Ipsos Presents: The 12 Awards of Christmas
The mince pies have been eaten, the crackers have been pulled and the last of the fairy lights put into storage for another year. But that doesn’t mean Christmas is over for marketeers. Up and down the country businesses will be starting on the development of next year’s Christmas memories. What did we learn from the 2024 Christmas advertising campaigns? And what are the keys to success when developing great Christmas advertising? At Ipsos we tracked the entire race to Christmas from the very beginning. Now it's time to find out which brands stood out this year and who won the race!
The Awards, Our Christmas List...
1. Memories to Last a Lifetime Cutting through the noise to be remembered
2. Marathon not a Sprint The best returning creative & characters
3. That Christmas Feeling Creating an emotional connection to the brand
4. Just For You Showing empathy & personal connection
5. All I want for Christmas is Food Best use of food in a Christmas advert
6. Food Innovation Product that won of our head-to-head tournament
7. The Gift of Giving The best Christmas gift in an ad
8. Fireside Chat Generating discussion this Christmas
9. Better Representation Diversity & Inclusion award
10. Driving Home (page) for Christmas Best campaign at driving online behaviours
11. MISFIT Mindset Award Stepping out of the sea of sameness with creativity
12. Overall Race Winner The campaign that brought it all together
Cadbury had a peak branded recognition score of
35%
1. Memories to Last a Lifetime
Key to Success: Great advertising must cut through the noise especially given how busy the advertising landscape is at Christmas. Your campaign must be creative enough to be remembered and branded well enough to be linked back to your brand.
Winner: Cadbury
turning again this year Cadbury’s Secret Santa ad encourages people to give the gift of chocolate to someone special this Christmas. Not only is the creative concept a uniquely memorable one, it has a connection to the brand's purpose and great use of the brand's distinctive assets that ties it inevitably to Cadbury. No wonder recognition of the ad peaked at a massive 47%. Branded recognition peaked at 35% and averaged 30% over its time on air, more than any other ad we tracked in 2024.
2. Marathon not a Sprint
Key to Success: The tone and spirit of Christmas advertising is often different to the rest of the year. But that doesn’t mean you can’t play the long game. The most memorable and beloved campaigns this year brought us back to some of the nations most iconic Christmas characters and stories.
Winner: Aldi
Kevin the Carrot returned to our screens for a ninth consecutive year this Christmas, going on an impossible adventure to save the spirit of Christmas. Kevin is a beloved fixture of Christmas advertising after all this time. His consistent use each Christmas has not only helped the campaign to cut through (47% peak recognition this year) but also drives Aldi top of mind as one of the nation’s favourite ads (16% peak mentions, joint highest). This creates a lot of potential to effect long-term equity for the brand. Ipsos AI testing scored the ad 132 for Equity Effect potential (vs UK ad average score of 100). A strong long-term brand building ad.
Aldi had a peak ad recognition score of
47%
53% agree that TK Maxx's ad gave them a good feeling about the brand
3. That Christmas Feeling
Key to Success: There’s a magic in the air at Christmas time. A vibe, a tone. Let’s call it the Christmas spirit. By embracing and amplifying the feel-good factor in the holiday season brands can connect that feeling to themselves in the minds of customers, because wouldn’t you want to feel that way all year round?
Winner: TK Maxx
We can’t see far past TK Maxx this year whose ‘Festive Farm’ encouraged us to get gifts for everyone in our lives at Christmas without breaking our budgets. 53% agreed it brought the ‘feel good’ factor to the brand. The farm itself had a very festive look but the music and the vibe was not completely removed from the emotional tone the brand’s advertising sets the rest of the year. New designer jumper anyone?
4. Just For You
Key to Success: Empathy for your audience is crucial for ad engagement, amplifying both the ability to be remembered and its long-term impact on the brand. People want Christmas ads where the big idea reflects their day-to-day wants and needs. And, where the execution understands the individual moments that make our lives special.
