John Lewis festive ad nets top spot on social channels

It seems Christmas ads not only divide opinion among the marketing and advertising community, consumers are also split down the middle, according to a new study based on social channel views which puts John Lewis’ “The Beginner” as this year’s festive favourite.

While the ad did not even feature in the System1 Top Christmas Ads for 2022, published earlier this week, it has stormed the charts on social channels – based on views between November 1 and November 30 – with a total of 19.3 million views across YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, although Aldi’s “Kevin the Carrot 2022” is a close second on 17.1 million in total.

Disney (5.5 million), Asda (3.2 million) and M&S (1 million) make up the top five, followed by Sainsbury’s (427,300), Boots (290,458), Morrisons (223,086), Lidl (171,700) and Lidl (106,200).

John Lewis’ ad also top the social reaction charts (with a total 383,724), ahead of M&S, Aldi and Asda, and the results of searches for “Christmas Advert 2022) in Google Trends.

The figures have been compiled by digital shop No Brainer Agency, whose social media lead Alexandra Whiteside said: “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 media of choice to reach their audience.

“John Lewis has taken this year’s top spot as it ensured its Christmas TV ad was visible across all key video viewing platforms. It is a prime example of a brand that demonstrates the impact of using all online channels to spread its Christmas ad far and wide.

“This shows it really values the importance of its various audience demographics linked to each social platform. Instagram alone brought in close to 8 million video views, with a grand total of 19.3 million across the main social channels analysed.”

However, Whiteside points out that brands which chose not to post on certain channels saw much lower reach and impression figures. Disney is a classic example; it superseded the competition for the most viewed Christmas TV ad on YouTube, racking up 5.4 million video views. Yet, its results could have been improved further by using the extra channels in which its audience will spend their time, making sure it reviews channels where it didn’t post the ad.

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 and 34, and TikTok users are predominantly female (61%) users over males (39%) aged between 10 and 19. It can be argued, other than parents, this is Disney’s key target market, but it is hugely missing out on advertising through the channels they engage with the most.

Whiteside concluded: “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.”