• by Tanya Gazdik , January 4, 2011

Samsung's TV spot for its 3D LED TV is the highest-scoring ad of 2010, according to Ace Metrix, which rates ads based on their effectiveness.

"Wonder-full" garnered an Ace Score of 736 out of a possible 950, scoring a 759 in watchability and 677 in persuasion. The Samsung ad was also the top-scoring ad in first-quarter 2010 and the highest-scoring ad in the annual male, female and TV and appliances categories.

The ad clearly resonates with consumers, says Peter Daboll, chief executive of Ace Metrix. "It was a brilliant execution of a difficult creative challenge," which was how to convey the impact of 3D TV in a two-dimensional TV ad, he says.

Marketers for other brands can learn from Samsung's success, Daboll tells Marketing Daily, such as understanding why the ad works in terms of specific attributes that can be benchmarked and applied to future ads. How the ad did relative to all the other ads is key, he says.

"You need to be able to break through the clutter, and you can only do this by seeing your ad's performance relative to everything else that is out there," Daboll says. "It's not just that 'my ad scores a 720' it is that 'everyone else scored 580.'"

The Ace Metrix persuasion rating is based on the interactivity of six data elements -- desire, relevance, likeability, attention, information and change -- automatically captured and analyzed for each ad. Watchability measures the engagement that a person has with the ad.

According to the overall Ace Metrix 2010 creative effectiveness data, there are two overriding high-scoring themes for the year: Philanthropic and innovative/new technology.

Ads featuring topics such as saving wildlife, Dawn's "Wash Away" and saving trees, and Starbucks' "The Big Picture" scored high. The Dawn "Wash Away" ad was the highest-scoring second-quarter 2010 ad with an Ace Score of 699.

Innovative/new product themes also resonated extremely high throughout 2010 -- as seen with the winning Ad-of-the-Year for the Samsung 3D TV, for third-quarter winners iPad and Nissan, and Sony for "Epic Gaming for All" for the PlayStation 3 which took top honors for the fourth quarter.