Orville Redenbacher’s Pop Up Bowl commercial, featuring Criss Angel, was the most memorable ad of the quarter.

Among the most watched commercials, a Listerine spot with animated Listerine fighters topped the list with 37,715,000 viewers. The most recalled ad was an M&M’s commercial where a criminal threatens to eat an animated M&M hostage in a convenience store holdup.

Although the top 10 recalled ads featured a range of categories and advertisers, from automotives to non-profits, one prominent trend was celebrity ads. Best Buy’s Buy Back Program ad, featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber touting 4G, 5G, and 6G phones, was the strongest celebrity ad in terms of brand recall. Consumers also remembered the Venus brand in a commercial with Jennifer Lopez singing, dancing, and chasing her children on the beach. The American Cancer Society ad featuring Celine Dion singing “Happy Birthday” was the sixth best recalled spot. Adrien Brody also did some singing in a Stella Artois ad, where he left women swooning as he serenaded a beer.

Many may have recognized the Best Buy and Stella ads from their premiere in this year’s Super Bowl. These ads performed significantly better with the Oscars crowd than they did in the Super Bowl. The Hyundai Sonata commercial with people using older technologies in the modern world also premiered during the Super Bowl and saw a bump as the eighth most effective spot for the Oscars.

LivingSocial.com was the only brand premiering a new ad during the Oscars to crack the top 10. This spot featured a couple dining, getting a cut at a salon, and taking tango lessons.

Overall, brand recall for this year’s Oscars jumped 9 percent versus last year.

Spending the most doesn’t necessarily equate to efficiency in viewer recollection, however.  In fact, new research released by Nielsen IAG found that the top four most memorable TV commercials which launched in 2009 included brands that did not spend the most on their respective campaigns in 2009. The two most recalled ads for Flomax promoted awareness of BPH treatment, followed by the HPV vaccine Gardasil and newcomer, anti-depressant Pristiq – were not among the year’s largest spenders for TV advertising by a long-shot.

2009 Most Recalled Prescription Drug/Vaccine Ads

“As with any category of advertising on TV today challenged with the need to cut-through the clutter and drive awareness and ultimately, persuade target viewers to take action, creativity and clarity are essential ingredients for effective and efficient ad development and deployment.  Pharmaceutical drug ads are not exempt from this challenge,” said Fariba Zamaniyan, Senior Vice President within the healthcare practice of Nielsen IAG.

While TV spending for prescription drug advertising has declined over the years, a number of factors contributed to that decline: fewer drug launches, the economic downturn and the increasing scrutiny by the FDA for prescription drug ads to increase the clarity of the delivery of product claim information in the ads. Stricter guidelines have forced an increase in ad length for many prescription advertisers which has resulted in extended ad lengths and ultimately, higher costs. In fact, the number of Rx ads that are greater than 60 seconds in length has nearly tripled since from 2006 to 2009.

“Longer ad lengths has further compounded the pressure marketers in this space already feel to build break-through advertising,” said Ms. Zamaniyan.  “However, longer length ads do not drop the bar when it comes to achieving goals.  Several ads in the top 10 most recalled new ads of 2009 include ad lengths greater than 60 seconds which further demonstrates that compelling and unique creative executions will help you stand out from the rest even if the ad is more than one-minute long.”

The dollar shift accompanies a rise in audience size for Univision and Telemundo, which garnered 11 percent more viewers last year.  But audience size is only part of the story: ads that are developed specifically for the Hispanic audience (versus those that are simply lifted or translated from general market TV spots) are received more favorably among Latinos and earn higher brand and message recall. 

Read the full story about how language holds the key for marketers trying to reach the burgeoning Latino market in the current edition of Consumer Insight.

That’s not to say every ad in the category was unmemorable. An ad for Claritin featuring Nascar’s Carl Edwards was judged slightly more memorable than last year’s top ad for the category featuring the Nasonex bee. Still, the Claritin ad failed to motivate customers to consider Claritin to the same degree as the Nasonex ad.

Why didn’t this year’s ads leave a strong impression? They just weren’t as good, said Fariba Zamaniyan, senior vice president at Nielsen IAG, Healthcare. “This collectively weaker performance suggests that the creative strength of the advertising is not as strong as it used to be” she said. “In these economic times especially, if you’re going to advertise on TV it has to be memorable. In a high-clutter category like allergy, you can’t afford to miss. Being average isn’t good enough.”

