Ad Platform Unruly Reveals The Most Emotionally Engaging Global Festive Ads Of 2020
Disney’s “From Our Family To Yours” beats spots from Coca-Cola, Kohl’s and Amazon to become video ad platform Unruly’s No.1 festive campaign around the world
NEW YORK – December 14, 2020 – The most moving global festive ad of 2020 is Disney’s “From Our Family To Yours”, according to new research from Unruly.
The video advertising platform has released a ranking of the most emotionally engaging festive campaigns around the world using its content testing tool, UnrulyEQ.
Top of Unruly’s festive tree is Disney’s animated ad, which tells the heartwarming story of a grandmother’s relationship with her granddaughter and the importance of family traditions during the holiday season. The global campaign generated a positive emotional response from UK viewers that was 126% higher than the UK market average.
That put it just ahead of Coca-Cola’s Christmas campaign, directed by Oscar winner Taika Waititi. The two-and-a-half minute ad, which follows the story of a dad trying to deliver his daughter’s letter to Santa against all the odds, generated an intense emotional response 118% higher.
Australian retail chain Big W finished third, with UK retailer Kohl’s in fourth. Ads from confectionary brand Milka, the UK’s Great Ormond Street Hospital and German pharmacy company DocMorris finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. Amazon’s “The Show Must Go On” was eighth.
Other brands to make it into Unruly’s top 20 include LEGO, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s and the US Postal Service. Chick-fil-A’s “The Spark” (21st) and a spot from UK retailer John Lewis (22nd), famous for its emotional advertising, both just missed out on the top 20..
Most Emotionally Engaging Global Festive Ads Of 2020
| Rank | Brand | Campaign | Territory campaign tested | % who felt intense emotional response vs market norm |
| 1. | Disney | “From Our Family To Yours” | UK | +126% |
| 2. | Coca-Cola | “Christmas Commercial 2020” | UK | +118% |
| 3. | Big W | “Bring On Christmas” | Australia | +116% |
| 4. | Kohl’s | “Give With All Your Heart” | US | +106% |
| 5. | Milka | “Gib denen, die von Herzen geben” | Germany | +104% |
| 6. | Great Ormond St Hospital | “Home For Christmas” | UK | +100% |
| 7. | DocMorris | “#Herzensangelegenheit” | Germany | +96% |
| 8. | Amazon | “The Show Must Go On” | Sweden | +95% |
| 9. | LEGO | “And I Think To Myself” | UK | +94% |
| 10. | Aldi | “Will Kevin Get Home?” | UK | +91% |
| 11. | Sainsbury’s | “The Gravy Song” | UK | +89% |
| 12. | United States Postal Service | “HOME” | US | +87% |
| =13. | Campbell’s Soup | “Snowbuddy” | US | +85% |
| =13. | DFS | “A Comfy Carol” — Wallace And Gromit | UK | +85% |
| =13. | Toys “R” Us
| “Make It A Christmas To Remember” | AU | +85% |
| 16. | Not On The High Street
| “The Magic Of Small Things”
| UK | +82% |
| 17. | Etsy | “Gift Like You Mean It” | US | +81% |
| =18. | Pandora | “Make Her Shine This Holiday” | US | +80% |
| =18. | Argos | “An Evening with AbracaDaisy & The Incredible Lucy” | UK | +80% |
| 20. | M&S | “This Is M&S Christmas Food / Olivia Coleman” | UK | +79% |
Rebecca Waring, Global VP of Insights at Unruly, said: “People are clearly in the mood for high-budget, epic storytelling this festive period. Disney and Coke’s mini-movies have led our festive ad rankings all over the world – showing us how emotional creative can cross cultural borders.
“However, ‘Bring On Christmas’, from Australian retailer Big W, has also done incredibly well, scoring just behind these two global giants with an ad that focuses on real people and local community; three quarters of respondents said that the brand came across as genuine, relatable and trustworthy. The German market also has a tradition for powerfully emotive Christmas advertising, ending up with two ads in the Top 10 of a global chart that is otherwise dominated by US and UK brands.
“As we predicted in our Holiday 2020 Consumer Research, COVID references and serious tones are not resonating as well with consumers. Amazon was the only explicitly COVID-themed ad to make the Top 10; they took a risk by leaning in on the COVID angle, which has paid off as their ad is highly distinctive. We knew this would be an emotional Christmas, and overall, this year’s ads have proved to be 51% more emotive than the global average. This year’s Christmas ads are also particularly successful at creating purchase consideration; the average score exceeds the norm by 41%.”
To see the full list of ads, view more details of a specific ad’s performance or request an EQ report, visit Unruly’s Holiday Ad Hub.
Methodology
Unruly analysed the emotional responses of consumers around the world to 103 global festive ads released this year using its content measurement tool, UnrulyEQ, which helps advertisers maximise the impact of their video content across multiple screens to more effectively land brand metrics and target receptive audiences at scale. Over 6.500 consumers around the world took part in the festive study. The results were then compared to Unruly’s database of thousands of ads.
Ads were ranked on the intensity of emotional response, taking into account the norm levels of emotional response in each market to give a fair global comparison. For ads tested in multiple markets, the territory where it scored the highest was used.
