In a day when news head­lines are rou­tine­ly filled with sto­ries of strife and chaos with­in our com­mu­ni­ties, have brands become more sen­si­tive in their mes­sag­ing? Seems like it. And it’s work­ing for con­sumers. In look­ing at the top ads of Q3, as rat­ed by Ace Metrix,  and in review­ing some of the most mea­sur­ably suc­cess­ful ads of 2015, the themes of cause and pos­i­tiv­i­ty reign supreme with view­ers.

The sil­ly slap­stick com­e­dy vignette that has got­ten head­lines in the past has seem­ing­ly tak­en a back seat to what view­ers are respond­ing to this year. Many brands are get­ting seri­ous, and the ones that are doing it right are sup­port­ing impor­tant caus­es to buoy brand equi­ty, as well as high­light­ing pos­i­tiv­i­ty – sto­ries and themes that, frankly, put a smile on the faces of con­sumers.

Fur­ther indi­ca­tion of this trend comes from recent Super Bowl ads. If we con­sid­er the Super Bowl is a micro­cosm of the state of over­all adver­tis­ing, it has cer­tain­ly been mov­ing in the direc­tion of uplift­ing, sen­ti­men­tal, and cause aware­ness. Some of the most talked-about exe­cu­tions of this this year are these ads from the Super Bowl: McDonald’s “Pay with Lovin’”, Coke’s “Make it Hap­py”, and Always’ “Like a Girl.”

Cause Ads That Created a Stir

How did these themes play out in Q3? Here are three such ads that won in very dif­fer­ent ways – one through grab­bing atten­tion, one through like­abil­i­ty, and one for chang­ing per­cep­tion. Con­sumers placed each of these ads on the list of the Top Ads of Q3 from Ace Metrix.

1. AT&T

AT&T’s “Acci­dent” ad, part of its “It Can Wait Cam­paign” with BBDO, was one of the three most atten­tion-grab­bing ads of Q3.

The ad rewinds a shock­ing car acci­dent scene set in motion by a mom (only) glanc­ing at her cell phone while telling her child about how peo­ple like the pic­ture she post­ed. This dra­mat­ic cau­tion­ary tale against tex­ting and dri­ving scored 19 per­cent above the cor­po­rate brand­ing cat­e­go­ry norm for grab­bing atten­tion.

In one of the 387 option­al view­er com­ments that Ace Metrix gath­ered, one view­er said, “This ad was atten­tion grab­bing. It strikes home see­ing the small girl in the back seat and the dis­cus­sion of dis­tract­ed dri­ving.”

2. Dick’s Sporting Goods

Dick’s Sport­ing Goods, which has recent­ly won acclaim for its work pro­mot­ing the “every day ath­lete” with agency Anom­aly, pro­duced one of the three most per­cep­tion-chang­ing ads of Q3 with its one-minute “Sports Mat­ter” spot, a mov­ing por­tray­al about how sports can change the lives of kids in need told through the sto­ry of a par­ent­less boy who takes part in its Harlem Lacrosse and Lead­er­ship pro­gram.

Ace Metrix mea­sured this ad to be 16 per­cent over the retail norm for chang­ing per­cep­tion.

In anoth­er ver­ba­tim response, a view­er com­ment­ed, “Every­thing in this ad was eye open­ing. I had no idea Dick’s Sport­ing Goods had a foun­da­tion to help youth/teens. It made me feel good that such a large cor­po­ra­tion is out there help­ing young kids make good deci­sions in their lives.”

3. Intel

Intel’s ad, “Shub­ham Baner­jee & Intel Edi­son” part of its “Meet the Mak­ers” cam­paign, fea­tures the sto­ry of an 8th grade boy who invent­ed a braille print­er using Intel Edi­son tech­nol­o­gy to give the blind a low-cost way to read.

This ad, which aired exclu­sive­ly online, was one of the three most like­able ads of Q3 and scored 25 per­cent above the norm for lik­a­bil­i­ty in the cor­po­rate brand­ing cat­e­go­ry.

Accord­ing to one of the 463 option­al view­er com­ments, “That was one of the best ads I’ve ever seen. Excel­lent images and very inspi­ra­tional. It was a lit­tle longer than most ads but very engag­ing. When I am cap­ti­vat­ed I don’t the notice the length of an ad. Excel­lent cause and mes­sage. Thank you.”

What This Means for Brands

While adver­tis­ing is trend­ing more towards heart­felt mes­sages, the right kind of humor can still be a win­ning for­mu­la. If we look back to this year’s Ace Metrix Super Bowl rank­ings, Snick­ers “Brady Bunch” was tied for sec­ond place (and one of the most talked about Super Bowl ads), with two Dori­tos humor ads also in the top 10.

Con­sumers also like to know that the large cor­po­ra­tions they sup­port are giv­ing back in mean­ing­ful ways, and broad­cast­ing that mes­sage, how­ev­er self-serv­ing it may seem, can indeed go a long way for a brand.

Sto­ries that inspire, when done right, can help brands break through and make ever-so-impor­tant emo­tion­al con­nec­tions with their audi­ence.