What does it take?
Becoming successful in the UK today
RACE TO CHRISTMAS 2025
What does it take?
Becoming successful in the UK today
The Race is coming
The Christmas advertisements and supermarket’s festive ranges are getting ready to land. We’ll be monitoring what the great British public has to say, which ads generate the most online buzz, and tracking the top brands in terms of attention and creative response.
Will you be watching the race, too?
Tis’ the season… for Ipsos' race to Christmas
Are you feeling festive yet? It might still be early days but Christmas is certainly just around the corner. The coffee shops have released their festive cups, the supermarkets have brought out their Christmas ranges, and advent calendars are already lining the shelves. And, speaking of festive foods, we’re already seeing some tell-tell signs for themes emerging this year… gingerbread Oreos, gingerbread Malteser bunnies, gingerbread M&S festive cookies, and even gingerbread flavoured Doritos, gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread.
Let’s also not forget the new product drop Terry’s lands ahead of the festive season each year. Two years ago it was the Mint Terry’s Chocolate Orange, last-year it was the milk chocolate version (a personal favourite) and this year it's the caramel edition. And of course we've now got the collab of the century, Terry’s & Baileys - now that’s sure to be a sell-out.
So, with all this festive activity already in the works, it’s only a matter of time before the Christmas ad’s hit our TV screens. And, the most exciting part about the ads? They trigger the start of Ipsos’ race to Christmas…
1 in 10
Brits selected Aldi as their favorite ad of the holiday season according to last year's race
of Britons say they purchase advent calendars
After debuting last year, we’re back again to track, monitor and analyse all the festive campaigns of the major supermarkets and retailers, looking at what’s truly driving impact at Christmas.
If you followed the race last year, you’ll recall Aldi were consistently selected by 1 in 10 Brits as their favourite ad of the holiday season. Pair that with 47% ad recognition and 74% of recognisers successfully linking it back to the brand and you’ve got a success story… and a race winner. No doubt this was achieved through their consistent use of distinctive assets and Kevin the Carrot, their long-standing mascot.
But, whilst ads are undoubtably a big focus, there’s ho ho so much more. We use Ipsos Iris to look into online and app traffic and see who’s driving digital footprints, Synthesio social listening data will tell us who’s sparking conversation, and we even test the popularity of new innovations using the latest Ipsos tools.
For example, did you know that 72% of Britons say they purchase advent calendars? And 55% of consumers intending to purchase a calendar said they plan to spend £10 or less1. Social media listening data shows that advent calendar market discourse sees early traction beginning in September, led by brand promotions and influencer-led unboxing videos2!
It will come as no surprise that chocolate reigns supreme in the calendar market (84% of intended purchases)1. However, despite their hefty price tag, beauty calendars are on the up as the next most popular (15%), particularly amongst those aged 18-34 with 40% saying they have previously purchased a beauty calendar1.
We used Ipsos Duel3 to get consumers to trade off the most prominent advent calendars from a range of categories, head to head. Space NK took a respectable podium in third place while Hotel Chocolat was pipped to the top spot by traditional British favourite Cadburys.
So, there’s some early insights into who’s winning on the advent calendar front, but which brands are going to dash-er in front of their competitors in the race this year? Stay tuned for our weekly updates on the 2025 Race to Christmas!
of consumers typically purchase a chocolate advent calendar
1st place: Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate advent calendar
2nd place: Hotel Chocolat Milk Chocolat advent calendar
3rd place: Space NK 12 Days of Fragrance advent calendar
If you think you have a top-tier advertisement which is sure to ‘sleigh’ the competition, or a new Christmas food innovation which is the shining star at the top of the supermarket shelves, then register your interest here. You can also check out last year’s race performance here.
Sources
1. Ipsos Omnibus interviewed a representative sample of 1,036 adults aged 16-75 across Great Britain. Polling was conducted online between the 26th -29th September 2025. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.
2. Ipsos synthesio source: Public posts from X, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Forums, YouTube and TikTok via Synthesio. Data collected 15/09/25 – 15/10/25 (2 months). Based on 2K posts on Christmas Advent Calendar category is not geolocated. Data filtered to remove spam, bots, and retweets.
3. Ipsos interviewed a sample of 150 adults aged 18-65 across the UK. Polling was conducted online on 3rd October 2025. Gender, age and region quotas were applied in order to broadly replicate the spread of these demographics within the UK. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.
