Top 10 most talked about ads in 2020: Entropik Tech

Emotion is instrumental in any marketer's attempts to persuade the customer, and when properly used, it can even bring an uninterested buyer to the aisle. Indeed, the winning creatives do not offer the best products; instead, they have the perfect messages resonating with their audiences. Be it Nike's ‘You Can't Stop Us’ or Tanishq's controversial ‘Ekvatam’, Entropik Tech has put together a list of the top 10 most-talked about ads from 2020.

 

1. Match Making: When #2020 meets Satan

 

A real meet-cute unfolds as Taylor Swift's number Love Story blasts in the background. Sounds romantic, right? Well, except the couple is the year 2020 and Satan.

This film from Ryan Reynolds and his company, Maximum Effort, is winning big on social media. In only two weeks from its launch, the video has close to 4 million views. The ad shows Satan (similar to a Marvel Comics' Surtur portrayal) and 2020 (played by a woman) as the perfect "Match: made in hell."

 

The ad shows the couple meeting on the dating site Match. Affect Lab's emotion insights show that the ad triggered high negative emotions among the respondents of 8.61 with positive emotions at 4.47. According to Affect Lab, the overall engagement for the ad highlighting the weird and humorous take on 2020 was weak. Out of 100, the engagement score remained at 19.76 throughout the 90-second ad. The commercial chalked up only 33.59 on the Affect Lab score.

 

2. L’Oréal Paris India: Stand-Up Against Street Harassment

 

"We see it happen," mentions the ad, "but uncomfortably look away." These words raced through anyone's mind who watched the latest ad from L'Oréal Paris. Launched on November 25, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the campaign delivers a powerful message against street harassment.

With a hard-hitting story and appalling narration, the commercial has created a stir on social media. In less than a month from its launch, the video has more than 8 million views on YouTube and a comment section creating further discussion about harassment against women.

 

Insights from Entropik's proprietary Emotion AI platform Affect Lab suggest that the ad triggered high negative emotions of 8.45 throughout, which fares well for the brand since respondents could relate to the content. The attention level was elevated at 53.19 secs, with the creative getting an Affect Lab score of 33.95.

 

3. Voltas Beko: Mother's Day

 

Titled #IAmEnough, Voltas Beko dropped its Mother's Day commercial honouring single mothers worldwide. Conceptualised by Momspresso, it follows the story of a girl and her mother.

As they catch-up after a busy day, the girl tells her mom that a classmate taunted her because she has a single parent.  To which she responded, "my mother puts in double the efforts in loving and raising me, then how is she single?" When the mom realises that her child is wise beyond her age, the mom acknowledges that she is a good mother and is enough.

 

The slow-paced ad had a low engagement level of 18.65; however, owing to the appealing content, the attention level was at 56.52, and an Affect Lab score of 34.23. The creative garnered mixed responses from respondents, and the deviation from positive and negative emotions was only four points.

 

4. Coca-Cola: Christmas Commercial 2020

 

Coca Cola is known for creating powerful ads. Within one month since the brand dropped its Christmas commercial, the video had roughly 7 million views on YouTube and left viewers teary-eyed.

The 90-second film shows a father's extraordinary journey to deliver his daughter's letter to Santa Claus at the North Pole. Since the ad was slow-paced it fell short on the engagement level, mention the Affect Lab's Emotion AI insights. However, the heart-tugging narrative appealed to the audience and saw an attention score of 51.14 and an Affect Lab score of 31.92.

 

Directed by Taika Waititi, Coca Cola's message this year, "this Christmas, give something only you can give," resonated well with the viewers. The positive emotions surged when the tagline appeared.

 

5. Google: #BeKindToYourMind

 

Google never fails to surprise, and once again, through its #BeKindToYourMind ad campaign, the brand won hearts. Addressing the mental stress caused by the pandemic, Google launched the commercial in May 2020 and garnered positive attention and over 9 million views on YouTube.

The 54-second ad shows how people are coping with the lockdown. The ad highlighted how people are using the Google search engine to engage their children, help elders stay fit, and surprise their loved ones over video calls.

 

According to Emotion AI insights from Affect Lab, the ad saw a high attention level of 55.37 and an engagement level of 22.55. After analyzing consumer emotions from facial coding and eye tracking, Affect Lab’s emotion report says that the heart-warming visuals witnessed a rise in positive emotions. These topics were close to the respondents' heart.

 

6. HP India: #YeDiwaliDilWali

 

With close to 4 million views on YouTube, the latest Diwali creative from HP India is a real tear-jerker. Launched in November, the "Ye Diwali Dil Diwali" advertisement supports local sellers.

Conceptualised by AutumnGrey and Utopians, the ad offers the storyline of a child bringing hope to his tailor, dejected by the testing times. The commercial follows the kid who embarks on a selfless mission to spread festive cheer and happiness through a young mind's creativity and his HP printer.

