All I Want For Christmas is YouTube

Ever since the John Lewis advert The Long Wait (below) aired in 2011, Christmas adverts have become part of the zeitgeist and have revived water cooler chat in a world of fragmented media. Like the Super Bowl in the US, it’s one of the few times that people look forward to seeing the ads.

And although the phenomenon started on TV, YouTube has become the bellwether for success with Christmas ads - as the only place you can discover in real-time how popular each is proving to be. This year Sainsbury’s leads the way with Mog’s Christmas Calamity, which has been viewed over 25 million times - just pipping last years winner, John Lewis, whose 2015 ad Man on the Moon, has so far racked up 22 million views. Perhaps this lends weight to the internet maxim that cats will always win!

Cute animals seem to resonate on YouTube at Christmas time, Monty the Penguin ruled for John Lewis in 2014 and this year is still so popular that over a million people have gone back to watch it again.

In fact, this trend isn't just limited to John Lewis, 2015 ads are driving repeated views of last years Christmas ads adding another four percen to their view count.  

Not only that but views of Christmas ads continue to grow on YouTube long after they are launched, for instance, the Sainsbury’s ad continues to put on around 300k views per day.

Data shows that consumers are choosing YouTube as their destination for Christmas ads over Facebook, Denis Crushell, VP of Europe at Tubular Labs says, “Online video creative has become just as important, if not more, as the TV creative.

Whilst Facebook was effective at delivering a lot of views in a short period of time for the brands, YouTube delivered a greater amount of total views and engagements over the entire campaign period.”

This year's top ten include:

1. Sainsbury’s

2. John Lewis

3. Burberry

4. M&S

5. Sky Movies

6. Aldi

7. Net a Porter

8. Boots

9. Vodafone

10. Mulberry

Interestingly both this and last year’s top four feature the same brands, with the only change being that Sainsbury’s has triumphed over John Lewis. In comparison to last year, the top ten have more views, reflective of the general trend which has seen an increase in online video viewership across the board.

Views are up when compared with the same period last year, although the majority of views continue to come from the top three retailers. UK ads are surprisingly popular on a global level, with almost 40 percent of views coming from outside the UK.

Adspends on YouTube have also increased, with marketers seeing the benefit of investing in media to get the ad in front of more eyeballs, according to M&S' executive director Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne.

The majority of Christmas ads have also made use of the shoppable tools available via YouTube, giving retailers an extra advantage. In fact, this year many brands have chosen to rely on YouTube and their own media rather than spending on a TV ad, with both Burberry and Mulberry from the top ten not spending a single penny on TV advertising.

2015 saw a surge in content marketing, which was reflected in this year's Christmas campaigns, with brands looking to produce more video content rather than one big bang. This year Tesco created four ‘hero’ films, whose aggregated views would comfortably place them in the top ten. Another brand that took this approach was Curry’s, which enlisted Jeff Goldblum for a series of films exploring Christmas etiquette.

The award for weirdest ad has to go to Robert Dyas, whose ad opens with: ‘Hi, my name’s Marcus, I work at Robert Dyas and I’m gay’. It goes on to introduce more members of staff who inform the viewer of their sexuality and, while it’s a well-executed spoof of a US ad for retailer Red House, it’s an odd choice considering few UK viewers will have seen the original.

Another more successful spoof was Aldi’s recreation of John Lewis’ Man on the Moon (below) which even came in at number six in our top ten - a considerable feat considering the quick turnaround required to create the ad. Spoof-style videos have always been popular on YouTube but their potential for audience engagement is now being recognised by brands.

Away from the UK, my favourites have been the albeit rather dark ad for German supermarket Edeka, which sees a dad fake his own death to ensure that his family attend Christmas dinner. 

One of our strong beliefs for 2016 is that brands who aren’t on mobile won’t succeed, brands will need to make every effort to keep up with the mobile consumer who are increasingly turning to their mobile screens as the primary device for entertainment, a fact borne out by our Christmas ads stats, which show mobile viewership is up 15 percent year-on-year - no doubt an opportunity we will see advertisers take next year.