Insights agency, TRA, has released into annual favourite ads report for Australia and New Zealand.
Australia’s Top 10 Favourite Ads – June 2025
- Allianz: Care you can count on
- Telstra: Wherever we go
- Budget Direct: Sarge, Jacs and Chief
- Youi: Shop around
- RACQ: You with RACQ?
- Aldi: Good Different
- KFC: FLG
- HBF: Quokkas
- AAMI: Lucky You’re with AAMI
- Specsavers: Should have gone to Specsavers
NZ Top 10 Favourite Ads – June 2025
- Turners: Tina from Turners
- ASB: Ben and Amy
- ANZ: The Sharma Family
- Tux: Feeding the Kiwi in all our dogs for 70 years!
- One NZ: Let’s Get Connected
- PAK’nSAVE: Stickman
- Genesis: George and family
- Lotto: Powerball Imagine
- KFC: The Power of KFC
- Skinny: Get the Skinny
Australia’s favourite ads are winning hearts and attention through emotional storytelling and humour, but brand attribution remains a critical challenge, according to the research.
Australia’s favourite ad, Allianz’s “Care You Can Count On” is an emotional story of care, resilience and protection. Interestingly, nearly half of respondents could vividly describe the ad, however, did not mention the brand behind it.
“This disconnect between emotional engagement and brand recognition presents an important and nuanced takeaway for brand marketers,” stated Alex Forrester, business director at TRA. “It takes time to build connection and recall, but this campaign has overcome the biggest hurdle – it has captured attention. And we can already see the makings of distinctive assets with the eagle being cast as the ‘hero’ and bringing the logo to life. Providing Allianz commit to the creative idea, we can see this campaign only getting stronger with the benefit of time.”
“The challenge of attribution wasn’t unique to Allianz. Despite having distinctive platforms, brands such as AAMI, Youi and Budget Direct were frequently misattributed – often to one another.
The storytelling format of accidents, errors and insurance-type scenarios, featuring across the brands appears to confuse audiences. Allianz’s strategy to diverge from category norms may well work in their favour while building something unique over time.”
The top 10 list reflects a strong preference for humour, character-driven storytelling and long-running brand platforms. This is particularly apparent for the insurance category, which dominated the list with ads from Allianz, Budget Direct, Youi, RACQ, HBF and AAMI, despite only ranking 7th in Nielson’s 2024 Advertising Spend Report.
“Media spend isn’t everything,” Forrester said. “Creating a favourite ad means tapping into emotion, while sustaining brand impact over time requires consistency and strategic use of brand assets. Brand marketers who balance these elements will drive long-term effectiveness.”
ALDI returns as the sole supermarket brand, alongside creative heavyweights – KFC, Specsavers and the new brand platform from Telstra, Wherever you go.
Access the full report here: https://www.theresearchagency.com/favourite-ads
New Zealand’s story is a little different. There, long-running storytelling and humour are driving deeper audience connections.
The country’s favourite ad, Tina from Turners, is a new execution, but with a consistent character, combining familiarity with something new. Tina is closely followed by ads from long-running campaigns, ASB’s Ben and Amy and ANZ’s Sharma Family. This is the first time since December 2023 there has been a new number one, with ASB and ANZ having continuously occupied the top two spots.
Lotto returns to the list after more than a year. Skinny is the new top ten entrant.
Colleen Ryan, partner at TRA, statedm “New Zealanders clearly respond to advertising that entertains and builds on familiar characters or narratives. Humour continues to be a powerful creative shortcut to connection, and when brands combine this with distinctive brand assets and consistency over time, they’re reaping the rewards, seeing strong cut-through.
“It’s important to acknowledge that we shouldn’t automatically assume humour is the key to success though. Emotions are complex and an ad might make us feel something for many different reasons – a memory triggered, a heartwarming moment, a surprising outcome. The significance is that our favourite ads capture attention and trigger an emotion, and emotion sells. These results are more than just a popularity contest – they’re a window into what works in a fragmented media environment. For brand marketers, the findings reinforce the long-term value of investing in distinctive brand assets, emotional storytelling, and campaign continuity. When brands strike the right balance between consistency and creativity, they build memory structures that not only drive recall but deepen audience connection over time.”
For the full report, visit www.theresearchagency.com/favourite-ads
