• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 24, 2011

Santa still can deliver gifts to marketers. Four spots featuring the icon proved to be among the most effective holiday ads this season, according to Ace Metrix.

An Apple ad where Santa uses Siri, the personal assistant driven by voice recognition, was the most effective, according to a consumer survey. A Coke spot, where Mr. Claus has a snow globe, came in third. Macy’s and Aleve spots with Santa also made the top 10.

Also, Ace Metrix said there were 35 new ads with Santa this year, each scoring above the norm.

Overall, three retailers’ spots -- from Macy’s, Sears and Best Buy --- made it into those rankings at an important time of year for them.

A Pillsbury spot with the famed dough boy taking “us home for the holiday” came in second with an “Ace Score” of 633, below leader Apple’s 652. Following Coke in third place with a 631 were Nintendo and Duracell spots. Duracell’s featured the Mattel Children’s Hospital, which came in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Ace Metrix said there were 30% more holiday ads this year. Retail and automotive were the dominant categories.

Although their ads did not rank among the top 10, Ace Metrix cited creative from Jack Daniel’s and Allstate as effective in outdoing “category counterparts.”

The Ace Metrix data came from a survey on effectiveness -- metrics include relevance, persuasion and watch-ability -- among randomly selected respondents, with results presented on a scale with the top score of 950.