• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, May 5, 2011

An Oreo commercial showing two kids giving their mom Oreos and milk ranks highest in effectiveness among this year's batch of new Mother's Day TV spots, reports Ace Metrix.

The Ace Score measures TV commercials' creative effectiveness based on persuasion and "watchability" measures. The persuasion measure reflects the interaction of six elements: desire, relevance, likeability, attention, information and change. Watchability measures engagement with the ad.

The Oreo spot -- which has no dialogue (just music in the background) and ends with the simple message "Happy Mother's Day from milk's favorite cookie" as the mom and kids enjoy their treat -- scored 628. That's well above the 522 Ace Score that is the norm across the 10,000-plus TV commercials (across categories) in Ace's databank.

"This ad -- which had a phenomenal likeability score of 720 -- as well as a very high desire score, demonstrates how a super-simple approach can be effectively used to create a strong emotional connection with viewers," sums up Jack McKee, VP, sales and marketing for Ace Metrix.

Procter & Gamble has two of the 10 highest-ranking Mother's Day spots (there were fewer than 20 new ones this year). Both P&G spots are corporate branding ads that feature multiple P&G products and tie in with the company's support of Special Olympics.

One (which tied with a Verizon Wireless spot for #2, with an Ace of 573), shows a mom going through her "morning routine" (brushing her teeth with Crest, using Oil of Olay body wash and moisturizer, etc.) as her little boy watches. Message: "Did you know that a morning routine can help others?...Because P&G brands are committed to helping Special Olympics...Thank you, Mom...we couldn't do it without you. P&G: Proud sponsor of moms."

The other P&G ad (#3, with a score of 563) starts with: "Dear Mom: The little things you do every day help us do pretty big things...", then shows a mom using P&G products for diapering baby, doing laundry and so forth. The end-of-spot copy repeats the same Special Olympics tie-in and other messaging used in the "morning routine" spot.

"The 'morning routine' spot, in particular, scored very high on communicating information and change, meaning how much a spot makes people feel that a company is moving in a new direction," says McKee. "Both of these P&G spots manage to achieve several different goals and convey several different messages very effectively within 30 seconds. That is no small feat."

Verizon Wireless also has two spots scoring above the norm. The one that tied for #2 (573 score) features Hispanic comedian Paul Rodriguez talking about the value that the Verizon network delivers. "Value means getting all the quality you want at the right price, whether you upload, download, send or receive or just want to call mom to say 'hola'," he says. A quick message touting a deal for a combined purchase of a Samsung Fascinate phone and unlimited data access as a gift for mom interrupts. Then Rodriguez signs off by saying: "Es tu mama -- she deserves it."

The second Verizon spot (#5, 558 score) shows a single guy having an interior dialogue as he stands in front of a Verizon store, musing about how mom would like the capabilities of the Samsung Fascinate, including HD video. "She'll want videos of her grandkids ... I'm not ready for kids," he thinks, but then proceeds to imagine what he'll name his first boy, and what the boy will be like. Conclusion: He's getting the Fascinate (with data access deal) for mom.

"The Rodriguez spot cleverly uses a celebrity to cut through the tons of TV ads that are out there for various carriers -- although in this case, part of the genius was doing an ad geared to Mother's Day, because we didn't see any from competitors like AT&T and T-Mobile," notes McKee. "The celebrity is used very effectively to tell a story about the phone. The second spot also uses story-telling to good effect, without the celebrity element."

A Hallmark spot grabbed the #4 ranking (560 score). This ad shows a mom attempting to teach her teenage daughter to drive (as the daughter makes a mess of parallel parking). The message: "Mother's day is not for celebrating moms -- it's for celebrating all they've given us: the tough love, invaluable guidance and a life-long friendship." A voiceover at the end quickly notes that "select cards" now come postage-paid.

"Hallmark doesn't do a lot of TV, but Mother's Day is clearly one of their biggest opportunities of the year, and they've made the most of it with this very likeable, emotionally engaging spot that also works in the new, postage-paid feature," observes McKee.