Sunday Express: Lidl’s big ad win for Christmas
Sunday Express | 16 Nov 2025 | BY JON COATES
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Lidl, above, came top for Christmas TV adverts with its meal tale, while John Lewis, below, showed care, said a poll
LIDL did just a little bit better than John Lewis as it pipped it to the crown of best Christmas TV advert this year, research shows.
With the festive season under way Britain’s biggest retailers have unveiled their seasonal ads.
And Lidl was found to have nudged ahead of John Lewis by hitting an emotional sweet-spot of “connection, comfort and shared nostalgia” that consumers say defines their ideal Yuletide.
The budget supermarket showed a young girl going gift shopping with her mother and grandmother, while observing people coming together at parties and at the dinner table.
The Harris Poll UK found it came the closest to unlocking true shared joy and social emotion, but missed out on indulgent food cues and success-at-christmas emotions.
John Lewis, which showed a father getting a record from his son that took him back to his clubbing days when listening to it, was a hit for a strong “social” connection that evoked sympathy, care and compassion.
But its heavy focus on the father’s memory created a sense of isolation. Other ads centred gifting and festive indulgence, but they fell short of delivering the deeper emotional outcome consumers crave, said the poll.
The leading business and customer strategy researchers used its Emotional Signature tool to uncover the feelings that consumers associate with their ideal Christmas.
It found comfort, nostalgia and togetherness were the most desired sentiments consumers wanted.
This was followed by joy and happiness, indulgence and treating ourselves, and achieving success at Christmas. Other festive adverts looked at by the ES tool included Boots, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Aldi.
Boots, which featured Puss (in Boots) shopping for gifts to take to a ball, was a hit for being strong on indulgent, attractive gift-giving,
But respondents found that it was weaker on social connection and shared joy.
The Aldi ad had Kevin the carrot going on a stag do that went “pearshaped.” The research found this was a hit for its fun, engaging storytelling with it recognisable “Kevin” character. But it was weaker on indulgent product associations.
Article Name: Lidl’s big ad win for Christmas:
Publication: Sunday Express
Author: Jon Coats
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