10 Most-Recalled New Traditional Ads Oct.Nov. 2008

According to data from Nielsen IAG, an Apple ad, in which “PC” offers “Mac” a cupcake to raise money to repair Vista, was the most recalled new “traditional” ad during the four weeks between October 20, and November 16, 2008.

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

Rank	Brand	Traditional Ad Description	Recall Index
1	Apple	Mac–PC offers Mac a cupcake to raise money to repair Vista; marketing people spent all the money on an ad campaign; Mac takes a bite	195
2	Macy’s	Celebrities read “Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus”; little girl deposits a letter in mailbox; Macy’s donates to Make-A-Wish Foundation	189
3	DirecTV	Chevy Chase and Christie Brinkley in scene from National Lampoon’s Vacation; crazy is not connecting your new flat screen to DirecTV (:30)	187
4	Plavix	Gurney follows man as he walks around museum; taken with other heart medicines, Plavix provides greater protection against heart attack	185
5	Kellogg’s	Rice Krispies–Mom and kids make treats; girl points at spider web; mom makes witch’s hat; best treat is the one you get at home	185
6	Citi	CitiCard–two guys at concert find ways to sneak to the front; want great seats? enter for chance to go on 3-city tour with Nickelback	181
7	Microsoft	Windows–Clips of people talking about themselves; I’m a PC and I love life, shoes, to make people laugh, signing; upload yourself	180
8	Healthy Choice	Fresh Mixers–Two men in office kitchen; can you talk me through it first time?; add water, microwave, strain, & stir; What is that, Japanese?	179
9	DirecTV	Chevy Chase and Christie Brinkley in scene from National Lampoon’s Vacation; crazy is not connecting your new flat screen to DirecTV (:15)	179
10	Halls	Man in elevator; different people, like pizza delivery guy, come in and crowd him; after taking Halls, everyone is flattened against wall	178
Source: The Nielsen Company (October 20, 2008 – November 16, 2008).
Note: Nielsen IAG’s ranking of the Top 10 Most Recalled New Traditional Ads includes new executions only. Nielsen IAG’s panel includes viewers ages 13 and older.

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

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

A recall index of 100 indicates average recall. A recall index of 195, for example, means that an ad has proven to be slightly less than twice as memorable as the average new ad during the four-week time period.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Ad Age.