and Powerful.

*Not ranked in a specific order

2019’s Best Storytelling Ads

While they differ in their delivery, all of the top storytelling ads evoked a multitude of emotions in viewers. The ads in the Top Ten for Narrative have no fewer than eight emotions that fire, an impressive feat when many ads struggle to fire on more than one.

The top storytelling ad, Mercedes’s “Bertha Benz,” hit on a wide spectrum of emotions with the most significant connections (beyond Narrative) relating to Powerful messaging, Inspiring and Heartfelt feelings. In comparison to other 2019 luxury automotive ads, Information was 30% above norm, Likeability +24% and Attention +18%.

2019’s Funniest Ads

The Funniest ads were packed with Breakthrough potential as they all achieved above-average Attention and Likeability scores, providing evidence of humor’s ability to entertain audiences. As part of Pandora’s “Be You” campaign, “Afternoon” was the funniest ad of 2019, hitting rare levels of humor (on par with just 0.3% of ads).

2019’s Coolest Ads

The Visual Scenes were the cool-factor behind all of these ads with viewers crowning this aspect the Single Best Thing by a landslide for each. Emotional responses echoed the impact of impressive graphics, with Cinematic and Colorful metrics present throughout the list.

For example, action-packed visuals made Acura’s “Beat That” the Coolest automotive ad (among both luxury & non-luxury categories) last year. In an industry where the general population doesn’t find their ads “Cool,” Acura stood out as the only auto ad to achieve Strong signal in 2019 (score at least 7.0 of 10).

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