With advertisers making the most of big occasions and calendar events throughout the year, we have content coming out of our ears. It is becoming more and more difficult to cut through the ‘big event’ clutter, whether it is Valentines Day, Superbowl or Halloween, brands are fighting for attention, and it is seemingly more and more difficult to stand out.
Christmas is certainly no exception to this and as the battle for attention ramps up, Christmas advertising is starting earlier. Retailers have evolved from simply advertising their products, to telling heartwarming tales and delivering show-stopping production that builds year on year. This year, it seems that the grocery giants pulled out all the stops. With star studded casts and our favourite familiar characters, retailers have gone BIG; but has big really meant better when it comes to consumer attention and their spending decisions?
The Christmas adverts have certainly given us that warm tingly feeling, but how have the much-anticipated ads landed with consumers this year? Are they being talked about with friends and family? Are people changing from Waitrose to Aldi for their Christmas dinner, all because of Kevin the Carrot?
Experts in real-time brand tracking and campaign evaluation, Delineate, collected data, daily across three weeks of the Christmas advert launch to see what their audiences really think of them. They tracked whether perceptions and behaviours have changed over the course of the festive period, going beyond the initial visual appeal, looking at how the battle of the Christmas ads is cutting though in the cluttered reality of the busy holiday period.
You have read the industry reviews and now it’s time to see what the consumers think…
The Festive Favourites
The brand that seems to be consistently dominating in terms of share of voice is Tesco, perhaps to be expected from the biggest UK supermarket. Along with Sainsbury’s, it had the highest recall, and over the course of the three weeks, the Tesco ad grew in likeability.
It is also a win for M&S this year, who are punching above their weight amidst the big supermarkets for share of voice. Not surprising given the focus on the excellent storyline and with Dawn French playing a starring role. As the UK’s fastest-growing supermarket, the M&S Christmas campaign will no doubt help cement their position as a grocery retailer on the up, with a growing customer base of loyal shoppers.
Overall, Aldi was the winner in the Christmas ad stakes as consideration increased the most out of all the ads we tracked, over the course of the research, amongst non-customers. Consideration for supermarket giant Tesco and struggling Asda fell over this period, with non-customers.
Connection Over Comedy
The two festive campaigns that were overall least popular with the audience were Asda and Morrisons. Both scored low when festive shoppers were asked whether they wanted to make a purchase as a result of seeing the ad, and whether they would talk about or share the ad with friends – a blow for Asda given the decline in sales over recent years. Slight consolation in that their gnome related ‘dad jokes’ helped them to come close second behind Aldi in the humour rating.
Given the importance of the ‘feel good factor’, Morrisons will be disappointed to learn they’ve scored lowest of the festive campaigns in making their audience feel positive about the brand. Despite being the lowest scoring across most metrics, generally, sentiment towards Morrisons grew more positive over the 3 weeks.
Consistency and Familiarity Drives Resonance
Consumers felt most connected to Aldi, demonstrating the positive impact of consistent marketing. Sainsbury’s and discounters Lidl and Aldi also shone through from the others according to our research, however over saturation may have set in for some, as positive sentiment wasn’t consistent throughout the tracking. Given that Aldi and Lidl scored the highest in terms of frequency of seeing the TV campaigns, it appears you can have too much of a good thing. This dip for Aldi appears to have abated towards the third week, potentially with a change in media investment.
Furthermore, consideration increased significantly among non-customers who were previously exposed to the TV ad, and grew during the course of the campaign, and far-outstripping non-customers who had not previously seen the campaign.
We all know that it’s hard to stand out in such a crowded market. Whilst for some, Kevin the Carrot has had his day, it is clear that a story that ignites emotion and nostalgia, alongside the use of familiar and often much-loved characters, are winners. whereas attempting humour without these elements missed the mark – as we can see with Morrisons.
Market research expert and Delineate CEO & Founder James ‘JT’ Turner commented: ‘The overall winners were those with the clever ability to match the emotion of the advert, with the emotion of the occasion…So for advertisers running campaigns throughout high energy events such as Superbowl or the thrilling excitement of Halloween, it appears that mirroring the sentiment is the way to resonate with the audience. That on its own however is not enough. It is the combination of the media – channel mix and frequency, message and magic of the creativity combined that makes the campaign stand out from the crowd, even with a lower budget or market share – getting this combination right is the key to success’.
About this research
Online research conducted by Delineate. Fieldwork was conducted daily between 12th November and 5th December 2024, among adults aged 18+, with a balanced daily nationally representative sample, based on age, gender and region. 1,400 interviews conducted each week (200 per day). Each campaign tested was among a sub-sample of 200 adults each week, 28 adults per day. All daily data shown is based on 7-day rolling data to ensure robust sample sizes.
