John Lewis’s ‘Buster the Boxer’ Christmas ad tops YouTube’s annual festive leaderboard globally – but Sainsbury’s ‘The Greatest Gift’ was most popular with the British audience, according to league tables revealed today.
The YouTube leaderboard, from Google, indicates that supermarkets and department stores continue to dominate, but luxury retailers like Burberry and pure-play digital companies such as Very.co.uk are beginning to muscle in.
As Christmas adverts, have become a key part of the holiday zeitgeist, much like the Super Bowl in the US, people across UK – and the world – are turning to YouTube to find them. As a result, we’ve seen a 53% increase in the number of UK views of the 2016 top 10 vs the 2015 top 10.
The YouTube leaderboard globally was as follows:
1. John Lewis Christmas Advert 2016 – #BusterTheBoxer
2. Sainsbury’s OFFICIAL Christmas advert 2016 -The Greatest Gift
3. The Tale of Thomas Burberry – Burberry Festive Film 2016
4. #Zeitschenken – EDEKA Weihnachtswerbung
5. Neste Natal, agradeça com Coca-Cola
6. Apple – Frankie’s Holiday
7. M&S 2016 Christmas Ad: Christmas with love from Mrs Claus
8. Come Together – directed by Wes Anderson starring Adrien Brody – H&M
9. TEMPTATIONS™ – Keep them busy (30)
10. Coming Home for Christmas | Heathrow Airport
The top 10 Christmas ads of 2016 in the UK were:
1. Sainsbury’s OFFICIAL Christmas advert 2016 -The Greatest Gift
2. John Lewis Christmas Advert 2016 – #BusterTheBoxer
3. M&S 2016 Christmas Ad: Christmas with love from Mrs Claus
4. Waitrose Christmas TV ad 2016 | #HomeForChristmas
5. The Tale of Thomas Burberry – Burberry Festive Film 2016
6. Very.co.uk Christmas Advert 2016 – Get More Out of Giving
7. Big Dilemma (Asda)
8. The Argos Christmas Yetis TV Advert
9. Aldi Christmas Advert 2016 – Kevin The Carrot
10. #BootsChristmas TV advert 2016 – the gift of beauty
Methodology
Both leaderboards are ranked based on an algorithm that includes paid views, organic views and how much of a video people watched. The UK list includes only views from people in the UK. For both lists we applied a filter to capture the ads that were referring to Christmas.
Kenyatte Nelson, Group Marketing Director at Shop Direct, said: “It’s fantastic to see our Very.co.uk Christmas advert riding high in the YouTube Christmas Ads Leaderboard. YouTube plays an important part in every campaign we run, and never more so than at Christmas due in part to the ‘Christmas ad battle’ where you see people crowding around monitors to watch adverts, or sharing links on email.
“This year we created a longer-length Christmas ad specifically for YouTube, which allows us to tell our Christmas story in greater depth. YouTube as always is a great partner in getting the content we create in front of the people we think it will resonate with, and we’re thrilled to see our Christmas ad getting such a great response.”
David Black, MD of Branding at Google UK, said: “We see people coming to YouTube again and again to look for their favourite Christmas ads. In fact, they start searching before the ads are launched on TV – we have seen a 40% year on year increase in Google searches for Christmas ads.
“Brands know the value of YouTube as the destination for Christmas ads and when they use paid, owned and earned media together, they see strong results. They see YouTube as a platform for creativity and storytelling, where they can harness the power of sight, sound and motion to connect with consumers.”
“More brands than ever are making Christmas ads that users love. Now, the likes of H&M, Burberry, Coca-Cola and even Heathrow Airport are joining John Lewis and Sainsbury’s and performing brilliantly this year.”
“Here in the UK, Sainsbury’s quintessentially British commercial, playing on our love of stop-motion animation, has captured the public’s imagination. It’s great to see UK brands leading the way with Christmas ads, and exciting to see American, Brazilian and German brands tapping into this opportunity to put themselves at the heart of a global cultural moment every year.”