Which brands are winning the Christmas ad battle?
John Lewis’s festive ad is an early favourite, according to exclusive Ipsos data, while Aldi tops the rankings for ad empathy and making consumers feel good about the brand.
· Marketing WeekBy Amrit Virdi 13 Nov 2026 6:41 am
John Lewis & Partners Christmas ad is the early favourite, according to exclusive data shared with Marketing Week.
The Ipsos Race to Christmas data, which covers ads released on or before 6 November in the first round, shows John Lewis’s ad following the story of ‘Gloria and Pickles’ is top for spontaneous ‘favourite’ mentions of a Christmas advert.
When respondents were asked unprompted which was their favourite, 17% said John Lewis. This is ahead of M&S at 16%, Aldi and Sainsbury’s joint third at 9% each, Tesco at 6%, and Lidl and Coca-Cola both coming in at 5%.
John Lewis took an early lead last year too, but it was Waitrose’s ‘The Perfect Gift’ that was eventually crowned consumers’ overall favourite ad in 2025.
Waitrose launched its follow up to last year’s ad ‘The Perfect Gift 2’ on Tuesday (10 November), so it was not included in the first round of Race to Christmas.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/26231374/visualisation.json?ref=embed-script
It’s also worth noting M&S’s ‘The Home of Christmas’ was released at the end of the first survey window so has not officially tracked in the race yet. But despite this, it is still the second spontaneous favourite after John Lewis.
John Lewis’s advert is also currently leading on recognition and branded recognition. In terms of ad recognition, when showing recipients debranded stills of the ads, 32% recognised the John Lewis ad, followed by Sainsbury’s (30%) and Argos (27%).
For branded recognition, 24% of recognisers were able to correctly associate the John Lewis ad back to the brand, followed by Sainsbury’s at 21% with its BFG return, Tesco at 17%, Argos at 17% and Aldi at 16%.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/30653128/visualisation.json?ref=embed-script
Asda and Boots are lower down the list for branded recognition at 8% and 5% respectively, with the brands finding it harder to convert recognition into correct brand attribution. Ipsos suggests this is because both Boots and Argos have both used LED face masks in their ads, leading to 19% mistakenly linking the Boots’ ad to Argos.
Despite its success in other categories, John Lewis’s festive push isn’t performing as well as its peers for ad empathy. In terms of relatability, Aldi scores highest, with 54% agreeing the advert is ‘for people like me’. Lidl follows at 50%, while Asda and Boots both score 42%. John Lewis only totted up 25%.
Aldi also leads the market for brand feel good, with 55% of respondents saying its Kevin the Carrot spot made them feel good about the brand. Boots scores 47%, Tesco at 46%, and Lidl at 45%, while John Lewis and Argos are both lower down at 30%.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/26231201/visualisation.json?ref=embed-script
For customers being persuaded by an advert to buy their food shopping at that grocer, Lidl’s Shaun Williamson spot comes in the lead at 60%. Aldi follows at 47%, Asda at 40%, Tesco at 35% and Sainsbury’s at 34%.
When asked if ‘the food looked delicious’, Aldi comes out on top with 47% of respondents preferring the food in their ad, followed by Lidl at 45%, Asda at 44%, Sainsbury’s at 43% and Tesco at 37%.
On this year’s adverts so far, Samira Brophy, senior director for creative excellence at Ipsos, says it’s great to see “good creative discipline”, with Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Coca-Cola sticking with their key concepts and brand assets, and fresh creativity and celebrity from M&S, being good examples of this.
Asos’ retro-inspired Christmas: The Marketing Week Christmas blog 2026
Pricing power
Ipsos also tracks Christmas online, with its Synthesio social listening tool finding that price is the key factor shaping the response to Christmas campaigns. Lidl’s affordability is resonating well, while people feel the lifestyle shown in John Lewis’s ad and the products in Disney’s ‘The Invisible Horse’ feel out of reach.
Lidl also has 80% positive sentiment compared with an average of 44% for the other brands tracked, with shoppers excited about its food, decor and toy offering, and Lidl Plus discounts.
Yet John Lewis has generated the most online conversation, ahead of Disney and Amazon, and saw the biggest spike in mentions when its campaign launched in the first week of November, with conversations around the story, creativity, casting and lifestyle prominent.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/26231230/visualisation.json?ref=embed-script
Disney is generating the highest engagement online, which Ipsos says is fuelled by nostalgia. It is followed by Amazon and Boots.
In terms of the general public sentiment to Christmas, 49% are already excited and 26% are not yet excited. The majority (73%) have already seen at least one Christmas ad so far this year, meaning awareness has risen steadily year on year, up from 52% at this point in 2024 and 71% in 2025.
Half (53%) say seeing ads early helps them to shop and plan in advance, and 35% feel positive about seeing Christmas brand content in September.