Millward Brown South Africa announces The Top 20 Best Liked Ads of 2015

Millward Brown’s Best Liked Ads have been celebrating South Africa’s favourite TV commercials since 1984. These are the ads that have been rated as the most liked by the South African audience, whom we believe to be the most important critic - the person who ultimately chooses to buy your brand or not.

Looking at the 2015 winners, we see a combination of humour, nostalgia/slice of life and babies and kids dominating the top 20, with many of the ads having a very distinct South African flavour. “You have to strike an emotional chord that resonates with the target consumer,” says Natalie Otte, Head of Millward Brown South Africa, “and clearly great creative with a local focus is doing just this! Many of the ads tell a story reflecting the brand’s purpose beyond just functionality.”

It’s really important for ads to be relevant, to both the consumer and the channel; brands need to choose the right moment and the right audience for their messages. We know from testing hundreds and thousands of ads in South Africa, to get your message right is really hard. Ads that are easy to understand, single-minded in their purpose and tell great stories deliver better message take-outs with their audience.

“In the increasingly cluttered and fragmented media landscape, the ability to measure the effect and efficiency of different media activity is paramount. So for the ones that do cut through, agencies and marketers are clearly making their creative work harder driving strong liking for the ads,” says Lizelle Shawe, Head of Millward Brown’s Adtrack.

Congratulations to the following agencies and marketers: