July 20, 2012

In Its Uniquely Objective Analysis of the Impact of Humor in Advertising, Ace Metrix Applies Science to Identify Funniest Ads and Brands for the Last Five Quarters — Doritos, Target and Huggies Found To Be Funniest Brands

Ace Metrix, which provides analytics for television and video advertisers, recently released a study that takes the first-ever large-scale, scientific look at the role of humor in video advertising. According to the study, entitled Is Funny Enough?, consumers found 20 percent of more than 6,500 TV ads that aired between January 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012, to be funny. Consumers found ads from Doritos to be funnier than any other brand (6.4 times funnier than average), and Target to have more consistently funny ads than any other brand, with 85 ads above the Funny Index average. "We think that this paper is groundbreaking on several different levels," said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix, in a news release. "First, no one has ever been able to look at such a large data set and mine both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of an advertisement. Second, no one has ever been able to get at a truly objective assessment of the concept of humor, and third, no one has ever been able to determine the attributes and relationship between humor and effectiveness using similarly scored ads. The result is a new way to evaluate the impact of this critical element of advertising." The sample dataset of 6,500 ads contained more than 1.5 million unsolicited consumer verbatims. Ace Metrix then applied advanced semantic processing algorithms to qualify and quantify the level of humor associated with each ad, generating a "Funny Index," a unique and objective metric that enables marketers and researchers to easily compare the relative funniness of ads across the dataset. A Huggies ad entitled "Baby Wets the Room," which demonstrates the benefits of new diaper technology through a series of baby 'accidents,' earned the highest Funny Index score — 12 times more funny than the average ad, according to consumers.

The study includes the top 100 funniest ads, the top 10 of which appear below.

The Top 10 Funniest Ads

*The Funny Index is an objective method for determining how "funny" an ad is based on verbatim responses gathered for every ad. Responses are filtered by trigger words, and a score is generated using text analytics and a proprietary scoring metric. The list above is comprised of the top 10 ads on the Funny Index for the time period of January 1, 2011–March 31, 2012.

The study includes a complete list of the top 100 funniest ads, the funniest brands, and the correlation between funny and the effectiveness components of the Ace Score. The study employs a novel and objective method for measuring how funny an ad is and applies science to identify (1) the frequency of humor in advertising, (2) the "funniest" ads, brands, and industries, (3) the impact of debuting a funny ad during the Super Bowl versus any other time of year, and (4) the overall correlation between funny and effectiveness. Download the whitepaper here.