Source: Nielsen
Notes: Fast food and QSR ads performed well with Millennials (18-33) last year, says Nielsen in a review of the most memorable English-language ads among this demographic. Wendy’s spot, “Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger Be With You Song” emerged as the leader with a brand memorability index of 338, meaning that it was 3.38 times more likely to be remembered and associated with the right brand among Millennials than the typical ad. Nielsen also notes that food ads comprised 8 of the top 10 ads among African-American Millennials and 9 of the top 10 among Hispanic Millennials, though they didn’t have quite the same appeal among Asian-Americans of this age, who only placed 3 in their top 10. Overall, humorous ads and those that “touted an ownable campaign concept” appeared to be the most memorable.
Among advertising categories, QSRs were second in ad spend through the first three quarters of the year with $3.4 billion ad buys, though that trailed the automotive category ($8.4 billion) by a significant amount.
Related: Top TV and Video Advertisers of 2014
About the Data: The rankings are based on Nielsen TV Brand Effect studies conducted from January 1, 2014 to December 7, 2014. To qualify, Nielsen says ads must have launched during calendar year 2013 (Editor’s note: checking to see if this should in fact be 2014) and meet a minimum sample threshold of n=100. Additionally, the ad much be on-par or significantly above the Likeability norm. The list measures English-Language Ads on English Networks only.
Branded Memorability reflects viewers’ ability to remember the ad and correct brand 24 hours after exposure to the ad, indexed to the CYTD (calendar year to-date) average of Ad & Brand Memorability among Millennials.
