Farmers Insurance is the 2014 Brand of the Year in insurance, dethroning 2013 winner Liberty Mutual, according to the annual Ace Metrix Brand of the Year report.

After examining nearly 7,000 ads across 24 industries, advertising analytics company Ace Metrix scored every national-airing television ad last year—breaking them down into 93 categories and ultimately determining each industry’s Brand of the Year. To qualify for the competition, brands must have debuted five or more pieces of creative content within a category containing more than 100 pieces of creative content with at least five qualifying brands.

Farmers earned an average Ace score of 608—a substantial 13% higher than the category norm. “A lot of Farmers’ ads were about ‘Did you know your insurance covers this, when it really covers this?’” explains Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “They were funny in terms of how they sold it, but they also had high relevance and likability scores as well. They combined the whole left and right brain in that campaign very, very well.”

Measuring a brand’s overall effectiveness, Ace calculates scores based on 3.5 million responses from approximately 700,000 consumers—resulting in more than 500 geo-demographically based consumer responses per advertisement. Although ultimately determined by an ad’s creative impact, the Ace score also factors in persuasion, likeability, information, attention, change, relevance, desire and watchability.

Daboll attributes the gap between Farmers and frontrunners like Allstate, Nationwide and Liberty Mutual to the consistent message and theme within the range of the company’s eight ads. “They were able to repeat that formula and not have a lot of variance in the scores, while capitalizing on breakthrough elements as well as information elements,” he explains. “It’s difficult to do, but creating a memorable spot has to combine both. It was just a really good formula.”

“Be Better Informed” was Farmers’ top ad of 2014, earning a score of 643—20% above the industry norm—and capitalizing on the entertainment and informational elements that Daboll claims makes or breaks an ad among consumers. The ad’s message that consumers can take simple steps to protect themselves against theft and loss resonated with respondents on various levels—particularly likeability, information and relevance.

“The ones that perform a little bit better on the Ace score are ones that combine some of the entertainment value but then also have informational content where people really learn something,” Daboll says.

For advertising industry-wide, Daboll says a good strategy differentiates and educates about insurance quality. “That’s when you see things like Farmers—educating people about what’s in their policy or what’s not—or Allstate positioning a quality argument that you may not be covered in your cut rate insurance for this,” he explains.

On the other hand, consider Geico and its “Hump Day” commercial—a cult-following breakthrough ad. “You remember the brand, but you’re not learning a lot,” Daboll says. “There’s this informational component that’s starting to emerge that I think people are actually responding to.”

Daboll says the advertising arena between insurers has become a “battle ground”—a response to an increase in consumer engagement and recognition in the wake of an improving economy. “In general and financial services, we’ve seen a bit of an uptick in terms of creative performance,” he says. “Consumers tend to respond to banking or insurance ads a little bit better than they did when they were beaten down in the recession. Generally, the whole category is lifted a little bit in terms of creative performance and how receptive consumers are to messaging.”

Morgan Smith is IA assistant editor.