Last week I went back through three Christmases and found that the ad Britain loves most rarely wins at the tills. This week the 2026 ads landed, so I’ve done what I promised and scored them.
Not on whether they made me cry. On all eight stages of the funnel: would this ad get me noticed, looking, buying, and coming back in January?
How I scored them
Each ad gets 0 to 10 at each stage, so 80 is the maximum. This is what earns points in a Christmas ad:
| Stage | What earns points |
|---|---|
| Notices | Gets seen and remembered as this brand: distinctive assets, early branding |
| Looks | Sends people looking: search, browsing, a reason to find out more |
| Sizes up | Gives reasons to choose: real products, quality, proof |
| Buys | Price, offer, where to buy, a clear next step |
| Uses | Shows the product being enjoyed: the dinner, the gift opened |
| Judges | Reassures you the choice was right |
| Returns | A reason to come back: loyalty scheme, ritual, next visit |
| Preaches | Talk value: music, merch, charity, a character people want back |
The scorecard
| Ad | Total | Notices | Looks | Sizes up | Buys | Uses | Judges | Returns | Preaches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M&S | 46 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| Sainsbury’s | 43 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| Morrisons | 42 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| Aldi | 38 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| Tesco | 37 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Lidl | 37 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Asda | 35 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| John Lewis | 33 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
Ad by ad
M&S, “The Home of Christmas”: 46/80
The most balanced ad of the year. It’s M&S’s first Christmas ad since 2017 to sell food, fashion, home and beauty together, with named products, prices across the campaign, and lists, recipes and a catalogue to send you on to. It doesn’t top any single stage. It just doesn’t drop one.
Sainsbury’s, “The Big Delivery”: 43/80
Third year of the BFG, and he’s now a proper brand asset. This time he brings the food: a Taste the Difference turkey crown, a sprout gratin. There’s a Comic Relief tie-in for talk value. What’s missing is a price, and any mention of Nectar.
Morrisons, “Christmas Made Just Right”: 42/80
Goldilocks comes home for Christmas with Baby Bear, and Daddy Bear does the big shop at Morrisons’ Market Street counters. The food is the hero: smoked salmon, glazed ham, mince pies, British veg. No prices, but a cuddly bear with 50p from each sale going to Marie Curie gives it something to talk about.
Aldi, “Kevin and the Christmas Wish”: 38/80
Kevin the Carrot’s eleventh Christmas. Nobody in British advertising is better loved or more talked about, so Aldi gets a 9 at Notices and Preaches. Then it scores 2s and 3s for everything in between, because the ad never shows you anything you could buy.
Tesco, “The Wrong Address”: 37/80
A lovely story about old friends, built around Tesco’s home delivery. The full version works. The 30-second cut, which is the one most people will see on TV, is hard to follow, and that costs it at Notices. Food on the table, “Every Little Helps” at the end. No Clubcard.
Lidl, Nico the Nutcracker: 37/80
A 31-second tour of the Christmas range, led by a nutcracker, under Lidl’s “More to Value” line. Value is the message rather than any one product. Last week’s numbers say that’s exactly how Lidl wins Christmas, so a middling ad score may not matter much. The Toy Bank is back alongside it.
Asda, “All of Christmas at Asda Price. BOOM!”: 35/80
The most till-focused ad of the eight. The price is in the tagline and on the tags, which earns it the best Buys score of the year. But with the Grinch gone, there’s little to remember it by.
John Lewis, “Gloria and Pickles”: 33/80
System1 gave it 5.6 stars, John Lewis’s best score since 2019, and there’s a Sam Fender single raising money for Action for Children. It will be talked about all season. The products are in there: Pickles is a real Fisher-Price pull-along you can buy at John Lewis, and the Gran Cave is dressed with stock from its website. But the story is about giving something more personal than cash, and the big present is a room. There’s no price, and some of the talk is a backlash.
Two of them made me cry
Tesco’s is an old-friends story, and it took me straight back to coming home at Christmas and seeing everyone again. John Lewis is grandma and grandchildren, and nothing gets me like remembering both my grandmas at Christmas.
Neither made the top half of my scorecard. They’re lovely ads, and they did their job at the top of the funnel. But I came away thinking about my friends and my grans, not about anything to buy.
The gap nobody’s talking about
I watched all eight looking for one thing. Not one of them mentions a loyalty scheme. No Clubcard, no Nectar, no Lidl Plus, no More Card, no Sparks, no Asda Rewards. No ad scores above 4 at Returns.
That’s odd, because loyalty is how these businesses actually compete now. Part 1 showed Tesco wins Christmas on Clubcard Prices, not on its ad. The one mechanic that brings shoppers back in January is missing from the most expensive ads of the year.
The same pattern as last week is there too. The ads built to be loved, Aldi and John Lewis, score highest at Notices and Preaches and lowest at Buys. The ones that show product and price sit lower on love and higher on the till.
January decides
Scores are opinions. Kantar’s Christmas numbers in January aren’t. I’ll come back then and check my scorecard against the tills.
In the meantime: which one did you actually like? And did it make you want to buy anything?
Sources
- M&S: M&S press release
- Sainsbury’s: Creative Salon, Retail Gazette
- Morrisons: Ad Ranking, Morrisons press release (EuropaWire)
- Aldi: Aldi press centre
- Tesco: Creative Salon, Retail Gazette
- Lidl: Grocery Gazette, Retail Gazette
- Asda: Retail Gazette, DesignRush
- John Lewis: Retail Times, Advanced Television (System1 score), DesignRush (backlash)
