Comms hits and hiccups: Christmas special
With Christmas ads now flooding our social feeds, TV screens, radio shows and internet journeys, it feels only right that this ‘hits and hiccups’ blog focuses on the winners and losers of the frantic race for festive sales. So, put Heart Christmas on, grab yourself a mince pie and let’s debate the yuletide offerings of 2026.
M&S
St Nicholas, this is a good one. It’s not just a hit, it’s an absolute triumph of modern marketing.
Aside from having James Norton and Lucy Punch as its stars (and anything with them front and centre could never be a flop), everything else about its execution is, just like that pair – utterly faultless.
At WPR, we talk a lot about performance not being about channels but about how they work together; how success happens when one story is amplified everywhere. And this has truly gone everywhere.
The ad itself is absolute perfection. The brand’s social team has done an incredible job with the behind the scenes content, which I can’t get enough of. The community management team are on fire, replying to every comment with the wit of many wisemen. The creator marketing team shone brighter than the Christmas lights on Oxford Street with a VIP screening and “Love that Lists” activation, and the PR team did more than deck the halls; they surprised people at St Pancras with a brilliant live performance from Katherine Jenkins.
If heaven is a place on earth, as Katherine so beautifully sings, I think you’ll find it in the boardroom of M&S this January when sales figures are top of the agenda.
Tesco
One of the first out of the stable doors this year was Tesco. Fronted by Anna Maxwell Martin and Roisin Conaty, the casting of this ad was brilliant but I found myself irrationally concerned about the delivery driver getting sacked in the morning. I know, it’s a Christmas tale – the time of year when reality is suspended, life becomes a Hallmark movie and miracles happen. Plus, Tesco was quick to point out the driver’s job was safe, so I need to learn to worry less.
HR issues aside, in today’s fragmented media landscape, the team worked hard to make the creative travel on social with BTS snippets, plus hot takes and taste tests with the cast and crew. The PR team is also busy with a touring Santa’s grotto, competition to win family tickets to Lapland and sampling across 164 stores.
There was a lot to like – I’m just greedy (especially at Christmas) so would have appreciated even more Maxwell Martin. But then I wasn’t in charge of the budgets.
John Lewis
I usually love a John Lewis Christmas ad and have tried very hard to embrace this one as these are tough times for retailers, even one that never knowingly undersells. However, I have no choice other than to reluctantly mark it as something of a ‘festive flop’, mainly because the central characters are all so objectionable – spoiled grandchildren, ineffective parents and an out-of-touch grandmother who epitomises all that millennials dislike about boomers, rattling around her huge mansion in her cashmere and jewels. The dog cosplaying as Dick van Dyke aside, it all feels a little tone deaf in cost-of-living crisis 2.0.
That said, I do feel sorry for JLP. So good have their ads been over recent years, we’ve slowly learned to not just appreciate them, but to demand them. Free festive entertainment without the cost of a cinema ticket and a pillowcase-sized bag of popcorn.
The ad did get people talking but more people seemed to dislike it than love it. Let’s hope we get something spectacular next year.
Sainsbury’s
The BFG is back. Is this a festive tradition now, or a formula? I worry it’s the latter.
It was very watchable, and I love that Annie is a real Sainsbury’s colleague but, three years in, it’s perhaps starting to feel a bit too ‘licensing deal’. More importantly, it was just a Christmas ad (your can read more on my thoughts about why the “Christmas ad” should never just be an ad here). Whereas M&S has a multi-channel campaign – a complete content ecosystem for Mr and Mrs Claus – Sainsbury’s popped the ad on its social accounts and then reverted to business as usual. Next year, I’d get the creative, PR, social, influencer and media agencies in a room, give them some mulled wine and together develop a truly integrated campaign built for how brand visibility works today.
Remember the World War I ad? Now that really was a winner.
Lidl
Barry from Eastenders singing about Lidl to Slade. Weird. But maybe that was the point. I think my mind is still processing this one. It maybe forever processing it. Ask me again next year.
Aldi
Unpopular opinion but I think I am bit over Kevin the Carrot now. Fortunately for Aldi, and looking at the comments on Facebook, most Britons are not so I think we can safely call this one a hit.
For me, it’s the seamless integration of marketing channels and disciplines that means this one’s a winner. To tease it, we had Drag Race’s Danny Beard spotted in Barking (where else) in a Cruella-inspired cauliflower coat. Genius. On every level.
To keep the conversation flowing, we then discovered that if you call the number on the ‘missing’ poster, you get through to Kevin’s voicemail, directing you to a Facebook page complete with a spot-the-dog competition.
Finally, we learned that Cauli-dog would be hitting the famed middle aisle – but demand means no more than two pups per customer, obvs.
A Cauli-dog content ecosystem and I am loving it.
Waitrose and Partners
Kiera and Phil are back – and Rival’s star Alex Hassell is here to shake things up. Yes, it’s long but it’s also lovely. It’s a late comer to the party so I am yet to understand how Waitrose is going to make this campaign a multi-channel one, but it already has me dreaming of beef wellington, which is a commercially promising sign.
Gucci
Mariah Carey. Queen of Christmas. Need I say more?
The author: Jane Ainsworth is managing director of WPR. She has over 25 years’ experience developing and delivering communications strategies for consumer brands including Dunelm, Tesco, Mothercare, Greene King, John Lewis, Bullring, Beaverbrooks and Westfield.
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