There were more advertisers overall this year (nine, up from seven a year ago) but fewer ads (20 this season, down from 24 a year ago). Ad spending for traditional media within the category from January to April declined 17 percent from a year ago, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus data. That’s about in line with spending declines in other categories, Zamaniyan said. At the same time, allergy advertisers sought the efficiencies they perceived cable TV programming could provide. Nielsen said the allocation to cable ad spending during the January-April period increased 20 percent from a year ago.

The most-recalled ad this year among allergy sufferers aged 25-54 was Claritin’s 15-second “Carl Edwards interview.” No. 2 was Zyrtec’s 30-second “bicycle” ad, which showed a woman taking her bicycle out of storage for a ride now that her allergy symptoms had abated. A year ago, the Nasonex “Bee next to a bottle” was No. 1, followed by Sudafed’s “Teacher head balloon,” which showed a woman’s head blowing up like a balloon as her congestion increased.

Creative quality also is taking the blame for this year’s ads doing less to motivate allergy sufferers to seek remedies. Nielsen IAG found intent to ask the doctor about the prescription brand advertised was down 40 percent from a year ago. Purchase interest declined nearly 20 percent. “Weaker creative which limits the ads’ potential to be recalled has ultimately resulted in lower call to action levels this season,” Zamaniyan said. “Again, the number of ads on air is consistent vs. year ago so, we can’t blame it on clutter – it’s the creative.” She discounted the notion that the down economy could be totally to blame. “It may be one of the factors,” Zamaniyan said. “Advertisers and their agencies often blame the economy, but the takeaway here is that before the advertiser can influence behavior, it has to break through.” As the number of brands advertising increased, she said, that becomes critical. “If the ad is not a unique execution that stands out from the rest and connects with the viewer, then the ability to drive purchase interest or doctor contact is suppressed no matter how recognizable the brand name is,” she said.

Hybrid Ads include customized ads, branded promos, vignettes, interstitials, and micro-series where sponsor messaging is combined with program or entertainment content.

Recall refers to the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, a hybrid ad’s sponsor.

A hybrid ad’s “recall score” is the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, the sponsor of a hybrid ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing primetime TV on broadcast and major cable networks.

Recall scores are indexed against the mean score for all new hybrid ads during the time period to calculate an ad’s “recall index.”

A recall index of 100 indicates average recall.  A recall index of 279, for example, means that a hybrid ad has proven to be about 2.8 times as memorable as the average new hybrid ad during the four-week time period.

Hybrid Ads include customized ads, branded promos, vignettes, interstitials, and micro-series where sponsor messaging is combined with program or entertainment content.

Recall refers to the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, a hybrid ad’s sponsor.

A hybrid ad’s “recall score” is the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, the sponsor of a hybrid ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing primetime TV on broadcast and major cable networks.

Recall scores are indexed against the mean score for all new hybrid ads during the time period to calculate an ad’s “recall index.”

A recall index of 100 indicates average recall.  A recall index of 291, for example, means that a hybrid ad has proven to be nearly three times as memorable as the average new hybrid ad during the four-week time period.

Recall refers to the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, the brand/product featured in an in-program placement.

A placement’s “recall score” is the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, the brand/product they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing dramas and sitcoms on U.S. broadcast networks.

Recall scores are indexed against the mean score for all new product placements occurring in the scripted drama and sitcom genres during the time period to calculate a placement’s “recall index.”

A recall index of 100 indicates average recall.  A recall index of 230, for example, means that the in-program placement has proven to be 2.3 times as memorable as the average placement during the four-week time period.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Ad Age’s “Madison + Vine” and Product Placement News.

But McCain got much more bang for his advertising bucks, according to an analysis by Nielsen IAG.

Nielsen’s survey of 1,600 likely general election voters who watched the Beijing Games found that McCain’s Olympic ads more effectively communicated a basic message, were recalled by more viewers, and triggered a larger intent-to-vote increase among viewers than ads run by Obama’s campaign. 

On average, the two McCain ads that were surveyed — “Celebrity” and “Washington’s Broken” – were recalled by 52% of those polled.  In comparison, just 40% recalled Obama’s two ads, “Hands That Built This Nation” and “It Begins With a Plan.”

That huge lead in general recall translated into a 10% net boost in intent to vote for McCain, while Obama received only a 7% lift from his Olympics TV ads.

There was some good news for Obama — his Olympics ads were apparently “more likable” than McCain’s.  Forty-five percent of Nielsen respondents said they liked Obama’s Olympics ads, while just 33% said they liked McCain’s.