It’s that time of year again, when we’re all gathered in the lounge waiting for them to arrive. The adverts that is. Yes, Christmas ads have become somewhat of a UK tradition in recent years, each one battling to be the best. And this year has been no exception. But after all the initial hype had settled, which TV ad really was the nation’s favourite? We decided to find out.
So, how did we do it? We looked at the statistics of five Christmas ads from major brands, from the beginning of November to 15th December. We used SmartFocus technology to measure the number of campaign specific mentions across social channels using each brand’s dedicated hashtag, their estimated social reach and sentiment analysis by looking at positive/negative mentions. And the results are in:
5) John Lewis - #MontyThePenguin
Shock horror! No doubt much to the surprise of many, the most talked about UK Christmas ad of 2014 (with 2,937 mentions and social reach of 4,273,844) is not actually the public’s favourite. In fact, John Lewis are bottom on our list, coming in at fifth place. While the vast majority of social conversation regarding Monty the lovesick penguin was positive, sentiment analysis found 9% to be negative. However, don’t be too upset Monty, it’s not that personal. Many of the negative comments came from angry customers who either hadn’t received their order of a cuddly Monty in time or didn’t manage to secure themselves one before the words ‘out of stock’ appeared online.
So, although the negativity wasn’t a direct reaction to the ad itself, unfortunately it does knock John Lewis down a peg or two on our list! After releasing one of their most successful TV ads to date, could they have shot themselves in the foot by not stocking enough Cuddly Monty’s to keep up with demand?
4) Lidl - #LidlSurprises
In the ever rising success of budget supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi, the ‘Lidl Surprises’ campaign ranked 4th most popular on our list! The advert, aims to position Lidl among consumers as not only low price but high quality also. Understandably, being one of the smaller brands within our sample, the reach of ‘Lidl Surprises’ was the lowest in comparison to the others, with 267 mentions and a social reach of 42,379. Again, a vast majority of the response was positive at 93%, with 7% of social conversation falling under a negative tone. Most negative posts including the #Lidl Surprises hashtag, were directed either at Lidl products or in-store experiences, as opposed to the advert. Suggesting that the stigma of shopping at Lidl hasn’t been entirely removed just yet. The 2014 advert however, has been their most successful to date, so if this continues Lidl may well be the nation’s supermarket of choice for Christmas 2015!
3) Sainsbury’s - #ChristmasIsForSharing
The second most talked about Christmas ad this year is at number three on our list of the nation’s favourites. After airing, the almost mythical story of the Christmas Day truce behind Sainsbury’s ad seemed to divide public opinion. With a somewhat ‘Marmite’ effect, you either loved it or hated it.
Shockingly, the advert received 240 official complaints from viewers stating they found it offensive and distasteful to use WW1 imagery and aspects of the centenary remembrance for their own personal revenue growth (even though the advert was created in partnership with, and raised money for, the Royal British Legion.) Sentiment analysis found some social conversations did reflect this negative view, but only a small percentage in comparison to how many seemed to absolutely love the advert, with 95% having a positive tone and just 5% on the site of negativity.
Despite these few negative reviews, there’s no doubting how huge the advert was, with 1,108 mentions and a social reach of 1,100,723, it has by far been the most successful UK advert from a supermarket this year, not to mention raising approx. £5000 per hour for the Royal British Legion.
2) M&S - #FollowTheFairies
You can always count on M&S to add that ‘magic and sparkle’ to commercial breaks at Christmas time, and this year they’ve done just that in the form of two glamorous fairies. Both fairies flutter about the rooftops transforming dull, boring gifts into dazzling desirable ones and doing a few good deeds along the way. M&S run with the random acts of kindness theme to extend their campaign past the TV ad, encouraging viewers to do something nice for others, which of course had a positive reaction across social networks. The Ad wasn’t the most talked about, (with 267 mentions and a social reach of 42,379) but with 98% positive sentiment across social, it proved to be very popular among the public, and comes second on our list!
1) Boots - #SpecialBecause
With the hashtag #SpecialBecause, Boots encouraged customers to tweet who they think is special and why. The advert received 435 mentions with a social reach of 671,937, but it was the sentimental aspect and the recognition and appreciation of others that touched the nation’s heart. With hundreds of people tweeting why they thought their loved ones are special and celebrating having them in their lives. Andy Ferguson, Boots UK’s director of marketing, said: "This Christmas we want to inspire our customers to celebrate the special people in their lives, not just by giving the perfect gift from Boots, but by sharing the reasons they matter for the whole nation to see." Because of this, through sentiment analysis, no negative conversations were found, which therefore gave Boots a 100% positive sentiment rating! Boots, you are special because you are officially the UK’s favourite Christmas 2014 TV ad.
Mentions
Social reach
Sentiment analysis
All statistics were gathered and analysed using SmartFocus social listening tools. Waitrose, Morrison’s, House of Fraser, Tesco did not have a campaign specific hashtag and were therefore not included in our research.