This season we saw the UK’s biggest retail brands once again battle for the hearts and wallets of the shopping population in the run up to Christmas. With big budgets being spent on Christmas campaigns who will have won the battle of the Christmas adverts?
Ultimately retail sales will determine whether each campaign was successful for the retailer, but we can draw our own conclusions from the data available.
Integrated campaign planning
This year saw two of the heavy hitters (M&S and John Lewis) launch truly integrated campaigns. Alongside the all-important TV slots they both featured a strong social media presence with dedicated Twitter accounts for their campaigns. M&S edged ahead with 42k followers for @thetwofairies compared with John Lewis’ 35k followers for @montythepenguin.
Social sharing
All brands follow the campaign through to their existing social media accounts including Facebook posts and specific hashtags to pull the social noise together. Debenhams (#foundit), Tesco (#MakeChristmas) and Boots (#specialbecause) will have suffered due to the very generic nature of their hashtags, which were used by people during the period not in relation to their campaigns. John Lewis (#Montythepenguin) records the highest popularity score followed by Sainsbury’s (#Christmasisforsharing) and then M&S (#followthefairies). (Source: Hashtagify.me)
How often did people view the adverts on YouTube? This is another great measure of popularity and share-ability. On this measure there is one clear leader – John Lewis with over 22million views. Sainsbury’s is the next most popular with nearly 17million views. Way behind in third place is M&S with 3million views.
Brand boost
Whilst social sharing is a good measure of a campaign’s popularity in the short term, Marketers will also be trying to measure the long-term brand impact of their Christmas campaigns. TNS Global ran consumer testing of John Lewis and Tesco ads for 2014 vs their 2013 campaigns and recorded measures for a) novelty, b) relevance and c) emotional impact. Their results show Monty the Penguin winning hands down over Tesco’s Christmas lights. Sadly their testing didn’t include this year’s other strong performers Sainsbury’s and M&S.
Monty the penguin steals the show
So, this year saw a clear winner in Christmas Advertising – with John Lewis’ Monty the Penguin stealing the show – winning our hearts and also providing an example of a thoroughly integrated, well executed campaign. As well as the bought and earned media the campaign included in-store events such as Monty’s Den, where you could have your photo taken with Monty, and the delightful Monty’s Toy Machine where every child can make their toy the star of the film (if you visit their Oxford Street store!). Add to that the book, an ipad e-book and the Monty stuffed toy (which became rarer than hen’s teeth) and charity tie-ins with WWF and Barnardos. The theme tune, Tom Odell’s “Real Love” even making it into the iTunes charts.
Sainsbury’s commemorative advert in partnership with The Royal British Legion takes second place. Recreating and commemorating the events of Christmas Day 1914 where troops from opposing armies lay down their arms and played football, exchanging simple gifts. The topical and emotive nature of the ad generated sharing and discussion, which resonated with male audiences to a greater extent than other retailers’ offerings. Commemorative chocolate bars were available but were a soft-sell given the commemorative nature of the campaign.
Waitrose campaign lacks social sharing
This year’s award for the biggest missed opportunity goes to Waitrose. Their Gingerbread stall advert had all the ingredients for a successful campaign – linking an emotive tale to their products and helpfulness of their staff, yet the advert missed out on a supporting campaign to truly make it fly in the hearts and minds of the consumer. Waitrose Gingerbread kits were on sale, but we saw barely any social media activity around the theme that #thegingerbreadstall didn’t record enough data to be measured. The campaign was supported by a microsite with recipes and festive ideas but this didn’t get nearly enough noise on social or PR.
Which Christmas campaign did you rate? Who gets your vote?