Restaurants that focused their advertising on the point – both getting to one and ones that dealt with price – were the biggest winners with consumers, according to an analysis of October ad spots by Los Angeles-based advertising research firm Ace Metrix.
Darden Restaurants and Burger King were the big winners for the month, airing short, 15-second spots that also focused on value for the dollar.
Ace Metrix ranks the top commercials of the segment by its proprietary Ace Score, a measurement of how persuasive and watchable an advertisement is, based on consumer survey data. The maximum possible Ace Score is 950.
Of the 40 new commercials that hit the airwaves in October, 18 were 15-second spots, which is a much higher prevalence of shorter ads than in a typical month, Ace Metrix vice president Jack McKee said. The average Ace Score for 15-second spots was 583, higher than the restaurant industry norm of 578, he added.
Six ads in the top 10 — which included an eleventh spot because Yum! Brands Inc. and KFC tied for the No. 10 ranking with separate commercials garnering the same score — were 15-second commercials, The top-scoring spot was from Olive Garden, which promoted its $6.95 Half Panini Lunch and had an Ace Score of 674.
“The rule for October seemed to be, ‘Keep it short, and keep it value-focused,’” McKee said. “The 15-second ads’ average Ace Scores were higher than the industry norm and higher than the average for the 30-second spots.”
In addition to its No. 1 overall ranking for the Olive Garden spot, Darden Restaurants appeared two more times in October’s top 10, with the No. 3 ad for LongHorn Steakhouse, scoring 648, and another Olive Garden spot tied for No. 7 with an Ace Score of 609.
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McKee touted Burger King’s performance in October, in which its three separate 15-second commercials garnered the Nos. 4, 7 and 9 rankings. Its best-scoring ad, for the Chef’s Choice Burger, a new premium sandwich meant to take on McDonald’s Angus Third Pounder, had an Ace Score of 624.
McKee noted that Burger King performed more consistently than McDonald’s in October’s advertising. Burger King’s three spots all made the top 10 and had an average Ace Score of 611. Meanwhile, McDonald’s debuted seven spots during the month, and its overall average Ace Score was 551.
“In some of the comments [from survey respondents], people were applauding the focus on the product that Burger King was taking, versus old commercials with The King,” McKee said. “The new strategy seems to be working. Talk about a save.”
Watch Burger King’s commercials; story continues below
The prevalence of 15-second commercials and of commercials promoting lunch may be indicative of seasonality, he added.
“For us in the advertising industry, Q4 is a hard-working quarter, when people are getting geared up before the holidays,” he said. “We’ll be seeing a lot of value [commercials] this quarter, because brands are going after customers with limited budgets who still have a lot of holiday shopping to do.”
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The No. 5 spot, a commercial from Pizza Hut with funny parents embarrassing their kids by trying to use young people’s lingo, had an Ace Score of 620. It was the only commercial in the top 10 for October that attempted to be funny, McKee noted. Humor is hard to convey in restaurant advertising, he said, because appealing to the broad demographics restaurants must attract does not allow much use of humor — which goes over well with some age groups and falls completely flat for others.
McKee also noted that LongHorn’s commercial packed a lot into 30 seconds. The ad first promoted new, premium items like the Lobster Stuffed Filet and the White Cheddar & Bacon Stuffed Filet, then pivoted to a short mention of its value offer at mid-day, the $7.99 Lunch Combinations.
“One of the formulas I see often with casual-dining guys is the succulent food shot to draw you in, and then they land you with a pricing deal,” McKee said. “I’ve seen them work, and I’ve seen them backfire. You have to communicate other parts of your brand [than just food shots], as well as your differentiation.”
One way brands differentiated their advertising with some success was through cause marketing. Applebee’s took the No. 2 spot, garnering an Ace Score of 663 with a commercial honoring and thanking American military veterans. Yum! Brands also broke into the top 10 with a commercial about its World Hunger Relief philanthropic efforts, starring pop singer Christina Aguilera, who has served as the company’s spokeswoman the past three years for World Hunger Relief and is an ambassador to the United Nations’ World Food Programme.
Watch Yum! Brands' commercial with Aguilera; story continues below
“Cause marketing generally scores well, because people generally like philanthropy, and it often incorporates celebrities,” McKee said. “But celebrities in advertising across different industries is not a guaranteed way to get performance, so the relevance factor really drives it. We have seen this with Outback’s ads focused on troops in previous quarters and with Applebee’s spot this quarter.”
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].
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