AcuityAds Announces the Top Performing Super Bowl LII Ads as Rated by True Reach®

TORONTO and NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2018 /CNW/ - AcuityAds Holdings Inc. (TSXV:AT) ("AcuityAds" or the "Company"), a technology leader that enables advertisers to connect intelligently with audiences across video, mobile, social and online display advertising campaigns, today released results of the top performing Super Bowl LII advertising campaigns based on data collected by its True Reach® insights platform, which was acquired as part of the Company's acquisition of Visible Measures in March 2017. 

The True Reach® platform produces MRC accredited metrics for video and provides a holistic view of all publicly available data for campaigns, including all official uploads, copies, and user generated clips.  Rather than just looking at a single source or asset, True Reach® captures the number of times a video campaign is viewed across top video websites (including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.).

Seraj Bharwani, Chief Strategy Officer at AcuityAds describes the power of this technology as follows: "True Reach® captures the most comprehensive online video audience viewership data anywhere.  Over 500 million video ads have been tracked on major media platforms since 2007 offering normative benchmarks on a full spectrum of ad creative.  Real-time access to in-category share of attention data and viewership benchmarks deliver unprecedented insights on ideal media allocation for optimizing brand reach, frequency, engagement, and return on ad spend."

During Super Bowl LII forty-three campaigns from thirty-nine advertisers were tracked, which resulted in 55 million video views online on game day alone.  In addition to the official TV spots that aired, advertisers uploaded more than 260 pieces of video content online.

Celebrities Help Brands Garner Attention This Year

In total, the forty-three advertising campaigns that aired during Super Bowl LII represented over 464 million video views and 7.5 million social interactions (comments, likes, and shares) across the internet by end of day Monday after the game.  Of those 464 million views, over 19 million were social views, views that occurred on user-generated video content such as copies, spoofs, and commentary.

Of the forty-three campaigns, fully 21 featured a celebrity and those 21 campaigns represented nearly three quarters of the total Super Bowl LII True Reach® views online.  Furthermore, these 21 campaigns were responsible for 93% of the total Super Bowl LII social views.

Tourism Australia Wins The Internet

Tourism Australia resurrected Crocodile Dundee playing on international perceptions of Australia with a fake movie trailer, featuring stars including Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride. The campaign ranked in the number one slot according to True Reach® insights garnering over 58.1 million views, 6.6 million social views and over 1.4 million social interactions.

The Top Ten Brands Represent Two Thirds Of All Video Views

Leading brands were responsible for the majority of the total video views online. The top ten campaigns alone captured over 300 million views by the Monday morning after the game. In the top ten list are Tourism Australia, Amazon, Doritos / Mountain Dew, Budweiser, Bud Light, Pringles, Groupon, Michelob Ultra, Intuit and Stella Artois. 

AcuityAds Top 10 Videos Chart Powered by True Reach® Insights Platform

Rank	Brand	Campaign Name	Agency	Views
1	Australia	Tourism Australia Dundee	Droga5	58,127,761
2	Amazon	Alexa Loses Her Voice	Lucky Generals	53,153,263
3	Doritos, Mountain Dew	DORITOS BLAZE vs. MTN DEW ICE	Goodby, Silverstein & Partners	51,053,274
4	Budweiser	Stand By You	David Miami	32,257,171
5	Bud Light	Dilly	Wieden + Kennedy New York	26,485,895
6	Pringles	Wow	Grey New York	21,718,508
7	Groupon	Super Bowl 2018	O'Keefe Reinhard & Paul	18,902,126
8	Michelob ULTRA	The Perfect Fit	FCB Chicago	17,109,037
9	Intuit	A Giant Story	Phenomenon	13,551,312
10	Stella Artois	Taps	Mother	12,422,134

**The top 10 Super Bowl ads that aired nationally during the game, ranked by total views as of the morning of 2/5/2018.

AcuityAds will continue to release the weekly Top 10 Viral Video Chart based on data from the True Reach® platform.  This chart is commonly featured on Ad Age.

About AcuityAds:

AcuityAds is a technology company that enables marketers to connect intelligently with their most meaningful audiences through digital media. A Self-Serve programmatic marketing platform, powered by proprietary machine learning technology, is at the core of its business, accompanied by a patented solution for mobile targeting that leverages social data. AcuityAds empowers marketers by offering transparency on costs and brand safety, and real-time reporting and analytics, bringing accountability to programmatic advertising to deliver business results.

AcuityAds is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with offices across North America including New York City, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and London, England. For more information, visit www.AcuityAds.com.

Disclaimer in regards to Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements included herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, AcuityAds does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE AcuityAds Inc.

Tal Hayek, Chief Executive Officer, AcuityAds Holdings Inc., 416-218-9888, [email protected]; Babak Pedram, Investor Relations, Virtus Advisory Group Inc., 416-644-5081, [email protected]

Related Links

www.acuityads.com