In terms of “Social Reactions” – reactions, shares, favourites and retweets, John Lewis was top again, with 383.7k, although M&S took second place with 76k, followed by Aldi.
“It would be simple to look purely at the face value of the Google search data to rank the nation’s favourite ad this year, but in this modern age of advertising, looking further into the data opens more chances for analysis into each brand’s advertising mediums of choice to reach their audience,” explained Alexandra Whiteside, Social Media Lead at No Brainer Agency.
“John Lewis has taken this year’s top spot as they ensured their Christmas TV ad was visible across all key video viewing platforms. They are a prime example of a brand that demonstrates the impact of utilising all online channels to spread their Christmas ad far and wide.”
“According to research by social scheduling platform Sprout, the key demographics to use Instagram are an even split of females (48.4%) and males (51.85) between the ages of 25-34, and TikTok users are predominantly female (61%) users over males (39%) aged between 10-19. It can be argued, other than parents, this is Disney’s key target market, but they are hugely missing out on advertising through the channels they engage with the most.
No Brainer also looked at the most searched-for Christmas TV ads based on release dates:
M&S – released on 2nd of November
Tesco – released on 6th of November
Morrisons – released on 7th of November
Aldi – released on 10th of November
Asda – released on 4th of November
Disney – released on 2nd of November
Lidl – released on 4th of November
John Lewis – released on 10th of November
Boots – released on 4th of November
Sainsbury’s – released on 4th of November
“The Google Trends data shows that based on the first seven days after each individual release date, the highest number of searches for each brand’s individual Christmas TV ads included M&S and Tesco,” added Laura Rudd, Head of SEO at No Brainer Agency.
“This could be related to their early November release dates, specifically M&S making the most use out of advertising across their various marketing channels.
“Interestingly, there was a higher number of searches for the Tesco Christmas ad around the 10th of November, five days following the release date. This could be a direct impact of other Christmas ads being released around this time, so it could have had a knock-on effect, and the fact Tesco had low engagement on their respective social channels, so users were more likely to search for it.
“Despite John Lewis releasing their ad much later, the number of searches overall skyrocketed within a couple of days after it was released, and the engagement shot them straight to the top when searching for ‘Christmas TV ads 2022’”.
Data was collected from SEMRush, Google Trends, AlsoAsked.com and specific brand’s social channel data.
“The data just highlights how current trends and topics will play a major factor in campaign results, as well as choosing the most relevant marketing forms to get this message out there to the widest audience possible,” continued Whiteside.
“Brands need to reflect on this data and adapt to the ever-changing appetite of consumers.”
