Expensive TV ad campaigns fail to influence Christmas shopping choices - survey

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 1, 2016

Christmas TV ads have little effect on where consumers do their Christmas shopping, a new poll from MoneySavingExpert shows.

The website surveyed 11,500 consumers with only 1% of respondents saying that high profile ads like M&S’s Mrs Claus or John Lewis’s Boxer the Buster have a big impact on their shopping choices.

Another 10% noted a very small impact and as many as 69% said they feel that such ads have no impact at all.

Additionally, 2% of those asked said they don’t have a TV and so don’t see these campaigns, while 7% said the ads were entertaining but they couldn’t remember which stores they were for. A worrying 9% said they even find glossy Christmas campaigns a complete turn-off and that makes them avoid the stores concerned.

It has been estimated that large retailers, among them the key department store chains such as Debenhams, House of Fraser, Harvey Nichols, John Lewis and M&S, will spend around £5.6bn this year on their Christmas campaigns, according to figures from the Advertising Association/WARC.

A headline-grabbing Christmas campaign has become a must-have for many UK stores in recent years and budgets have soared, with retailers hiring big name directors, celebrities and animators for cinematic-style ads.

This year, Janet McTeer stars for M&S while Burberry has Sienna Miller. Meanwhile fashion specialist H&M hired Wes Anderson to create its festive campaign.