Television and video advertising analytics provider Ace Metrix has announced the 10 most effective ads of the second quarter for the U.S., led by Dawn’s philanthropic “Saving Animals from Oil Spills,” which earned the highest overall Ace Score for the quarter.

Dawn’s entry earned an Ace score of 685, and a seat on the most effective list, performing 20.6 percent above the “Cleaners” category norm. AT&T’s (News - Alert) “Whatever-Proof” topped the list with the brand’s highest scoring ad of the year (Ace Score 626), 23.9 percent above the twelve-month telecom services category norm of 505. Further, “Whatever-Proof” is the highest scoring AT&T ad over the last year. Target’s (News - Alert) semi-philanthropic ad “A Great Thing: Kate” earned the second spot on the list with a score of 636, 22.8 percent above the discount stores norm and is the highest scoring Target ad to date.

 “Categories such as appliances, QSR, casual dining and mobile devices tend to generate higher scores, closing in on a norm of 600, while other categories, like those in alcoholic beverages, personal care and finance industries struggle to attain a norm of 500,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. “This quarter’s list celebrates the ads that rose well above the competition, scoring 20 percent or more above their respective category norms, including some incredibly effective ads from categories like mortgage, cleaners, beer and banking – proving that great creative can come from anywhere.”

Netflix’s “Watched Ahead” clearly connected with consumers earning relevance (679) and desire (614) scores that were both more than 23 percent above the category component norms. It received an Ace Score of 579, 20.6 percent above the category norm for websites.

Samsung’s 90-second version of a Graduation Day-themed campaign drew an Ace Score of 665, second only to its “The Best of a Phone (News - Alert) and Tablet” from February of 2012 (Ace Score 686). An information score of 757 makes this ad the fourth-highest scoring ad in terms of Information to date, and the ad’s 725 change score is the highest seen across all categories this quarter.

Angry Orchard Cider debuted “Fresh Apples” this quarter into an undisputedly polarizing category of beer, earning an Ace Score of 579, 20.1 percent above the beer category norm.

Also notable is Wells Fargo’s (News - Alert) “Conversation,” which takes viewers on a journey through touching moments throughout history and the recent past, earning the highest attention (692) and likeability (675) scores of all ads in the financial industry this quarter.

But it was dawn’s “Saving Animals from Oil Spills” that shone with the highest scoring of the nearly 1,400 ads scored this quarter. The ad is the second-highest scoring Dawn ad to date, the first being “Dawn Saves the Wildlife” (Ace Score 699), which was introduced in April of 2010.

“Dawn consistently delivers strong creative with the majority of their ads achieving above norm and upper quintile status,” said Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “Brand recognition among their standard product ads average 18 percent, an outstanding achievement.

Image via Brand Freak

He added, “This ad, however, where the focus is on using the daily cleaner to ‘do good’ in the world not only achieved the highest relevance (711) component score of the winner’s circle this quarter – but 24 percent of the 229 optional qualitative responses from consumers mentioned Dawn by name.”

Dawn’s “Saving Animals from Oil Spills” earned scores above 700 for every persuasion component with attention and likeability attaining 760 and 766 respectively. The ad also drew the highest emotional sentiment Index score of the winners’ circle at 71 – well above the twelve-month rolling norm of 46.