Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have been named the best and the funniest Christmas adverts (respectively) by insight agency Kantar as it reveals its consumer-based ranking of this year’s festive ad campaigns.
2023 has been a bumper year for festive advertising effectiveness, with a slew of big name brands hitting the mark and then some with their big-budget Christmas spectaculars.
According to the Kantar data, this year’s ads have delivered a whopping 67% increase on effectiveness from 2021, when taking into account consumer enjoyment, entertainment and how well the brand was incorporated into the ad.
Using facial coding technology and feedback from 3,600 customers, the analysis firm found that Coca-Cola’s ‘Holidays are coming’ has secured the top spot as the best Christmas ad this year, with McDonald’s eyebrow wiggling extravaganza proving the funniest.
“Getting an emotional response from consumers – especially making them laugh – is one of the most powerful ways for ads to stand out and be remembered. McDonald’s struck that note brilliantly, creating one of the funniest Christmas ads,” said Kantar head of creative excellence, Lynne Deason.
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“The beauty of the ad was that the brand didn’t get lost in the laughs – it was central to the story and played cleverly on the established ‘Raise your Arches’ creative platform, tapping into Christmas culture in Britain of not always enjoying season’s traditions. In the short term though, when we look at likelihood to drive immediate sales, the product wasn’t quite present enough, and that was one of the big factors in Coca-Cola nabbing the number one spot.
She continued: “Few people will be surprised to see the words ‘Coca-Cola’ and ‘top Christmas ads’ in the same sentence. When anyone talks about Christmas ads ‘Holidays are Coming’ is always one of the first to come to mind. This year the enjoyment of the ad is even greater than when it aired in 2020, reaching the top 2% of the most enjoyable ads ever. We also see more sentimentality appearing on people’s faces as they watch it.
“Nostalgia – like that brought about by this fabulous ad from Coca-Cola – is particularly powerful when times are tough and we’ve certainly seen that come through in the data this year. The consistency and enjoyment deliver by ‘Holidays are Coming’, together with the brand being front and centre throughout, means it’s the best in an extremely competitive field.”
Another notable mention that has been on the fringes of various ‘best of’ lists this year is the return of the Duracell bunny to the Christmas arena, with the battery brand proving that product-focused content is still a very big draw in 2023.
