Sainsbury's Christmas Ad the Most Recognised in Week 2 of the Race
There’s magic at this time of year. This is at least in part because the nation has been gripped by release of Wicked For Good this weekend. But also, because the Race to Christmas continues to gather pace, with a whole new set of brands having joined the field… all attempting to try Defying Gravity and rise above the field to become Popular.
The gift of food this Christmas
Last week we talked about the power of long running Christmas characters like Kevin the Carrot and Dawn French who have helped their respective brands cut through during the busy festive period.
Week 2 saw Waitrose enter the Race to Christmas with their Christmas romantic comedy ‘The Perfect Gift’. The ad sees the return of Joe Wilkinson to Waitrose advertising for the second straight year, this time playing a widower attempting to form a relationship with Keira Knightly through a shared love of good food.
spontaneously mentioned Waitrose's ad as their favourite
And, thanks to the new HFSS (High Fat, Salt, Sugar) regulations, there’s not a Christmas pudding in sight. The ad received 42% recognition in week 2, the highest of any ad entering the race that week.
The British public have already embraced this very British of stories with 10% of those who have seen a Christmas ad declaring it their favourite. That is joint second place, tied with M&S Food and only behind John Lewis (19% favourited this week).
Expect to see a lot more brands attempting to tell food stories without focusing on the food in the coming months, especially when the HFSS regulations are made mandatory from January.
If you're not first, you're last?
The most recognised Christmas advert in the second week of the race was Sainsbury’s which was recognised by 50% of the audience, an impressive 14% increase week on week. Sainsbury’s have re-visited the BFG this year, telling a story about a disruptive guest whose efforts to ruin Christmas are thwarted by the combination of the beloved children’s character and a lucky Sainsbury’s employee.
The creative has a sense of fun and uniqueness that is certainly memorable. But, the ad has also been supported by a wide media deployment with TV spots and shorter digital formats, and we even saw the ad in the cinema this weekend. Last year, Sainsbury’s were the first major brand to launch their Christmas ad and they appear to have heavily supported their ad early in the season again this year.
of respondents recognised the Sainsbury's ad when shown de-branded stills
Many brands choose to wait until closer to Christmas before deploying the full force of their media buy, but Sainsbury’s have clearly decided to go early and try to influence consumer decision-making. This makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons. Christmas products are increasingly seeing longer buying cycles than we have seen in the past, and consumers are often being encouraged to book their online shops early to avoid missing out on this year’s must have treats.
Ipsos Synthesio social listening data also shows that ‘gifts and shopping’ has the highest volume of social mentions compared to other Christmas-related topics, even from as early as October. Combine this with the huge buying event that is Black Friday and the end of November becomes a very good time to have your brand top of mind.
We’ve also seen several brands adopt episodic or short form storytelling to their brand stories this year. Aldi’s branded recognition is currently the highest (32% who both recognised and correctly attributed the brand) for the second part of Kevin’s wedding story. But, they are not the only ones looking to make the whole more than the sum of its parts.
recognised and correctly attributed Aldi's part 2 ad back to the brand
recognised and correctly attributed Tesco's ad back to the brand
Tesco launched their festive campaign this week, showcasing a series of short form ads designed to tell an everyday brand story by looking at a series of moments from what might be considered a typical Christmas. Leading a campaign with a series of short form digital spots has become more common in recent years with a digital first approach for many brands. These ads individually tend to get lower recognition than TV led adverts but often come together to generate cut through overall.
Branded recognition of the Tesco campaign was 10% in this first week and it will be interesting to see how this grows in the coming weeks as people see more of the individual ads involved.
Driving home(page) for Christmas
The Race to Christmas is not just about the ads themselves, but about the outcomes these campaigns are trying to generate for the brands. Driving footfall into stores, traffic into websites, views into apps, consumerism into Christmas. It’s still early in the race to assess who’s winning the battle for outcomes but using Ipsos Iris we can see how website and app traffic changed in the time period immediately after the campaign launched.
For example, did you know that Lidl saw website visitors increase 93% on the day of its ad launch compared to the same day the week before. And, on November 4th John Lewis saw a 70% increase in website visitors – 1.13m people visited johnlewis.com, the highest number since January 3rd 2025.
On the day of the ad launch, John Lewis saw an increase in website visitors of
The power of marketing in action? Of course, marketing campaigns are often supporting other planned festive activities that drive traffic to these sites (festive product launches, deals etc.) but it’s interesting that the beginning of the Race to Christmas often sees some of the highest spikes in web traffic for these retailers. Expect more to come as the weeks progress.
Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? No? You’ve at least bought the most important gifts…right? Don’t say we didn’t remind you. If you think you’ll need another reminder, why not come back next week for the next instalment of our coverage of the 2025 Race to Christmas. You wouldn’t want to forget the gifts…No one mourns the Wicked.
Sources
Ipsos Fast Facts: Week 2 data: n= 300, UK Nat rep sample, fielded on 14th November 2025.
Ipsos iris Online Audience Measurement Service, 2025, All aged 15+ using PC/laptop, smartphone or tablet device(s), UK only. UKOM endorsed. https://iris.ipsos.com/ • Last updated at 21 Nov 2025.
Ipsos Synthesio: Public posts from TikTok, X, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Forums via Synthesio. Data collected from 2025/10/01 – 2025/11/17.
