Last week we analysed four of the most talked about Christmas ads of 2016 (Read the blog post here). This week we decided to update our analysis with the addition of six more festive commercials to reveal our top 10 and uncover the emotions driven by each one.
We used our emotion analysis tool to analyse over 30,000 tweets relating to the top UK Christmas ads of the year. This time we added in Tesco, Boots, Amazon, Alzheimers Research UK, Heathrow and Aldi as contenders for the coveted title of “Best Christmas Ad 2016”. Our analysis tool allows us to see specific topics that help us understand what drives the key emotions, which include joy, trust, amazement, rage and loathing.
There has been mixed reports over who wins using metrics such as – who has the most mentions or who has the most views. Here at Adoreboard we analysed the emotions people felt when talking about these advertisements online. Understanding the emotional impact of brand messages and advertisements on customers can help brands tap into how the customer feels about their brand or product. This allows brands to stay one step ahead of competitors and plan their brand messages or marketing campaigns appropriately.
Amazon Prime: The Priest and The Imam
The Amazon Prime ad produced by agency Joint London, centres around an unlikely friendship of a Priest and an Imam. The ad doesn’t clearly mention Christmas but does highlight the spirit of gift-giving whilst delivering a heartwarming message of inter-faith friendship.
The Adorescore for Amazon’s offering is a positive 53 with the key high intensity emotions being joy and admiration. Joy is driven by people declaring the ad their favourite of 2016 and expressing their admiration for the message of friendship and equality throughout the ad.
https://twitter.com/FarazAl48231740/status/799360311203692544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
That amazon advert with the priest is 100 times better than the John Lewis Christmas advert#AmazonAdvert #JohnLewisAdvert
— Tom (@trjhutchins) November 17, 2016
Alzheimers Research UK: #SantaForgot
Alzheimers Research UK’s campaign has a bit more of a poignant theme. The animated ad tells the heartbreaking story of Santa suffering from Alzheimers and as a result forgetting to deliver toys to children on Christmas Eve. The advert is voiced by Stephen Fry and animated by Aardman (the animators behind Wallace and Gromit) and produced by London based agency, Freuds.
The ad has an Adorescore of 20 with the main intensity emotions evoked being ecstasy and grief. The presence of grief is not surprising due to the poignant and sad nature of the ad and the fact that over 850,000 people in the UK suffer with dementia. Ecstasy is driven by people expressing their gratitude for the ads ability to raise awareness of the disease and the good work carried out by the charity.
This made me cry. Beautifully poignant Christmas message from @ARUKnews #IBelieve #SantaForgot https://t.co/ouwIHFkoG5
— Rachel Riley MBE 💙 (@RachelRileyRR) November 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/friendofgran/status/798826157567188994
Boots: Gift of Beauty
Boots ad is produced by agency Mother and features over 40 real-life women who have to work on Christmas day, with jobs ranging from nurses to policewomen. The aim of the ad is to celebrate the women who work at Christmas by treating them to a festive makeover using products sold by boots.
The Adorescore of the ad is 37 with a key high intensity emotion of admiration. This is driven by people expressing their admiration and gratitude to those who are working on Christmas day.
https://twitter.com/LynnShnook/status/801718761338392576?lang=en
The Boots Christmas ad focused on the people who work on Christmas is terrific.
— Neil Cardwell (@ncardwell) November 13, 2016
Heathrow Airport: Coming Home for Christmas
Heathrow airport’s latest advertisement is produced by advertising agency, Havas London, follows the touching journey of two bears travelling home for Christmas. The heartwarming ad captures the moment the bears (who turn into an elderly couple at the end) are reunited with loved ones at the arrivals gate in Heathrow.
The Adorescore for the ad is 30 with the main high intensity emotions being ecstasy and admiration. The most joy is driven by those declaring the heathrow as their favourite yet and mentions of those expressing their own feelings of excitement of coming home for Christmas drive admiration and trust to the advertisement.
https://twitter.com/Sascha_Williams/status/799526339497914368?lang=en
https://twitter.com/MissImmyMay/status/798209267195056128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Aldi: #KevinTheCarrot
The Aldi advert, made by McCann UK, follows Kevin the carrot’s adventure from the kitchen to Santa’s sleigh. The ad features a retelling of the famous festive poem, The night before Christmas. The ad has also lead to Kevin the carrot launching his own Twitter account and being sold as a toy in Aldi stores.
Kevin the Carrot has an Adorescore of 22 with the main high intensity emotions being admiration and ecstasy. Admiration and ecstasy are driven by people sharing photos with Kevin the Carrot toys, and praising the store for promoting the charity, Barnardo’s.
https://twitter.com/IKevinTheCarrot/status/801914209814642689?lang=en
@McCannMcr done an amazing job on @AldiUK Christmas ad #kevinthecarrot 👏
— Becca (@CoGCrebeccaL) November 15, 2016
Tesco: Bring It On
Tesco made the decision to strip back their ads this year and produce a few short ads instead of a lengthy high budget production. The ad created by BBH London, sees actors Ruth Jones and Ben Miller doing their shopping going through the pre-Christmas worries such as where to put the tree or what presents to buy. The ad ends with the positive slogan “Bring it on”.
The Adorescore is 20 with the main intensity emotions being ecstasy and loathing. A lot of joy was driven by the presence of actors Ruth Jones and Ben Miller. Loathing was dominated by some people being less amused by the ad when compared to the big budget productions launched by competitors.
An interestingly downbeat Xmas ad from Tesco by @bbhlondon is a good
contrast to usual fare https://t.co/j4Xymdm0pw (via @moreaboutads)— MINERAL CREATIVE (@WeAreMineral) November 16, 2016
Another shit Christmas TV ad from Tesco again this year 😝 Didn't they learn after last years embarrassing mess? Obviously not 😒
— Elisa 🇺🇦 (@elissetennis) November 7, 2016
The clear winners of the battle of the Christmas ads 2016 are Sainsbury’s and Amazon Prime. They successfully have produced festive advertisements that drive feelings of joy and admiration. Emotion is a key tool in marketing. The ability to engage with customers on a more personal level can improve brand trust and loyalty. People who can emotionally connect with a brand view it as more attractive.
This highlights the value of emotion in marketing. Adoreboard has created a way to use analytics to gain insights into people’s emotional reactions online. Our emotion analysis software that can help quantify how the world feels about your brand. To find out how our software can help you or to book a free demo, click here.
