Retailers Reign Supreme at Christmas: The Most Successful Ad Campaigns Unveiled .
Every year, we see a new trend in Christmas ads. From Coca-Cola’s “Holidays are Coming” to John Lewis’ “Buster the Boxer,” these commercials have become something of an annual tradition. This is because they’re so effective: people just love them and even John Lewis’ ‘Bear and Hare’ led to total store sales of 734 million pounds.
With the assistance of an abundance of sources, Ideal Insight unveiled the most expensive and most successful Christmas adverts to have hit our screens over the past 2 decades and here are some of the results below.
The Most Expensive Christmas Adverts
In recent years, some campaigns have been so complicated and expensive that they go well beyond the budget of a typical brand.
Some brands have gone as far as to invest in their Christmas ads content and production values to stand out in the highly competitive market.
The most expensive Christmas ads include:
- Tesco – ” Lights On” (2014) – £22.2M
- Sainsbury’s – “1914” (2014) – £20.5M
- M&S “Inspiration” (2014) – £17M
- Burberry – “The tale of Thomas Burberry” (2016) -£ 10M
- Walkers – “All Mariah wants this Xmas” (2019) – £9M
- John Lewis – “Moz the Monster” (2017) -£ 7M
- John Lewis – “Buster the Boxer” (2016) – £7M
- John Lewis – “Monty the Penguin” (2016) – £6.9M
These brands spend millions of pounds on their Christmas ads, and it is clear that they are willing to invest in content and production values, as opposed to focusing only on an increase in sales.
Sainsbury’s ‘1914’ campaign made a profit of £24 for every £1 spent on it while Burberry made £10 million in total from their 2016 Christmas ad campaign.
The Heathrow Bears resulted in an average of £8.59 in retail spending per customer, also John Lewis – “Buster the Boxer” (2015) – made £8 for every £1 spent on it.
The Most Successful Christmas Ads
The most successful Christmas ads are categorised based on how profitable they are and the number of views and engagement it receives.
Based on profitability
- Sainsbury’s – “1914” – (2014)
- Burberry – “The Tale of Thomas Burberry” – (2016)
- Heathrow – “The Bear Returns” – (2018)
- John Lewis – “Monty the Penguin” – (2014)
- John Lewis – “Buster the Boxer” – (2014)
- Aldi – “Kevin the Carrot” – (2016)
Based on the number of views and engagement
- John Lewis – “The Bear and the Hare” – 48,900,000 Views
- Sainsbury’s – “Mog’s Christmas Calamity” – 41,500,000 Views
- John Lewis – “The Man on the Moon” – 30,000,000 Views
- Coca-cola – “Catch” – 23,500,000 Views
- Sainsbury’s – “1914” – 23,000,000 Views
- Sainsbury’s – “The Greatest Gift” – 19,000,000 Views
- Selfridges – “A Christmas for Modern Times” – 10,000,000 Views
- M&S – “Mrs Claus” -9,000,000 Views
What Will the Future of Christmas Ad Campaigns Look Like?
In the UK, Christmas ads have been a part of our identity for decades now. We all remember those classic adverts from John Lewis and Sainsbury’s, as well as some others that were less successful but still memorable in their own way.
In recent years, we’ve seen more brands come to London looking to emulate this success. However, this research suggests that they may be better off looking at the future of ad campaigns rather than trying to emulate their success.
According to the information presented by Ideal Insight, brands are spending more on digital channels for this holiday season than ever before with 78% of people watching Christmas adverts online and 51% of adults watching them through Youtube. It also found that 7 out 10 parents say their children asked to watch Christmas adverts online.
Digital channels are also proving more effective than traditional television according to this research as well, which is why it is recommended that brands should look into this and invest more time and resources into digital channels.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, companies can expect similar trends for future Christmases when it comes to advertising but digital marketing will become a more prominent channel over time as its costs drop. Companies must invest their time and resources into digital marketing channels to get the best ROI.
