The 10 Most-Liked TV Ads of 2011

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Everyday people triumph over celebrities, as Aldi beats meerkats and Darth Vader to become the most-liked TV ad of the year

A po-faced old lady sitting alone at her dining table declaring, ‘I don’t like tea – I like gin’, has held off competition from meerkats, Gary Lineker and a child dressed as Darth Vader to become the UK’s most-liked TV ad of 2011.

The deadpan ad for supermarket Aldi won out just ahead of creative TV spots for CompareTheMarket, VW Passat, John Lewis and Walkers Crisps, in the UK’s most comprehensive ongoing analysis of how the viewing public engages with TV ads.

The most-liked ad of the year is compiled by Nielsen – a global measurement and analytics company - using almost 2million survey results from viewers watching evening TV in the UK. Scores for likeability and recall have been tracked every day for each of this year’s nearly 4000 new ads, shortly after each has been broadcast.

Comparing the 2011 list of most-liked ads with 2010’s, there have been noticeable developments in tone and content. Four of last year’s top 10 ads featured celebrities – including Lewis Hamilton, Dannii Minogue, Mr T and Lionel Messi – compared to only two this year – Walkers (Lineker) and PG Tips (Johnny Vegas).

Darren Moore, vice president for advertiser solutions at Nielsen explains: “This is the year that relatable characters – people like you and me – replaced celebrities in the list of most-liked ads. Sarah Roberts in the CompareTheMarket ad, Warren from Halifax in the Foster’s ad, and everyday people in the Aldi ads, are now the central characters in the TV ads we love the most.

“Even the meerkats have proved to be more resilient than celebrities this year. Having starred in last year’s no.1 liked ad, they’ve maintained a top-two place this year – proof that by regularly changing the narrative of their ads, brands can keep existing characters fresh and popular.

“The 2011 list also suggests that children (VW and John Lewis) and animals (CompareTheMarket, PG Tips, Dreamies) are triggering a more positive response for advertisers.

“Humour, too, is a big theme in this year’s list. Nine of the top 10 most-liked ads are funny or comedic in tone. Only the John Lewis ad, which instead uses pathos and an emotive pull, takes a different route to engage viewers.”

The winning ad from Aldi was one of a series of creative spots from the supermarket, which all use subversive humour and relatable characters. From this series, the ‘gin’ ad was the most liked.

The likeability index is a measure of the number of TV viewers who like an ad they saw, and whose brand they can remember, during the normal course of their TV viewing.

The 2011 most-liked ads of the year in the UK
source: Nielsen

The likeability score is based on the percentage of TV viewers who like an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of their TV viewing, and could also recall the brand of the ad. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the year to give a Likeability Index. 100 equals average. For example, with a Likeability index of 205, the top ranked Aldi ad has proven to be over twice as liked as the average new commercial during 2011. Only new ads airing Jan 1st - Dec 17th, 2011 with a Like Media Weight of 75 IRPs (ratings points) and above are included. Only the best ad from each brand is included. Coverage: all ads broadcast on ITV1, Channel 4, Five, Sky 1, Mon-Sun 6pm-12 midnight.

About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.