Marks & Spencer’s Christmas advert featuring Paddington Bear has achieved the highest customer engagement for a retailer in 2017’s festive campaign season.
In a list compiled by marketing agency BrandLove and tech company SoundOut – which surveyed 600 UK adults – 32 per cent of respondents awarded M&S the full 10 marks.
A separate list put together by tech firms Realeyes and Lucid also named M&S’s 2017 Christmas advert as the most engaging from a retailer, although it placed fourth overall behind non-retail brands Coca-Cola, Vodafone and McDonald’s respectively.
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The Moz the Monster advert from John Lewis – the retailer that traditionally attracts the most amount of hype during Christmas advert campaigns – ranked third in BrandLove and SoundOut’s list.
However, while it came out on top overall in 2016, this year John Lewis plummeted to 17th overall on Realeyes and Lucid’s list – making it the department store’s second-lowest performing Christmas ad of the last seven years.
The other retailers in BrandLove/SoundOut’s top 10 are Aldi at second place, Debenhams in fourth, followed by Argos, Asda, Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s.
Meanwhile, Realeyes/Lucid’s list saw Currys/PC World and jewellery chain H Samuel tie at fifth overall and second for retailers, followed by Waitrose at seventh overall and third for retailers, and then Pandora and Tesco at joint ninth overall and fourth for retailers.
“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,” Realeyes chief executive Mihkel Jäätma said.
“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.”
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