So pretty much every retailer has shown their hand now in The Great Christmas TV Ad Showdown.
Judging by online views and my friends with kids, Sainsbury’s Mog is by far the most popular. And the grocery gurus I follow on twitter say that cuddly Mogs are flying out of stores.
But it’s actually not a popularity contest. Sainsbury’s have effectively piggybacked their brand onto a much-loved children’s classic, so it doesn’t say much about them or how they ‘get’ Christmas, or why you should do your Christmas shopping with them.
Lidl get Christmas. Their ad is charming, funny, tongue in cheek and subtly places them in a nicely aspirational middle class space for a bigger share of the high-low shopping festive action. They know you take doing Christmas properly seriously – but not too seriously.
Asda really gets this too. A couple of years ago I did a lot of festive focus groups with Asda Mums and #becauseitsChristmas is absolutely bang on for them. Doing Christmas properly according to the Asda Mums I spoke to seemed to involve half a mile of fairly lights, at least two trees, a mountain of gifts, festive themed PJs, DVDs and books and enough food to see out the next ice age. Because it’s Christmas.
The latest market share figures for the Big Four supermarkets have been somewhat mixed, let’s see whether Sainsbury’s and Asda have a good Christmas trading period and come January how much their respective ads are thought to have contributed to that.