How soon is too soon for Christmas ads?

While it may be the most wonderful time of the year, the fatigue that sets in amongst a flurry of shopping, gifts and family wrangling can be much too real – especially as the barrage of Mariah Carey usually starts way too early for most people’s tastes. It’s the same thing with ads: as brands try to take full advantage of the Christmas spirit, we’re noticing holiday messaging creeping in earlier and earlier every year.

However, Tracksuit surveyed people from across the globe and found that 61% of people don’t want to see a Christmas campaign before November.

The majority of people don’t start thinking about Christmas until Halloween is over, and only two in 10 people actually use Black Friday to shop for Christmas deals.

So what does that mean for your brand?

Start the sleigh bells ringing from November 🦌

Although a good chunk of people begin to percolate on the holiday season before October (21% of people in Australia, 15% in USA and 16% in the UK think about it from June, even), attitudes to Christmas campaigns are a bit different.

Most people answered that they (61%) would prefer if the brand campaigns started rolling on from November onwards.

This resonates across the globe, though the UK and Australia markets are more open to starting earlier than the Americans (perhaps because UK and Australia don’t have Thanksgiving).

Men think about Christmas later than women (or not at all)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, men are overly represented in the “last minute” bucket, as well as answering yes to “I don’t celebrate/care about Christmas." We’re pretty certain most of us only need to look at our own households to understand that this rings true.

For example, in Australia, 15% of men answered that they think about Christmas last minute, compared to 9% of women.

In the UK, it’s 10% of men compared to 4% of women.

And in the US, 8% of men compared to 4% of women. That’s what they call a pattern.

Less people care about Christmas Down Under ☀️

Whether it’s due to the lack of atmosphere-setting snow, or the Australian proclivity to being extra chill, more Australians don’t celebrate or care about Christmas than both the UK and the US.

13% of Australians answered they don’t celebrate/care, compared to 9% of the UK and 7% of Americans.

Should you invest in Christmas? 🎅

According to Kantar, three in five consumers say they “love” Christstmas ads, with 56% of people saying they’re “really looking forward to seeing Christmas ads on TV”. Department store John Lewis’s ads are the most hotly anticipated, followed by Cocoa-Cola.

The same survey found that 53% of people saying a good Christmas ad would positively impact their view of the brand.

The reasoning for this is fairly simple: Christmas is an emotionally laden time of year, associated with family gatherings, tradition, and precious time off work, which makes it easy to dig up fuzzy feelings and use that to drum up some goodwill for your brand.

As stated in Tracksuit’s Emotion Effect report, emotional advertising drives fame. In fact, ads that make people feel “highly pleasant emotions” are 27% more likely to go viral.

Christmas campaign inspiration from 2024 🎄

A Waitrose MysteryOpens in new tab

British supermarket Waitrose brought in the big guns this year, including Successions Matthew Macfayden (who also played Mr Darcy, of course) and Fleabag’s Sian Clifford, for a little whodunnit.

Cataclaws is coming to townOpens in new tab

A Lego cat whose sole purpose is to spread joy and get kids to join in on the fun – what’s not to love?

Gregg’s with Nigella LawsonOpens in new tab

Nigella Lawson is as synonymous with Christmas as Santa Claus at this point.