Asda, Morrisons and Tesco’s Christmas campaigns failing to inspire shoppers to buy

Asda, which launched its Christmas ad at the start of the month, has seen its purchase consideration score among consumers fall -2.7 percentage points from 32.5 points (1 November) to 29.8 (24 November).

Morrisons fared even worse, with a fall of -3.6 points to 28.3 over the same period.

In fact, Aldi (-1.9), Tesco (-1.5) and Lidl (-0.7) have all seen a dip in purchase consideration. Along with Asda and Morrisons – despite a few isolated examples of growth spikes – the five grocers have all consistently seen their purchase consideration scores fall on a day-by-day basis.

Sainsbury’s, which launched its ad starring Mog on 12 November, has been the biggest winner over the period. Its purchase consideration increased by 4.2 points to a score of 47. Its impressive growth is closely followed by Boots with a score of 55 (+3%) and John Lewis with 44 (+2.2%).

Sarah Murphy, director of YouGov BrandIndex, told Marketing Week: “Sainsbury’s has seen the greatest uplift in purchase consideration and in a sector in which the budget retailers’ market share is expanding, it is crucial that Sainsbury’s capitalises on the success of its heart-warming festive tale.

But with a month to go until Christmas Day, Murphy says brands still have plenty of opportunities to convince shoppers to buy.

“With a month to go until the big day, it may be that many shoppers remain undecided about where they’ll go for their Christmas shopping, while others may be waiting longer for practical reasons,” said Murphy.

Ad awareness rankings

John Lewis and its ‘Man on the Moon’ creative tops YouGov’s ad awareness metric.

Over the period, the department store brand saw its ad awareness score rise by a staggering 29.5 points to a score of 39.7. The John Lewis score hit a high of 41.5 on the 14 November.

Sainsbury’s was the closest in matching John Lewis. However, it is still leagues apart, with ad awareness growing at a rate of 13.7 points to a score of 37 for the period.

Despite the launch of a high-profile TV campaign – its first with new creative agency BBH – featuring a comedic fictional family and focusing on the “Every Little Helps” slogan, Tesco is the only grocer to see a drop in its ad awareness score. It fell -2.5% to 28.5 over the period.

Murphy concluded: “‘It is clear from our data, that John Lewis and Sainsbury’s have achieved high levels of ad awareness with their respective campaigns.

“The association with the season, and indeed the anticipation and expectation around its campaign, elevates John Lewis far above the level of visibility and engagement that many rivals can realistically hope for.”

The most telling indicator of festive performance will be throughout January and February, when each of the 10 retailers is expected to report an update for their fourth quarter trading.