Get your tinsel out, the Christmas countdown has started. That’s right, the John Lewis Xmas ad is out.

A little earlier than normal. Ten days earlier than last year, in fact. But who’s complaining.

For the latest addition to the retailer’s much-vaunted festive canon — “Where Love Lives” — we are treated to heavy dose of nostalgia.

The ad, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, centres on the relationship between a father and his son — all to the set to the soundtrack of 1990s club classic – yep, you guessed it, Where Love Lives.

His son buys his middle-aged dad a vinyl record for Xmas, which transports him back to his clubbing days.

It’s the second year that the UK retailer has moved away from the traditional fare of cute animal characters and kids that have made the retailer’s ads such a Christmas staple.

But is it any good? Well, we ran it through our AI-powered creative testing platform to find out.

Here’s what we found:

The ad scored in the top 20% of ads we have ever tested

The ad scored pretty well, managing a Creative Effectiveness Score – a composite metric that measures overall effectiveness based on a creative’s ability to generate positive emotions, attract attention and score highly for brand recognition – of 6.77. That may not seem like a huge number, but it actually puts it in the top 20% of ads we have ever tested.

It’s also 15% more likely to generate intense positive emotions than the average ad

Like any John Lewis Xmas ad, “Where Love Lives” packs a hefty emotional punch. No words are spoken, but it doesn’t matter – the ad is sure to have many people in tears. Like last year’s ad, it’s highly relatable and is sure to have people choked up while watching. And that is reflected in its positive emotional scores.

The ad is 15% more likely to generate intense positive emotions than the average ad. It’s almost three times more likely to make people feel intense adoration than the norm,  and twice as likely to make them feel intense warmth (+124%), gratitude (+106%) and joy (+100%). Not a bad morning’s work.

Obviously, feelings of Nostalgia are also 34% above the norm. Here is more detailed breakdown of the emotions it generated (below).

It managed to keep people hooked till the end

But did it manage to hold’s people’s attention? Well, the ad started reasonably well in the first few seconds. Attention levels at the start are around average. But it’s the final few seconds which are interesting.

Looking at the numbers, the ad is 15% more likely to attract attention right till the end than the average ad.

Viewers were also 29% more likely to recall the brand after watching than the industry norm

Let’s face it, people know a John Lewis ad when they see one. And this is certainly the case with “Where Love Lives”, with 7 out of 10 viewers correctly being able to identify the brand after viewing. That puts it 29% higher than the average ad.

But next step intents slightly below average

However, there’s always a but. The one area that “Where Love Lives” performed below average is its ability to inspire people to act. In fact, despite holding their interest and making them feel very emotional, viewers were slightly less likely to recommend the brand, buy a product or share the video than average.