USA’s best ads in 2020

Due to the pandemic, recession, social unrest and calls to end racism, 2020 was a momentous year that challenged brands to strike the right tone in their advertising. As Ace Metrix’s – which surveys a consumer panel to measure the creative effectiveness of advertising – studies suggest, consumers reacted positively to commercials that were inspiring, humorous or helped them to recall comforting memories from the pre-pandemic era. Those cross currents are likely to shape brand messaging in 2021.

The Most Empowering Ad

Measuring positive Cultural Perception, our Empower score indicates when an ad’s purpose-driven message inspires, encourages or motivates viewers. Historically, only 12.5% of all ads have scored on Empower. That rate skyrocketed in 2020. Viewers found 24% of last year’s ads Empowering.

Purpose, i.e. taking a social stance, came naturally to brands during the pandemic, and the universal impact of COVID-19 meant most, if not all, of the viewers could connect with those efforts. This last year was tough for many people, leading the best brands to step up to the plate and walk the walk. Among the most empowering, common themes emerged: messages of support and partnering with organizations across the country, regardless of whether these initiatives were COVID related or otherwise.

Despite the influx of Empowering ads after the pandemic hit, the top scoring  ad was not COVID-related at all. Instead, T-Mobile’s “MLB Little League Grant” emphasized its philanthropic initiatives, donating up to $1 million in support of Little Leaguer’s across the nation.

The Funniest Ad of 2020

From Super Bowl LIV spots jam packed with hilarious celebrities to ads that crack jokes about the overall state of 2020, this list is bound to make anyone chuckle. Rankings were determined by our Funny metric, which quantifies the level of humor in ads based on viewer verbatim comments using NLP and machine learning techniques.

Once the pandemic hit, brands shied away from riskier, humorous creative work (and focused on empowering ads). As a result, we measured a drop in funny ads and weren’t sure if we’d ever reach those previous levels of humor. That is, until Snickers came along and shattered expectations. The brand’s riff on Zoom meetings scored into the Rare band of Funny signal, an impressive feat achieved by just 0.12% of all ads.

Although humor didn’t make a full bounce back, with 20% of all ads firing on Funny in 2020 vs. 25% in 2019, the year ended on a high note with two of the funniest ads.

Ad That Broke Through 2020 Clutter

The top Breakthrough ads are those that scored highest on Ace Metrix’s Attention and Likeability components compared to the average ad in their respective categories.  Taking 2020 category norms into consideration was important when evaluating all ads across industries as some brands benefit from inherently Attention-grabbing and Likeable products (eg. QSR vs. Life Insurance brands).

Capital One’s “Instant Search” — 2020’s top Breakthrough ad — is a perfect example of this, where Breakthrough scores for the Banking category trail all-categories on average. Impressively, Capital One’s “Instant Search” significantly outperformed the Banking category Breakthrough norm.

Heading into 2021, it will be interesting to see how brands approach a world that is very much still in pandemic-mode, yet is also pandemic fatigued. Ace Metrix anticipates even more light-hearted spots in this year, ads that focus on nostalgic things of things we miss and will continue to see motivating and inspiring content from brands putting out purpose-driven, hopeful, post-pandemic messaging.