John Lewis and Body Shop are most effective UK Christmas ads

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 6, 2016

John Lewis has scored a hit with Buster the Boxer Christmas ad with a Realeyes/Lucid study of 65 ads ranking it as the year’s most engaging festive ad.

The annual study measures viewers' emotions by tracking facial expressions, with the Buster ad scoring 94.8% on the emotionally compelling scale.

But it only narrowly beat The Body Shop's Jungle Bells offer, which had a 94.1% score and also ranked most highly among men.

Meanwhile women found the spoof Buster ad from gadgets and homewares chain Robert Dyas the most engaging with a 97.8% score.

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Realeyes measures the emotional reactions of 4,450 people, drawn from Lucid's
audience platform, using AI algorithms to track and interpret their facial expressions as they watch via webcams.

"The purpose of advertising is to get the tills ringing and evidence is mounting that it’s people's emotional responses that determine where they shop," said Realeyes CEO Mihkel Jäätma. “This year saw a marked shift from melancholy and sentimentality - exemplified by 2015's John Lewis's Man on the Moon - to more uplifting feelings.”

The M&S Mrs Claus ad also ranks highly this year with an 89.4% score, as does Amazon’s imam and priest ad (83.8%). But other fashion, clothing and accessory ads score badly with House of Fraser’s Christmas is Coming for You and JD Sports' Undisputed Christmas scoring lower than 20%.

The Mulberry Win Christmas ad that aired in 2014 remains the highest scoring ad ever by this measure with a 99.5% engagement, retention and impact rating.