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Magical M&S Ad Starring Dawn French Is The Most Emotionally Engaging Christmas Ad (So Far), According To New AI Ranking

“The Journey” is early front-runner in annual Xmas ad battle after generating most intense positive emotions of any festive spot so far; Ads from Lidl, Asda and Sainsbury’s also in top 10

Barney Worfolk-Smith

Barney Worfolk-Smith

5 Nov 2024

LONDON, SEATTLE – November 5, 2024 – A magical Marks & Spencer’s campaign starring comedian Dawn French is the early front-runner in the annual Christmas ad battle, generating the most intense positive emotions of any of the festive ads released so far.

That’s according to new research by creative effectiveness platform DAIVID, which, with many brands releasing their festive campaigns already, used its AI-powered platform to find the Xmas 2024 ads most likely to generate the most intense levels of positivity from Christmas shoppers. 

“The Journey” – which sees French reprise her role as the Christmas Fairy and join her character on screen – currently sits proudly on top of DAIVID’s Christmas ad tree after 55.4% of viewers felt an intense positive response to the ad. The ad, in which French reluctantly hosts a Xmas party for her neighbours, also generated 88% more warmth, 58% more joy and 37% more amusement than the average ad.

That put it ahead of Amazon’s “Midnight Opus”, which shows how small thoughtful acts can bring people together, and Etsy’s “Waldo Anthem” in second and third respectively. 

A heart-warming campaign from supermarket Lidl and an ad from UK lifestyle brand FatFace complete the top 5. Other brands to appear in DAIVID’s top 10 include Asda, Sainsbury’s, Walmart and Aldi. 

 

Top 10 Most Emotionally Engaging 2024 Christmas ads (so far) – chosen by AI

RankBrandCampaign        % of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions
1.M&S“The Journey”         55.4%
2.Amazon“Midnight Opus”         55.2%
3.Etsy“Waldo Anthem”         54.6%
4.Lidl“A Magical Christmas”         53.7%
5.FatFace“FatFace Christmas”         53.0%
6.TK Maxx“Festive Farm”         52.9%
7.Asda “Gnome of Xmas”         52.8%
8.Sainsbury’s“BIG Christmas”         52.6%
9.Walmart“Show You Get Them”         50.9%
10. Aldi“Spirit of Christmas”         50.4%

 

Barney Worfolk-Smith, Chief Growth Officer at DAIVID, said: “We’re here for the magic of Christmas – and that’s reflected in our top 10 festive frontrunners, which have strong themes of escapism, adventure, nostalgia, and also kindness. Let’s face it, these are difficult times, so it’s no surprise that people are looking for a bit of an escape from the day-to-day grind – to look back, and also to bring out the best in each other. A bit of magic to distract from the mundane.  

“‘’The Journey’ brings a bit of much-needed sparkle and joy. After all, who wouldn’t want their very own festive fairy to help them navigate the madness of Christmas. Like a modern day Christmas Carol, we see national treasure Dawn French going from party humbug to party hero, thanks to a little M&S Food magic.  With the brand integral to the ad’s narrative, it’s also highly effective, with the ad generating above average attention throughout, and strong brand recall and purchase intent.” 

DAIVID’s Christmas ranking was compiled using its AI-powered platform, DAIVID Self-Serve. Trained using tens of millions of human responses to ads, the new solution predicts the emotions an ad will generate, and its likely impact on brand and business metrics – enabling advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns at scale. AI models are built by combining facial coding, eye tracking and survey data with computer vision and computer listening APIs.

Conclusion

Methodology

DAIVID’s research was conducted using the company’s Self-Serve solution, which uses a model – trained using tens of millions of consumer data points – to predict the emotions evoked by an ad, how much attention it’s likely to generate and its expected impact on various brand and business metrics. Using a combination of computer vision, computer listening, facial coding, eye tracking, survey data and machine learning, DAIVID’s model enables advertisers to evaluate, quantify and improve the effectiveness of their creative at scale. 

Altogether 32 Christmas 2024 ads were included in the study. Ads were ranked by the percentage of people predicted to feel intense positive emotions to the content. The strength of emotions people feel are ranked from 1-10, with 8-10 considered ‘intense’. Data for the chart was compiled at 9am on November 5, 2024. DAIVID will continue to update the Christmas ads chart throughout the festive period. 

To find out more about DAIVID Self-Serve – available across multiple formats and channels – email, webringthewhy@daivid.co 

 

About DAIVID

DAIVID is a global tech platform that enables advertisers to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of their creative at scale. In today’s content-saturated, always-on world, DAIVID helps marketers cut through the noise. The UK-based company empowers brands, agencies and influencers to ditch the guesswork and measure the effectiveness of their content quickly and accurately across a range of different platforms, formats and channels. The platform’s team of data scientists then analyse the findings and provide advertisers with the insights and actions they need to optimise the emotional and business impact of their creative. Clients include EssenceMediacom, Omnicom and Snapchat. 

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