Aldi’s ‘Kevin and the Christmas Factory’ has emerged as this year’s most effective Christmas ad according to System1’s festive rankings, closely followed by Coca-Cola’s ‘Holidays are Coming’ and Amazon’s ‘Joy Ride’.
The creative effectiveness platform rates each ad on a scale of 1 to 5.9 stars, with only 1% estimated to hit the 5-star mark. Aldi, Coca-Cola and Amazon all registered the maximum 5.9 – as did The Works, M&S Food, Morrisons and Barbour.
System 1 was able to order the top 7 using its ‘Spike Rating’ metric, which measures short-term sales impact. The twelve was rounded out Lidl (which scored 5.8), Disney and Sainsbury’s (both 5.7), Vodafone (5.6) and Duracell (5.4).
“Last year was record-breaking for Christmas ads, and somehow marketers have topped it in 2023 with even higher scores. It’s thanks to advertisers leaning in to consistency and re-using familiar characters like the M&S Fairy and Kevin the Carrot, with a heavy emphasis on traditional elements like Santa too,” System1 chief customer officer, Jon Evans said.
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“It’s been a really close Christmas ad battle but I’m not too surprised by the results. Our recent wear out study proved that far from wearing out many good campaigns actually wear in. Coca-Cola were one of the first brands to realise an ad is for life not just for Christmas, and they keep reaping the rewards of their investment in the legendary trucks.
He continued: “Aldi have learned that lesson so well – people love to see Kevin return each year, and there’s enormous effort that goes into making the ads as entertaining as possible. That’s reflected in their extraordinary consistency and stellar results. It’s also great to see high scores for M&S Food and Duracell who really bring consistency too.”
“Even the brands with all-new ads make sure they’re consistent in their brand promise – Amazon tell a beautiful story with a very clear commercial message. Finally it’s been a wonderful year for brand characters – we’re all hoping we’ve not seen the last of Morrisons’ oven gloves, the hottest character find of Christmas 2023. Christmas is the time of year when brands really go all out to entertain for commercial gain, and that’s what lies behind this incredible crop of 5-Star successes. Congratulations to them all!”
By analysing all the key themes, it was found that consistency and familiarity were the big winners this year, with ads featuring recurring themes and characters faring particularly well.
