Sainsbury’s Gravy Song ad a Christmas hit as John Lewis lacks buzz
Sainsbury’s has taken the top spot in Mediaocean’s fourth annual Top 10 Christmas Ad Rankings.
The company used artificial intelligence to analyse millions of engagements with public social media posts across Facebook and Twitter.
It was looking to find out which of this year’s Christmas adverts generated the most social conversation in the two minutes following the start of each time they were aired on TV – and how people really felt about them – between 1st November and 21st November.
The Sainsbury’s campaign, Gravy Song, themed around phone calls between family members excited to reunite for Christmas, increased social media engagement with the brand by an average of 216%, giving it by far the highest ‘social lift’ of any advert this year – or indeed any Christmas advert in the past four years.
Supermarkets dominated the top five, with Morrisons coming in second for the second year in a row with its own vision of families reuniting.
Lidl's musical once again made it into the top ten – for the fourth year in a row – with an advert undercutting its competitors’ emotional appeals with a focus on price and quality.
Lego and its ‘and I think to myself’ offering entered the top ten for the first time, scoring ninth in social lift but topping the chart for sentiment, with a 94% positive reaction, just ahead of M&S’s Olivia Colman narrated ‘food porn’ approach.
John Lewis’s advert snuck in at number ten. Its story of small acts of kindness, told through a kaleidoscope of different art styles, was well received but didn’t generate the same buzz as 2019’s ‘Excitable Edgar’ spot, with a 59% boost this year comparing to 122% last year.
Aaron Goldman, CMO at Mediaocean, comments: “This year’s Christmas ad season has obviously presented brands with a unique challenge – and a unique opportunity.”
“After the most socially disrupted year in most people’s living memory, millions are looking forward to the holiday period as a respite from the gloom, where they can reconnect with what matters most to them.”
He concludes: “In response, we have seen brands bring that Christmas spirit to people early with the majority bringing forward their campaigns by more than three weeks. And it’s unsurprising that a lot of the top performing ads are tapping into sentimentality more than ever.”
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