Adland life can be a bit of a blur sometimes. Blink too hard and you might miss some of the incredible creative work brands are pushing out every week.
That’s why, here at DAIVID, we’re launching a brand new column dedicated to shining a spotlight on some of the highest-performing ads of the week.
Not just the ones making the biggest noise or attracting splashy headlines, but the ones that truly move people.
So, each week, we’ll run standout, eye-catching campaigns through our AI-powered creative testing platform to see which ads are not only attracting headlines, but also delivering real creative effectiveness.
Our AI models are trained on tens of millions of real human responses to ads over many years. So, while the tech might be doing most of the heavy lifting, the insights are very much people-powered.
We’ll pick out the best performers, as well as uncovering a few buried gems along the way.
So, grab a drink, get yourself comfortable, and enjoy.
It’s going to be emotional.
1. Dove: “Change The Compliment”
“Change The Compliment” is the latest chapter in Dove’s Self-Esteem Project, which the brand first launched back over 20 years ago.
The latest ad looks at how we praise girls – too often for their looks, not their strengths. Dove’s message is clear: when we only say she’s beautiful and forget she’s also “kind, clever, strong, and creative,” we risk telling her that beauty defines her worth.
How did it perform?
“Change The Compliment” certainly packs a punch, scoring in the top 10% of ads DAIVID has ever tested for overall effectiveness.
Key to this success is the ad’s powerful ability to engage viewers emotionally in the subject matter. The ad is 150% more likely to make people feel hopeful than the average ad, and twice as likely to make them feel grateful. The ad also generated intense feelings of admiration (+70%), warmth (+67%), joy (+65%) and trust (58%) that were all well above the norm.
But the ad doesn’t just pack an emotional punch. Attention throughout was also well above average. People were gripped.
As Dove’s latest iteration of a much larger project, people were also 29% more likely to identify the brand after watching. The only fly in the soap is slightly disappointing next step intents, with viewers slightly less likely to act after watching than the average. But overall – a fantastic campaign and a worthy addition to the Dove canon.
“Change The Compliment” – Emotions Map
2. FightTheStroke: “More Than Palsy”
Scottish actor and playwright Jack Hunter brings his own experience of living with cerebral palsy to this powerful campaign, launched in the lead-up to World Cerebral Palsy Day (October 6).
Created by DUDE Milan and inspired by Jack’s slam poem, “You’ve Got to be Ballsy to have Cerebral Palsy” the video shows the challenges faced by the cerebral palsy community through their own words. It is estimated that between 17-50 million people globally live with cerebral palsy.
How did it perform?
Like Dove’s campaign, the ad also scored very strongly after being put through DAIVID’s Creative Data API.
In terms of overall effectiveness, the ad ranked in the top 15% of all campaigns DAIVID has ever tested, driven largely by the intensity of positive emotions it evoked. Viewers were 13% more likely to experience strong positive feelings compared to the average ad.
Emotions such as empathy (+166%), admiration (+133%), hope (+125%), and sadness (+97%) were particularly powerful. Viewers also felt 53% more knowledgeable after watching, showing that the campaign’s goal of raising awareness for World Cerebral Palsy Day clearly hit home.
These emotional highs translated into attention, too — levels stayed well above the industry average throughout, and viewers were 6% more likely to share the brand after watching.
“More Than Palsy” – Positive emotions over time
3. Asics – “The Everyday Escape”
Asics urges people to ditch overpriced international wellness breaks and replace them with 15-minute movement breaks in this new campaign starring Natasha Rothwell, star of TV show White Lotus.
Directed by Matthew Frost through Iconoclast, at first the ad for the sportswear brand is shot like a parody of a commercial for an expensive wellness centre halfway across the world, but then quickly switches to show that movement is the ultimate escape.
As Rothwell explains, “you don’t have to fly halfway around the world to sip $60 green sludge that tastes like grass”.
How did it perform?
“The Everyday Escape” clearly struck a chord with viewers, ranking in the top 16% of all ads tested by DAIVID.
Much of that success came down to Rothwell’s performance, which sparked intense feelings of warmth (+81%) and trust (+51%), alongside boosts in inspiration, knowledge and amusement. Overall, the ad was 6.3% more likely to generate strong positive emotions than average.
Viewers stayed hooked right to the end, with attention 10% higher than average in the final three seconds. And with multiple clear shots of ASICS trainers, brand recognition was strong – 41% higher than average.
All in all, it was an ad that didn’t just connect emotionally – it also inspired action. Viewers were more likely to search for the brand, share the video or even reach for their wallets compared to the industry norm.
“The Everyday Escape” – Emotions Map
Notable mention:
Bitdefender – “They Wear Our Faces”
With Halloween approaching, we also wanted to call out this ad from Bitdefender, which generated intense feelings of horror almost 6x the average ad.
Truly scary.
To find out more about DAIVID’s AI-powered creative testing platform, click here.