• by Tanya Gazdik , January 7, 2020

Mercedes-Benz, Acura and Infiniti were among the brands recognized  for "Most Empowering," "Best Storytelling," "Funniest" and "Coolest" ads.

Ace Metrix, which measures the impact of video creative, today released its review of 2019’s top-performing ads based on emotional connections and cultural perception. More than  8,400 video ads that  generated over 3 million viewer comments were analyzed.

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 to cultural and social subjects. 

Lists for "Best Storytelling," "Funniest" and "Coolest" originate from Ace Metrix’s emotion measurement platform, Ace EMO. Scores for 57 emotional metrics are passively derived from voluntary respondent verbatim comments using natural language processing and machine learning analysis.

All the “Best Storytelling” ads evoked a multitude of emotions in viewers. The top storytelling ad, Mercedes’s “Bertha Benz,” with its powerful messaging, hit on inspiring and heartfelt feelings, according to the study. In comparison to other 2019 luxury automotive ads, likeability was 24% above average and attention 18% above the norm.

Other brands on the “Best Storytelling” list were  Travelers, Charles Schwab, Hallmark, Principal Financial, University of Phoenix, Verizon, Jim Beam and Nike.

Visual scenes were the cool factor behind all the ads judged “Coolest," with viewers crowning this aspect the single best thing by a landslide.

The coolest ad was “Hide and Seek” from Sherwin-Williams. But action-packed visuals made Acura’s “Beat That” the third coolest ad and most cool automotive ad (among both luxury and non-luxury categories).

Other top finishers in the category included Wayfair, Trident, Perrier, GoPro, Porsche, Target and Honda.

The “Most Empowering” ads were not ranked in any specific order, but were found by viewers to be encouraging, inspiring or motivating. In lieu of product-forward, blatant promotions, the most empowering ads focused on brand building narratives that revolved around purpose. Infiniti’s “Inspiring Others” was on the list of most empowering, which also included ads from the NBA, Walmart, Nike, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cigna, Quicken Loans, the NFL and Citibank. 

The “Funniest” ads all achieved above-average attention and likeability scores. 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). Other ads deemed funniest were from Allstate, Tecate Light, Cheetos, Jif, Credit Karma, Amazon, Geico, M&M’s and Snickers.