Winner: Disney
To celebrate the holidays Disney released a short film entitled the ‘The Boy & the Octopus’. Showcasing Christmas time in both warmer and cooler climates, the ad uses an octopus that longs to travel the world to remind us that all great journeys start with a dream. The heartwarming smaller moments of connection between the boy and the octopus remind us all of those moments in our own lives. Social stories targeting a specific audience are becoming increasingly important for brands. Over 10m views on YouTube says this content found its audience. Our respondents agreed – with 62% of recognisers saying the video was ‘for people like me’, more than any other ad we tested this year.
62% agree that Disney's ad 'is for people like me'
58% agreed that the food in the Waitrose ad looked delicious
5. All I Want for Christmas is Food
Key to Success: If you’ve been to any family get together, you’ll know that food is at the very heart of bringing people together at the holidays. It played a central role in many Christmas ads this year. In some ads it was an additional element to get our tummies rumbling but in the best examples it was central to the story being told. With new rules coming soon to restrict the use of food in advertising, we can’t wait to see how marketeers use their creativity to showcase their wares in 2025.
Winner: Waitrose
Many campaigns adopted multi-touchpoint storytelling in 2024 to showcase all the food on offer for the holidays. But Waitrose went a step further, putting a single food product at the heart of their two part ‘Who dunnit’ saga. Consumers not only bought into Matthew Macfayden’s armchair detective, but also thought the food looked great too. Win-Win.
6. Food Innovation
Key to Success: While Christmas food is often focused on traditional fayre in ads, bringing people together at Christmas can also be a great time to try something new. Christmas advertising is often supported by more direct product focused ads. But, which products should the retailers be celebrating? At Ipsos we are constantly keeping an eye on the latest food innovations. This year we even had a tournament to determine the most desirable Christmas food innovation of 2024.
Winner: M&S Food
M&S had a strong food campaign this year returning to British icon Dawn French to create an ad that 10% of Brits said was their favourite (joint highest this year). In a year where a lot of the focus in Christmas food innovations was on luxury ingredients and provenance it was products that offered a touch of indulgence that broke through the pack. M&S stood above the rest here too with their Santa Popping Down the Chimney Dessert. A bit of fun at Christmas and a product so popular it sold out online!
M&S Food's festive culinary innovations had the highest 'Promise score' from those tested
According to Ipsos Creative|Spark AI, the O2 ad is one of the strongest equity building ads aired this year
7. The Gift of Giving
Key to Success: Gift giving is a big part of the Christmas experience with many brands encouraging consumers to be considerate in the way they choose those all-important gifts. Effective persuasion can also be complemented when brands lead by example. Christmas represents a natural moment in the calendar for brands to showcase what gifts they are offering to consumers and wider society. During the holidays this feels authentic in a way that it may not at other times of year.
Winner: O2
O2 resisted the urge to promote the latest handsets this holiday season to instead promote the 2m UK households living in data poverty and talk about the gift of free data they were giving this Christmas via the national databank. The spirit and emotional tone of the ad not only embodies the Christmas spirit but the gift itself feels natural for the brand. Ipsos Creative|Spark AI saw this as one of the strongest equity building ads aired this year.
8. Fireside Chat
Key to Success: The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Unique elements that can drive natural conversations about your campaign can help draw eyes to your campaign. Strong consumer response to the ad, both positive and negative can help drive conversations, particularly if the ad reflects the current cultural moment. Ads with strong ‘social power’ have more potential to drive short term sales impact.
Winner: Coca-Cola
How do you make people talk about an ad that has been running successfully for years? Coca-Cola showed us the answer this year by showing us an AI interpretation of their classic holidays are coming ad. This certainly generated conversations (not just amongst marketeers). The campaign also combined this with the re-airing of their ‘world needs more Santas’ spot to help drive sales (Ipsos Creative effect Index 131 – high potential impact on sales). Coke continues to be the topic of conversation at Christmas time.
