• by Tanya Gazdik , March 1, 2011

Each of the seven JCPenney TV spots that debuted during the Academy Awards bombed, according to Ace Metrix.

Automakers claimed four of the Top 10 most effective Oscars ads, led by BMW's "Ch-Ch-Changes" Super Bowl ad, along with ads from Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai. The highest-scoring new ad that broke during the Feb. 27 broadcast was Coca-Cola's "You've Had A Hand In Scholarships" spot.

Adrien Brody's Stella Artois ad was the second-worst-performing ad and was also a failure in the Super Bowl, said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. The combined wasted dollars spent by both JCPenney and Stella Artois indicate that advertisers need to do a better job of testing -- especially ads debuting during the high-priced media buy of big events, he says, adding that the Stella Artois ad also shows that using a celebrity does not ensure an ad hit.

Hyundai -- an Oscar sponsor -- was inconsistent, scoring in the top 10 with its Equus spot but having several ads land in the bottom 10 as well.

Advertisers also failed digitally, according to marketing agency Resource Interactive, with most brands still not making the connection between their multimillion-dollar TV ad buys and engaging digital marketing.

After reviewing more than a dozen brands' digital marketing efforts, Resource discovered that only a handful of brands even attempted to engage with consumers, which was surprising since ad buys were upwards of $1.7 million.

The JCP ads failed for a number of reasons, Ace Metrix's Daboll tells Marketing Daily. Ace Metrix scores ads across a number of criteria to come up with the total Ace Score, and these ads did poorly across almost every one, especially in "persuasion," "watchability," "desire," "relevance," and "likeability."

Specifically, on average, their "desire scores" (meaning that the ad made consumers want the product), were 80 points below the norm for all ads in the Ace Metrix database (a good barometer for a national program). "This was despite the fact that a couple of the JCP ads scored above norm in 'change,' indicating that the ads caused people to change their view on JCP," he says.

Another big problem was that they failed to resonate and get the attention of their core demo -- females. The ads had low "attention" scores across the board for women of all ages.

JCP's Oscars ads did not live up to the company's own standards, as it (along with Macy's) has typically had relatively high-scoring ads outside of the Oscars. The average score of all JCPenney Ads that Ace Metrix has rated is 577, while the average JCP Oscars score was 464.

Marketers also need to "ensure ads appeal to a broad demographic group and don't alienate any single demographic," Daboll says. "Highly polarizing ads, while possibly appealing to the target demographic, almost never work. And in the case of a major advertising event like the Oscars or Super Bowl, the media spend is completely wasted if the ad is a dud."