As Christmas trees are being decorated and Santa is preparing for his busiest month of the year, we’re gearing everyone up for the festive season with a good ol’ ranking of this year’s favourite Christmas TV ads.
The highly anticipated Christmas TV ads are back and hitting our screens in the run up to the festive season. Through the insights we’ve compiled on Google search data and social insights, we can reveal… John Lewis is the UK’s official favourite festive ad!
Closely followed by Aldi, Asda and M&S, it seems the festive efforts of our supermarkets have hailed supreme over the likes of Boots and Disney, despite everyone’s best attempts.
We didn’t stop there, the data also includes the top 10 ads based on release date, views and social reactions as well as the most Googled search terms relating to Christmas ads this year.
We’ve picked out the top searches relating to the production of Christmas ads, with questions including “Who does the voice over for M&S Christmas advert?”, “Who is the actress in the Tesco Christmas advert? “and “Who sings the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert?” taking top spots.
*Data has been collected during the peak release of Christmas TV ads season (data was collected between a variation of 1st November – 30thNovember) to ensure the most accurate results.
The UK's overall top 10 favourite Christmas TV ads:
- John Lewis
2. Aldi
3. Asda
4. M&S
5. Disney
6. Lidl
7. Boots
8. Tesco
9. Sainsbury’s
10. Morrisons
The UK's top-viewed Christmas TV ad on social channels:
| Christmas TV Ad | YouTube Video Views | Twitter Video Views | Insta Video Views | TikTok Video Views | Total |
| John Lewis | 3,400,000 | 4,400,000 | 7,900,000 | 3,600,000 | 19,300,000 |
| Aldi | 4,200,000 | 4,400,000 | 221,400 | 8,300,000 | 17,121,400 |
| Disney | 5,500,000 | 36,300 | N/A | N/A | 5,536,300 |
| Asda | 2,200,000 | 44,200 | 684,800 | 250,400 | 3,179,400 |
| M&S | 58,000 | 71,300 | 570,000 | 363,900 | 1,063,200 |
| Sainsbury’s | 306,000 | 34,300 | 87,000 | N/A | 427,300 |
| Boots | 199,000 | 5,876 | 83,500 | 2,082 | 290,458 |
| Morrisons | 194,000 | 7,360 | 20,400 | 1,326 | 223,086 |
| Lidl | 91,000 | 38,900 | 41,800 | N/A | 171,700 |
| Tesco | 77,000 | 11,100 | 18,100 | N/A | 106,200 |
*Based on data collected from brand social channels between 1st November – 30th November.
The UK's top Christmas TV ad based on social reactions:
| Christmas TV Ad | YouTube Total Reactions | Twitter Total Reactions | Insta Total Reactions | TikTok Total Reactions | Total |
| John Lewis | 18,000 | 82,100 | 207,517 | 76,107 | 383,724 |
| M&S | 763 | 1,719 | 18,962 | 54,584 | 76,028 |
| Aldi | 3,500 | 15,518 | 7,615 | 19,189 | 45,822 |
| Asda | 11,000 | 866 | 10,046 | 20,802 | 42,714 |
| Disney | 4,800 | 991 | N/A | N/A | 5,791 |
| Sainsbury’s | 2,000 | 291 | 2,420 | N/A | 4,711 |
| Lidl | 505 | 1,280 | 2,909 | N/A | 4,694 |
| Boots | 652 | 68 | 1,114 | 72 | 1,906 |
| Morrisons | 1,300 | 104 | 414 | 60 | 1,878 |
| Tesco | 460 | 87 | 1,157 | N/A | 1,704 |
*Based on data collected from brand social channels between 1st November – 30th November.
*The social reactions data included reactions, shares, favourites and retweets. Comments were not included due to possible negative sentiments.
Our Lead of Social Media, Alexandra Whiteside, says: “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.
“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.
“It shows they really value the importance of their various audience demographics linked to each social platform. Instagram alone brought in close to eight million video views, with a grand total of 19.3 million across the main social channels analysed.
“However, brands who chose not to post on certain channels, saw much lower reach and impression figures. Take Disney for example, they superseded the competition for the most viewed Christmas TV ad on YouTube, racking up 5.4 million video views. However, their results could have been improved further by utilising the extra channels in which their audience will spend their time, making sure they review channels where they didn’t post the advert.
“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.
“When looking at the overall results, specifically the total number of social reactions, in this case, it’s worth noting the ones performing lower on the leader board, the vast majority are only choosing two or three of the key social platforms to advertise. Ergo, this undoubtedly has a massive impact on the final results.”
The UK's ranked results for searches of 'Christmas Advert 2022' in Google Trends:
1. John Lewis
2. Asda
3. Aldi
4. M&S
5. Tesco
6. Lidl
7. Waitrose
8. Boots
9. Sky
10. Disney
*Based on data collected from Google Trends between 1st of November – 17th of November.
The UK's top 10 most searched-for Christmas TV ads based on release dates:
1. M&S – released on 2nd of November
2. Tesco – released on 6th of November
3. Morrisons – released on 7th of November
4. Aldi – released on 10th of November
5. Asda – released on 4th of November
6. Disney – released on 2nd of November
7. Lidl – released on 4th of November
8. John Lewis – released on 10th of November
9. Boots – released on 4th of November
10. Sainsbury’s – released on 4th of November
*The above data is strictly Christmas TV ads searched by individual brand name from the following 7 days from the date the ad was released.
Our Head of SEO, Laura Rudd, adds: “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. 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’”.
The UK's most searched-for questions around 'Christmas Ads':
- Who voices the Aldi Christmas advert
- When do Christmas adverts start
- Who does the voice over for M&S Christmas advert?
- Who is the actress in the Tesco Christmas advert?
- Who sings the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert?
- When does the coca cola Christmas adverts start?
- What is the most popular Christmas commercial?
- What is the John Lewis Christmas advert 2022?
- Who sings the Argos Christmas advert?
- What makes a great Christmas ad?
- Why is Christmas advertising so important?
- Why do stores put out Christmas stuff so early?
- Who is in the John Lewis Christmas advert 2022?
- Who is in M&S Christmas ad?
Laura continues: “It’s not just about the reaction to the individual ads at Christmas, but also the impact on searches surrounding it and the spark of other questions. If your Christmas TV ad is provoking further conversations (this will hopefully be vastly positive) then it will present itself in extra search terms and brand awareness.
“As is evident from the list above, there are multiple searches on the back of the release of Christmas TV ads and it has a huge influence over search data. There’s a massive opportunity for brands to better embed search into their marketing strategies – taking control, building demand and stealing market share across channels.”
Alexandra adds comment: “It’s no surprise John Lewis has taken the crown for the UK’s favourite festive TV ad, the planning and marketing strategy that goes into a highly anticipated ad of this calibre is second to none!
“It’s so interesting to see the impact popular social channels have on the results and the impact this in turn has on its users, indicating how likely they are to engage with each brand. I love seeing the influence social has on brands’ choice of advertising, and whether this is necessarily the right choice for this specific type of large Christmas campaign.
“There’s no questioning the surge in social media marketing, with over 57 million active users as of this year across social platforms. Let’s be honest, social advances aren’t slowing down and they’re only continuing to grow, with new apps and channels showing their popularity, demonstrating the importance of utilising these in new ways to connect with its target demographic.
“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. Brands need to reflect on this data and adapt to the ever-changing appetite of consumers.
After all, 73% of social media marketers believe social media is at the top of the agenda for improving a business’s effectiveness and social trends are here to stay.”