More than 1 in 10 social mentions of Christmas advertising this year revolved around Coca-Cola
In the 7 days after the ad was released, time spent on the Boots website increased by
+15%
9. Better Representation
Key to Success: Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) represents a hot topic for discussion in modern society with voices celebrating our progress in this area being contrasted by those bemoaning the pushing of a woke agenda. In our ad testing Ipsos measures D&I, looking not just representation but also how that representation conforms to, or defies, cultural stereotypes. Ads that score highly on our D&I measure typically see a 56% increase in short-term sales impact potential vs ads that are low performing on D&I. D&I represents a good way to grow your business, regardless of what the negative voices might be saying.
Winner: Boots
Boots embraced D&I this year with their ad focusing on Mrs Claus helping choose the perfect gift for a range of people that reflected modern society. The ad generated a huge amount of online discussions; Ipsos Synthesio data showed Boots had the highest share of mentions compared to other brands we tracked, generating 24.5% share across the entire Christmas period (01/11-31/12). A lot of this discussion had negative sentiment, however time spent on the Boots website was 15% higher in the 7 days after the ad released, according to Ipsos iris data. The vocal minority were not put off the silent majority who voted with their phones and computers this Christmas.
10. Driving Home(page) for Christmas
Key to Success: Ultimately the goal of most advertising campaigns is to drive changes in behaviour. Different brands will have different outcomes they want to promote but online engagement is a critical metric for most retail brands over the Christmas period. Making the desired behaviour clear in your narrative with a clear call to action can really help drive the outcomes you want.
Winner: McDonald's
Great campaigns aren’t just about what the primary video the ad is promoting. McDonald's showed us that this Christmas. While their primary ad showcasing their iconic characters to an electro house soundtrack generated plenty of ‘good feeling’ about the brand (51% agree) their wider campaign encouraged traffic to the McDonald's apps in a number of ways including their Gift Drop and Reindeer Ready Live app (pictures with Santas reindeer anyone?). Daily app traffic saw a 145% increase, acccording to Ipsos iris data, following the launch of the campaign. A great example of how your wider marketing can promote the specific behaviours you want!
Post-campaign release, McDonald's saw app traffic increase by
145%
11. MISFIT Mindset Award
Key to Success: Christmas advertising comes with certain expectations. The popularity of John Lewis in the UK over several years has led to an expectation of emotional, heart string pulling advertising. The focus on Christmas food leads to many ads that showcase the volume of delights on offer. The MISFIT Mindset is about using creativity to break free of, or subvert, these category expectations; to stand out from the sea of the sameness and create something memorably different.
Winner: Greggs
This year we wanted to highlight Gregg’s campaign, using Nigella Lawson, and all the expectations she brings to her cooking shows, to subvert expectations by lending that style to the humble pastry slice (among other Greggs food). Not only did the ad connect with the audience (55% Agree it was ‘for people like me’, second only to Disney) but it made their food desirable. 66% agreed the food looked delicious – more than any other ad for any other retailer! The ad brilliantly showcases the power of playing with audience expectations and is worthy of our MISFIT Mindset award this year.
12. Overall Race Winner
Not an easy decision to pick just one winner from a vast array of excellent campaigns we have seen deployed this Christmas season. Many of the ads had elements where they stood out but few of the campaigns were strong across all of the elements we have discussed. This is where Aldi and their beloved Christmas mascot, Kevin, have stood out. The Aldi campaign started the race strongly from the very beginning, consistently being selected by 1 in 10 Brits as their favourite ad of the holiday season (joint highest with M&S Food). It cut through very early and had the joint second highest peak recognition (47%) this year while the use of distinctive assets, like Kevin, meant that a massive 74% of recognisers were successfully able to link the ad back to the brand. The ad was above the average Christmas ad for both ‘gave me a good feeling about the brand’ (50%) and ‘for people like me’ (49%) suggesting it engaged both empathy and Christmas spirit. It was also above average for showcasing the food ('food looked delicious' - 53%) which meant it scored a strong 132 on our Creative Effect Index (sales impact potential).
A creative big idea that continues to deliver for Aldi year after year and a worthy winner of this year’s race.
