John Lewis kicks off the holidays with start of Christmas ad season

With record ad spend expected in Q4, there’s a focus on creativity, storytelling and memory as the season kicks off with heavyweight appearances from John Lewis, Coca-Cola, and upstart Christmas superstar Aldi. 

Why Christmas matters

As AA/WARC figures this week showed, this year’s UK Q4 is set to beat last year’s seasonal ad spend record by an additional 4.8%, with broadcast video-on-demand and cinema growing big; while TV remains significant, this is a time for video. 

It is also a time to call in the rewards of long-term brand-building as much as a time to build those memory structures for the coming year and beyond. 

Creative ad testing suggests early winners

System1, the creative effectiveness platform, sets out an early leader board of strong ads (over 5 stars): 

1. Aldi – “Kevin and the Christmas Factory ” (5.9-Stars) 
2. M&S Food – “2023 Christmas Advert” (5.9-Stars) 
3. Sainsbury’s – “This Christmas, one little girl asks one BIG question” (5.7-Stars) 
4. Vodafone – “Feel the Connection this Christmas” (5.6-Stars) 
5. Coca-Cola – “The World Needs More Santas (5.3-Stars) 
6. Boots – “Give Joy” (5.3-Stars) 

What’s interesting about this leader board, based on System1’s Test Your Ad emotional response platform, is how Kevin the Carrot – introduced to muted emotional impact back in 2016 – can now “go toe-to-toe with the big red guy in branding terms,” notes Jon Evans, chief customer officer at System1. 

“We’ve seen more purpose-led and down-to-earth ads in recent years as consumers deal with crisis after crisis, but this year it’s back to basics as brands put the Merry back in Christmas,” he adds.

The importance of memory

We know that brands all too often think their ads wear out long before they really do. No brand exemplifies this idea more than Coca-Cola; its ‘Holidays are Coming’ spot is now 28 years old. Ahead of its airing on Friday – a major day for 2023 Christmas ads – System 1’s platform expects the venerable ad to soar right to the top of the leader board with a 5.9 score. 

“We get bored of our ads because we see them approximately ‘one million’ times more than consumers do,” wrote WARC columnist Faris Yakob last week, arguing that not only is wear-out a myth – as System1, Kantar, and Analytic Partners have shown – but that repetition is necessary. 

The big one

The long-term successes of John Lewis and Partners were garlanded with an IPA Effectiveness Gold in 2020 but the lore had gathered long before then. 

Now with new agency Saatchi & Saatchi leading the charge, John Lewis and Partners yesterday revealed its latest iteration of a Christmas tradition. Featuring a slightly terrifying Venus flytrap as an unexpected Christmas tree, the ad is all about forming new traditions, the press release says; the ad will air on Channel 4 later tonight. 

“The film celebrates themes of family and evolving traditions and shows that a ‘perfect’ Christmas is finding joy together with loved ones, whatever your traditions,” explains Charlotte Lock, customer director for John Lewis, in a statement, as the employee-owned retailer unveiled new research into the evolution of UK Christmas traditions.

Sourced from WARC, System1, John Lewis

[Image: John Lewis]