Jingle All the Way to the Aisle: How Brands were Perceived in 2023's Christmas Campaigns
The holiday season is a significant time for the advertising industry, yet there is a delicate balance between crafting an iconic advert that evokes nostalgia, sentiment, and festive joy, and going too far in pushing boundaries (as we later discuss with Sainsbury's controversial Christmas card).
In 2023, UK brands navigated a delicate balance of festiveness and cultural sensitivity in their Christmas campaigns. Social intelligence tools, like Synthesio, proved vital in capturing genuine consumer reactions, predicting audience interpretation, and safeguarding brand reputation. Christmas conversations in 2023, across 31 major UK brands, were analysed on Synthesio with one clear goal in mind: to pinpoint the most impactful brands and the most organically discussed campaigns, in turn, unearthing actionable insights on brand perception.
Marks and Spencer ranked the third most mentioned brand, with a share of voice of
10%
Here's What we Discovered
It will come as no surprise to see Marks & Spencer high up in the rankings. In fact, M&S ranked third most mentioned brand, with 10% share of voice (SOV). This was driven by the 'Love This'mas, Not That'mas' campaign, featuring Hannah Waddingham, which generated buzz across all social platforms.
The most engaging post, with over 5,000 likes, was an M&S Instagram Reel, featuring Peter Crouch and Steve Sidwell, reviewing the ‘Melt in the Middle Pudding’. However, whilst M&S was the source of online buzz, it also generated negativity (45%) online for perceived "woke" messaging in the Christmas advert. This led to some boycotting or cancelling their orders, arguing that they had moved away from traditional Christmas values.
Adverts that Sparked Online Debate...
John Lewis (5.6% SOV) generated mixed sentiment as the 'Snapper: The Perfect Tree' Christmas campaign, featuring a boy and a Venus flytrap, caused confusion over the odd choice of using a carnivorous plant as a festive icon.
Carnivorous plant aside, John Lewis’ beauty advent calendar also sparked online conversation, with YouTube video titled “Unboxing the John Lewis Beauty Advent Calendar 2023: Is it Worth the Hype?” by Diaryofabeautygeek (37.2K subscribers) generating 12.3k views in early December. This demonstrates the power of online reviews in swaying purchasing decisions, and it seems YouTube users were particularly swayed by the excitement of larger sized products in the calendar.
Speaking of beauty, Boots conversation (5.6% SOV) was driven by the Christmas catalogue, including skincare, makeup, perfumes, home wine and beer making kits, rather than by the 'Give Joy' Campaign.
Positivity spiked when a local MP praised a donation drive sponsored by Boots, generating engagement through retweets, whilst the September launch of the advent calendar generated mixed sentiment suggesting that product timing can play a crucial role in brand perception. This goes back to the age-old question of how soon is too soon when it comes to launching festive products?
John Lewis generated mixed sentiment towards their 2023 advert, leading to a share of voice of
5.6%
Tesco generated the highest volume of mentions amongst brands, with a share of voice of
11.3%
Honourable Mentions
Whilst M&S food generated a considerable amount of online buzz, it came in behind Tesco which generated the highest volume amongst brands (11.3% SOV). This was driven by the light-hearted and relatable 'Become More Christmas' campaign which used the nostalgic song “How Bizarre" by OMC.
Sainsbury’s generated the second highest volume of mentions (10.5% SOV) for a Christmas card with pigs, captioned, "Don’t worry, I hear we’re getting some blankets!". Although, this was condemned by animal welfare advocates as insensitive, and led to calls for boycott, highlighting risks brands face when addressing controversial topics during the festive season.
From a social intelligence perspective, this demonstrates how brand experiences—both content and functionality—directly impact sentiment. And, with Synthesio’s social listening dashboard, we can help track real-time reactions, allowing brands to spot emerging pain points in consumer experience and adapt swiftly to maintain engagement.
Therefore, after diving into the world of social intelligence, it's clear that Tesco is the shining star of the 2023 Christmas season! Their festive brand activities and Christmas advert have ignited conversations and stolen the spotlight, making them the ones to watch this holiday season...
Source: Ipsos Synthesio. ‘Race to Christmas’ Brands by Volume, 2023/01/01 - 2024/02/01
Methodology: 31 brands were considered for this exercise, with 20 being retailers and 11 being superstores. The time period considered was between January 2023 to February 2024 , to cover all Christmas related conversations that were geolocated to the United Kingdom.
