A major facial tracking study proves Coca-Cola’s ad featuring the Gogglebox families is the most engaging Christmas ad, as authenticity and humour are the big themes in winning consumers over this year.
Ranked: The 10 best Christmas adverts of 2017 on @cityam https://t.co/xYV0D4dKCn pic.twitter.com/lmb7xSqjAA
— Will Corry (@slievemore) November 24, 2017
- Authenticity and humour are this year’s themes in winning over consumers
- John Lewis’ offering ranks 17th – its second-worst performer in last 7 years
When it comes to winning over consumers in this year’s battle of the Christmas ads, authenticity and humour have come out on top according to a study that measured viewers’ emotions by tracking their facial expressions as they watched the ads.
Coca-Cola’s offering, featuring Channel 4’s Gogglebox families reacting to its iconic Holidays are Coming ad, was the most engaging of 55 Christmas ads measured by Realeyes and Lucid. It scored better than 96% of the thousands of ads ever tested. Coca-Cola narrowly beat Vodafone’s six-part Christmas love story with actor Martin Freeman and McDonald’s ad about a little girl saving her carrot sticks for the reindeer.
10 most engaging Christmas ads 2017
| Rank | Retailer | Advert | Score | Link |
| 1 | Coca-Cola | Gogglebox on “holidays are coming” | 96% | link |
| 2 | Vodafone | A Christmas love story | 95% | link |
| 3 | McDonald’s | Carrot stick Christmas | 93% | link |
| 4 | M&S | Paddington & the Christmas visitor | 85% | link |
| =5 | Currys/PC World | Merry techmas | 84% | link |
| =5 | H Samuel | Beautiful Christmas gifts | 84% | link |
| =7 | Waitrose | Christmas together | 81% | link |
| =7 | Heathrow | Bears Christmas | 81% | link |
| =9 | Pandora | Do get what you wish for | 80% | link |
| =9 | Tesco | Turkey, every which way | 80% | link |
Source: Realeyes/Lucid
E.g. Coca-Cola’s ad scored better than 96% of the thousands of ads ever tested (i.e. in the top 4%)
Alongside Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, Tesco was another top 10 ad to feature typical household situations. This authentic theme, providing a more honest insight into the real-life nature of Christmas, was also employed by the likes of Virgin Atlantic, Not On The High Street and TalkTalk, the latter also using Gogglebox families.
“Whilst the hype around Christmas ads has now become a national pastime, it’s sometimes forgotten that their job is to help sell more products and people’s emotional response plays a big part in where they decide to shop,” says Mihkel Jäätma, Realeyes’ CEO. “This year saw advertisers trying to be more authentic by using real-life situations, humour and romance to relate to people, which could be seen as a way to cheer them up via universal themes after what’s been another divisive and turbulent year.”
Last year’s winner John Lewis could only muster 17th spot this year with Moz the Monster, its second-lowest performing Christmas ad of the last seven years. “Naturally, it’s difficult for John Lewis to keep hitting such high standards with the same formula so they could consider changing tack next year,” notes Jäätma.
Romance played its biggest ever part, being a key theme in four of the 10 most engaging ads, with H Samuel, Heathrow and Pandora joining Vodafone in trying to capture people’s hearts. In contrast, many lower-performing ads involved a prolonged focus on showing a product.
Jäätma says this suggests that a “shopping window” approach is far less effective at connecting with people at Christmas than a storytelling one.
The study involved Realeyes measuring the emotional reactions of 3,300 people, drawn from Lucid’s audience platform, using AI algorithms to track and interpret their facial expressions as they watched via their webcams. The technology was originally developed at Oxford University.
Mulberry’s Win Christmas from 2014 remains the most engaging Christmas ad ever, scoring 99.5%.