McDonald’s Christmas ad tops consumer awareness rankings

McDonald’s festive spot achieved the highest level of ad awareness among the UK’s biggest Christmas ads last year, according to YouGov’s brand health tracker BrandIndex.

Across the 27 brands analysed by YouGov, McDonald’s came out on top for ad awareness, with 44.1% of UK adults reporting having seen an ad for the fast food chain over the festive period. Building on the brand’s long-running ‘Reindeer Ready’ Christmas campaign, 2022’s ‘The List’ (watch above) tapped into themes of emotion and family around the season.

Meanwhile, in the competitive grocery and fashion retail categories, Marks & Spencer’s festive ads successfully grabbed the most consumer attention.

The retailer launched two Christmas adverts in November, one for its food department and the other for its clothing and home department. The ad for the clothing department saw M&S focus on the power of gifting and shine a light on community groups, while the food department reunited Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders for a humorous and upbeat spot.

In the groceries category, over four in 10 adults (41.5%) reported seeing an M&S ad this Christmas, while in the fashion category around a third (33.7%) reported having seen the ad. These were the highest levels of awareness for any brand in their respective categories.

But with competition in the groceries category fierce as the supermarkets competed to bring in customers for their Christmas food shops, ad awareness was high across the board. Tesco ranked just behind M&S, with 40.6% of UK adults claiming to have seen its festive spot.

Aldi and Lidl ranked third and fourth in the category, achieving awareness levels of 38.8% and 36.8%, respectively. Asda ranked fifth with 34.5%, despite topping System1’s effectiveness rankings with its ‘Have Your Elf a Merry Christmas’ offering.

In the general retail category Amazon performed well, ranking second in the group with almost three in 10 adults (29.8%) saying they had seen the online retail giant’s Christmas ad. It was pipped to the top spot within the category by John Lewis, which achieved a 32.4% awareness score.

However, Amazon was the most talked about brand over Christmas, according to YouGov’s BrandIndex data, with almost three in 10 adults (28.9%) reporting they had talked about the online retailer with friends and family.

The second most talked about brand was Aldi, with over a quarter (26.3%) of adults saying they talked about the discount supermarket over the festive period. The UK’s biggest supermarket Tesco and fast food chain McDonald’s are tied as the third most talked about brands.

Elsewhere, Coca-Cola revived its famous ‘Holidays are Coming’ ad once again this year. The brand experienced a significant uptick in ad awareness, with its score increasing by 31.7 percentage points between the beginning of October (14.4%) and Christmas Eve (46.1%). However, its average ad awareness for the period was 29.6%.