The Race is on!
Hello and welcome to the Ipsos ‘Race to Christmas’ blog where we’ll be keeping you up to date with all the key runners and riders this festive season. Personally, we’ve not been this excited about a race since the end of the last series of Celebrity Race Across the World.
The last Halloween pumpkin had barely been tidied away when many of Britain’s favourite brands came together to sound the starting gun on this year’s marketing race to Christmas.
Over the last two weeks we’ve seen the launch of Christmas advertising campaigns for many of Britain’s favourite retailers, including Lidl, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, M&S, Sainsbury’s and so many more.
We at Ipsos Can't Get Enough of it
And we’re not the only ones.
This week 28% of people said they are ‘Very excited’ about Christmas, up +5% on the week before. So, anticipation is starting to build. Maybe it's all those Christmas lights that have started to go up in town centres up and down the country? The mince pies on our shelves? Or maybe it’s the fact that 69% of people now say they have seen at least one Christmas advert.
Each week we are using the Ipsos Fast Facts tool to keep track of the UK’s response to all this Christmas marketing (14 campaigns being tracked so far and the number is rising). So, who are the early favourites?
69% of people have seen at least one Christmas ad so far
Memories That Will Last a Lifetime?
We’re sure every person reading this will have memories of their favourite Christmas adverts from years past. Great marketing that embraces what Ipsos refer to as the Misfit spirit - entertaining, unique, emotionally connecting creative - can stay with us for a long time. Ensuring creative is remembered maximises its chance to effect both our short-term behaviour and our long-term brand relationships.
So, which Christmas adverts are most remembered by the British people in the first two weeks of the race?
When we asked people to spontaneously tell us their favourite Christmas ad so far, Aldi was the most mentioned this week (16%) followed by M&S (11%). Kevin the Carrot’s latest epic adventure is the ninth year this character has returned to our festive screens. At this point he is not just a long-established distinctive brand asset for Aldi, but a beloved festive fixture. And, this is helping people remember the campaign.
When shown de-branded stills 37% of people recognised the Aldi ad, higher than any other ad tracked so far with a massive 75% of those people being able to spontaneously link the ad back to Aldi (helping the brand to lead the race on branded recognition).
M&S was the second most recognised advert this week (34%) with their ad that continues their festive tradition of tapping into the love the British people have for Dawn French. Whether an established animated character or returning celebrity partnership, the success of Aldi and M&S early in the race suggests that if you want to be remembered, play the long game.
37% of people recognised the Aldi Christmas ad when shown de-branded stills
57% strongly agreed that the Asda Christmas ad 'gave them a good feeling' about the brand
That Festive Feeling
Is a Christmas ad really doing its job if it doesn’t make you feel something? A certain kind of way? Christmassy? The goal here is to try and make consumers personally connect to the ad, projecting this feeling onto the brand itself. This amplifies the potential that the campaign will impact on consumers long term brand equity.
But, how do you create personal connection with the British people? Let's ask Asda, who so far have the highest % of people agreeing that the ad is ‘for people like me’ (64%). The music from the A-Team? Check. An epic Christmas adventure? Check? Gnome Puns? Check and Check?
Leveraging both humour and our current need for nostalgia - amid a global landscape that feels bleak at times - this ad has connected with the audience. 57% of people agree the Asda ad ‘gave them a good feeling’ about the brand.
Special mentions here for Amazon (show stopping season – 60%) and TK Maxx (Festive Farm – 61%) who are delivering some high scores for that feel good feeling. Not forgetting Greggs and Nigella (64%) who reminded us that sometimes the best way to create a feel-good feeling is just to remind us how much we love the taste of Christmas food!
In the first week Sainsbury’s had kicked off the race with their love note to classic British children’s literature. Their ad sees the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) arrive to make Christmas special. In the first week of our data this ad was most mentioned as people’s favourite, 12%, although it did fall behind Kevin and Dawn in week 2. Will going first benefit Sainsbury’s in the long run? Stay tuned to find out. It has certainly given them plenty of time to influence consumer behaviour.
Britain’s favourite Christmas ads are not only using great storytelling to pull at our heart strings. They have great potential to impact on shopper behaviour.
12% said that Sainbury's Christmas ad was their favourite in week 1 of the race
Don’t take our human word for it. We asked an AI. So far, we have put 14 Christmas ads launched this year into the new Ipsos Creative SPARK AI tool.
This tool looks at the huge database of human responses to our creative assessment tests and uses this to predict the potential that each ad has to influence both short-term buying behaviour and long-term brand relationships. Of the 14 ads tested so far, the AI forecast that the three ads with the strongest potential to drive Brand Attention were Aldi, Sainsbury’s and John Lewis (all three had a Brand Attention Index score of 120+ vs Average UK Ad score 100).
These are also three of the four ads that have been called out by consumers as their favourites so far in the race. Crucially the AI also awarded these three ads the strongest Creative Effect potential (CEIndex of 130+ vs Average UK ad score 100), suggesting that these will not only be seen and liked, but actually drive consumer behaviour for these brands.
The Race is Hotting up...
With new campaigns being released by the day the race has only just begun. This week has already big swings from the likes of John Lewis, Disney and Tesco. How will those fair in the race in the coming weeks? And, will any of this buzz and excitement start to impact on shopper behaviour? In the coming weeks we’ll look closer at our website/app engagement data (Ipsos Iris), and social listening data (Synthesio) to try and understand just that.
Better stay tuned… it's going to be wild neon ride…
See you soon…and Merry Christmas.
Source: Ipsos Fast Facts, n= 600, UK Nat rep sample, fielded 8th November 2024