 

As per emotion recognition platform Affect Lab, the ad saw a high attention level of 53.33. Studies suggest that creatives with kids garner more attention, and HP ticked all the right boxes. The kid sacrificing his Diwali gift for a stranger resonates with the audience, and a score of 9 for negative emotions is the proof. Affect Lab specifies that negative emotions like anger and sadness are not always bad if they convey the message that the brand wanted to deliver.

 

7. Vivo: #SwitchOff

 

"But did we really spend time together?": Vivo's latest ad flashes this line, compelling viewers to think. With over 50-million YouTube views in less than two weeks, the creative titled, '#SwitchOff for your family time' is a smart and bold statement from the company. A smartphone brand, urging people to spend less time on it and more with the people around them, earned much praise in the pandemic-struck world.

Featuring Farida Jalal as the grandmother, the commercial recorded a very high attention level of 58.16. The ad's relatable content kept the audience engaged as Affect Lab's emotion tracking gave an engagement score of 23.89. Since the 80-second creative focuses on stay-home culture and Covid-19, the negative emotions were high at 8.96.

 

However, the humorous moments towards the end resulted in a 5.41 positive emotion score. AffectLab's facial coding and eye-tracking analysis on advertisements during Covid-19 suggest that commercials mentioning the pandemic and its effects trigger negative emotions amid viewers.

 

8. Nike: You Can’t Stop Us

 

Nike's ‘You Can't Stop Us’ is one of the most popular commercials in 2020, powered with extraordinary split-screen technical video editing, remarkable narration, and featuring sports stars from across the world. During a pandemic, creating empathetic and engaging ads is challenging, and latching onto the right emotions can do the trick.

The 90-second ad has breathtaking split-screen storytelling and demonstrates that somehow we are all linked together. With easily over 60 million views on YouTube alone, this action-packed, blink-and-you-miss advertisement features Nike-sponsored athletes including like LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, Serena and Venus Williams, Rafael Nadal, with world cup-winning US footballer Megan Rapinoe as the narrator. The advertisement is a cinematic marvel from Wieden + Kennedy that gathers visuals from 4,000 hours of rigorous sports action.

 

Interestingly, according to the emotion insights, the intensity of negative emotions was higher than the positive emotions among the viewers. The globally applauded ad earned an attention level of 64.64 on an average and was pretty consistent throughout the 90-second ad.

 

Besides, Affect Lab's emotion report indicates that the viewer's sadness quotient was peaking whenever they saw a Paralympic athlete on the screen. 

 

9. Tanishq: Ekvatam

 

Tanishq’s Ekvatam commercial made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The ad film shows a Muslim family throwing a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law. As the creative concludes, the expecting mother mentions to her mother-in-law that baby showers aren’t a custom in their home. To which her mother-in-law replies with a smile, “but isn’t it a tradition for every household to keep their daughters happy?”

The ad's description read, "a beautiful confluence of two different religions, traditions, cultures," but social media did not agree. All the fuss led to the makers finally taking down the video. In a sensitive age like this, inter-faith commercials can be tricky.

 

The attention level of the respondents while watching the commercial was 61.57, which is above average compared to advertisements on television and social media. The commercial video saw a dip in the attention level at the 23rd second when the mother-in-law walks the expecting daughter-in-law out to the venue. There is also a dip at the 30th second where the mother comments that “Keeping daughters happy is a ritual in every house”. Entropik Tech's emotion AI platform, Affect Lab decoded the varying emotions that viewers underwent while watching the video.

 

10. Apple: A Climate Change Promise from Apple

 

Apple dropped an unusually quiet commercial titled ‘A Climate Change Promise from Apple’ to announce its commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. The 96-second ad includes a baby called Ivan sleeping and a man delivering a heartfelt and profound promise, hitting the right spot with the audiences.

Apple's sweet lullaby comes at the perfect moment, as the world erupts into chaos over bushfires, viruses and deadly insects. With people becoming more environmentally conscious, it is integral that companies take note and market accordingly. The ad beautifully conveyed Apple's promise. To know more about how the ad justified the emotions, read our analysis where AffectLab decodes consumer emotions through Emotion AI technology.

 

According to the emotion insights from Affect Lab’ Emotion AI platform, the advertisement made by McCann Paris earned the attention level of 64.11 on an average through the 96-second clip with a dip of only 2 points. The commercial featuring the song ‘Flight from the City’ by the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson saw an average variation of 4.5 points in the mix of positive emotions and negative emotions.

 

Emotion report metrics

 

The above report is generated by Entropik Tech’s Emotion AI platform - Affect Lab. The emotion metrics mentioned above includes attention that highlights the visual appeal of any creative on a scale of 0-100. The emotions are also defined in broader segments like positive emotions (happy and surprise) or the intensity of negative emotions (sad and anger) on a scale of 0-100.