Measuring What Actually Matters
For years, TV advertising success was measured mainly through ratings, reach, recall, and brand awareness. But in today's performance-driven market, advertisers are asking a different question: Which media placements actually drive business results?
To answer this, Animo and Globes launched Israel's first Advertising Effectiveness Index — powered by real business data, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), and AI-driven analysis.
"Measuring the number of viewers is important, but the first question is not only how many viewers watched — it's what happened after they watched."
The Research
The index analyzed more than 28,000 TV ad placements aired throughout 2025 across Israel's leading channels, measuring their direct impact on business KPIs including:
- Brand searches
- Website visits
- Inbound calls
- Leads and conversions
- Sales
Unlike traditional media rankings, the index focuses on real incremental business impact rather than exposure alone. The methodology uses Animo's AI-powered causal modeling platform to isolate the effect of each ad placement from all other variables — eliminating the noise that has plagued TV measurement for decades.
The index separates programs with strong ad impact (business response per appearance) from programs with broad reach (total impressions). High ratings do not necessarily mean high effectiveness — and the data proves it.
Published in Globes — Israel's leading business newspaper, February 23–24, 2026 · Source: Animo
Key Findings: Most Effective TV Programs
Programs delivering the strongest business results relative to media cost — the programs where every ad appearance generated the highest incremental business impact:
| Program | Channel |
|---|---|
| Israeli Premier League Football | Sport 5 |
| Golden Cage | Reshet 13 |
| Benyamini & Mazal Moalem | Kan 11 |
| Levi & Freedland – Unholy | Keshet 12 |
| Layla Talk | Reshet 13 |
| New Love | Reshet 13 |
| Survivor – Reshet | Reshet 13 |
| The Art of Trading | Sport 5 |
| Euroleague – Basketball | Sport 5 |
| The Masked Singer | Keshet 12 |
Strongest Programs by Ad Impact
Programs generating the highest audience response per individual ad appearance — programs where the ad environment itself amplifies brand messages:
| Program | Channel |
|---|---|
| The Masked Singer | Keshet 12 |
| The Patriots | Arutz 14 |
| New Love | Reshet 13 |
| Night News | Kan 11 |
| The Open Studio | Arutz 14 |
| The Next Star | Keshet 12 |
| World Judo Championship | Sport 5 |
| Ofira | Keshet 12 |
| Chamesh with Rafi Reshef | Keshet 12 |
| The Canary | Reshet 13 |
Rankings table — Source: Animo. Published in Globes, February 2026
Key Insights
High Ratings ≠ High Effectiveness
The most-watched programs are not always the most effective advertising environments. The index reveals a consistent pattern: programs with strong emotional engagement and content quality tend to outperform sheer audience size when it comes to translating ad exposure into business outcomes.
Sports Content Outperforms
Sports programming generated exceptional engagement and ad attention. The Israeli Premier League and European basketball leagues both appear in the effectiveness rankings, reflecting the high-attention, lean-forward viewing mode that sports content creates — and how this translates directly into advertiser response.
Commercial Break Length Matters
Longer commercial breaks reduced viewer responsiveness. Programs that maintained tighter ad formats generated notably higher per-placement performance, reinforcing the importance of contextual ad environment — not just program content.
News During Wartime: A Special Case
Emotional news consumption during wartime periods negatively impacted advertising responsiveness in news programming. While news programs draw large audiences during high-tension periods, the emotional state of viewers in these contexts reduces openness to commercial messages.
"The index is a tool for any advertiser who cares not only about the number of viewers — but about what actually happens after they watch. It tells you where to place your money, and where not to."
What This Means for Advertisers
This research reflects a fundamental shift in how the industry should approach media planning: from measuring visibility to measuring real business outcomes through data and AI-driven attribution models.
For media planners and CMOs, the implications are clear:
- Budget allocation should be driven by incremental business impact, not reach or GRP alone
- Program effectiveness varies dramatically — and the gap between highest and lowest performers is significant
- Causal modeling at 15-minute resolution reveals patterns invisible to traditional measurement
- Sports, entertainment, and reality formats consistently over-deliver relative to their cost
The Animo & Globes Advertising Effectiveness Index represents a new standard for the Israeli market — and a proof-of-concept for what data-driven TV measurement can deliver at scale.
The index uses Animo's AI-powered Marketing Mix Modeling platform, analyzing 28,000+ TV placements across all major Israeli channels throughout 2025. Business KPIs were measured at 15-minute resolution, isolating the incremental impact of each placement from all other marketing and external variables. The full methodology is available upon request.