Ireland dominates UK’s 5 favorite TV ads in March
Jon Evans at System1 explains how the marketing industry’s darlings aren’t always the most effective ads in the eyes of the Great British public. Here are the real ads that were most enjoyed by real people.
Travel and alcohol dominates UK’s 5 favorite ads of March
Each month, hundreds of new TV ads launch in the UK. Marketing research and effectiveness company System1 analyzes the latest creative to test which spots resonated most with the public. In March, System1 chief marketing officer Jon Evans, explains how Ireland dominated.
How it works
System1 tests ads on measures that predict long-term brand growth (star rating) and short-term sales growth (spike rating) – each between one and six stars. These measures are validated using the independent Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) database and against real sales data at a category level.
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What Evans says
It’s been a cold, wet March – no wonder people’s thoughts are turning to holidays, mini-breaks and festivities. All three of our give-Star UK ads this month come from travel brands, and our two other high-scoring commercials are both from the drinks sector celebrating the big spring celebrations, Easter and St. Patrick’s Day. Raise a glass to these ads, which put two fingers up to the drizzle and gloom. Three were from Irish brands.
5. Guinness – ‘Holding out for a Zero’ – 4.6 stars
Guinness’ recent print and poster ads have had a lot of fun with the brand’s most distinctive asset – that rich dark and creamy white pint. Its St Patrick’s Day ad continued the theme, reinforcing brand codes and drawing inspiration from a TikTok trend, #singingguinness, in which people used straws to make foaming faces in a pint. An impressive blend of new pop culture and old, distinctive assets and consumer trends: it’s an ad for Guinness’ no-alcohol Guinness Zero brand.
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4. Baileys – ‘Easter 2023’ – 4.9 stars
One of the smartest and most cost-effective things a brand can do is go back to effective past creative, tweaking and remixing as required. This Baileys ad is the brand’s second-highest scoring in our database. It’s a new version of its highest-scoring ad, from 2020. That in turn was based on a viral bit of Facebook content the brand put up in 2018. The core idea – a resourceful hostess cracks open Easter Eggs to use as Baileys ‘glasses’ – doesn’t change. The voiceover shifts around to fit the current positioning. Effective recycling and a 4.9-star ad.
3. Tui – ‘City breaks made easy. Live happy’ – 5.1 stars
A zesty surf-guitar soundtrack helps pull together this montage-based travel ad, with travelers discovering world cities from New York to Rome. The secret weapon that pushes this into the five-star territory is that the ad focuses as much on the people as the scenery – it’s a celebration not just of where you travel, but the people you travel with. There’s a ton of human connection and between-ness packed into a rapid-fire ad – ingredients for effectiveness in any category.
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2. Citalia – ‘Discover the Real Italy’ – 5.4 stars
Italian tourism specialist Citalia deftly gets its core messages across in this 5.4-star ad, positioning itself as an expert who can help you enjoy a truly authentic Italian holiday experience. As such the ad doesn’t depart far from commercial category codes and lets the beautiful Italian landscape do a lot of the work. An enthusiastic and heavily accented voiceover at the end makes sure the spot finishes on an energetic note.
1. Tourism Ireland – ‘What fills my about Ireland?’ – 5.7 stars
Appropriately for St Patrick’s Day month, March’s top spot goes to Tourism Ireland’s ad, in which comedy writer Sharon Horgan talks to the viewer about how vital humor is in Irish culture. Like Tourism Australia’s hugely successful Ruby The Roo campaign last year, the spot takes a positive stereotype about a country and leans into it hard, ladling on the laughter, the emerald green and the swelling fiddles. In an era of podcasts and YouTubers, the spoken word has rarely been so prominent and we’re seeing more ads try this straight-to-camera, documentary-inspired style. It works when it feels real and when passion shines through, and this is an excellent example.