• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, April 7, 2015

McDonald's may still be struggling on many fronts, but it indisputably produced a winner with its “Pay With Lovin” ad, confirm the Ace Metrix scoring results for this year's first quarter.

The spot was not only the top-scoring ad of the Super Bowl; it also had the highest Ace Score in the QSR category for all of this year's first quarter: 706, which was 21.6% higher than the category average. Pay With Lovin' ad was also the only ad — out of the 1,700-plus across 30 categories tested by Ace during the quarter — to score above 700.

In the casual restaurants category, TGI Friday’s' "January" ad, featuring a $10 dine-and-drink menu, earned the highest score (695, which was 12.8% above the category norm). 

Here's a summary of the Q1 winners in other food and beverages categories tracked by Ace Metrix:

Beverage Categories 

Coca-Cola's Super Bowl entry, “#MakeItHappy," also came in at the top of its category for the full quarter, with a score of 652. That was  19.4% above the soda category's norm.

In Ace Metrix's non-alcoholic beverage category, Simply Juice's “Refreshing” ad earned the highest Ace (658, 15% above the category norm).

Budweiser’s “Lost Dog” ad, which also debuted during the Super Bowl, earned the highest Ace Score in the category with a score of 652, 27.8% higher than the beer category's norm. This ad was also one of just five ads in Q1 to outperform its category by more than 20%.

In the spirits, malts and wine category, Pinnacle Vodka's “The Book Club Club” led with a score of 537 (8.9% above the category norm).

Food Categories

Triscuit's “Versatile Crackers for Any Food” scored highest in the candy and snack category, with a 658 (outperforming the category norm by 15.1%).

In the packaged food category, Sargento's “Hundred Percent Cheese” led with a score of 673 (15% above the category norm).

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 awards. The ads were scored by more than 150,000 consumers, representing 750,000 quantitative and approximately 450,000 qualitative responses. The results are presented on a scale of  1 to 950, representing scoring on creative attributes such as Persuasion, Likeability, Information, Attention, Change, Relevance, Desire and Watchability.