System1 Christmas Ad Latest: Less Is More for McDonald’s 'Eyebrows' Christmas Ad

Every year System1 tests all the major Christmas ads on its Test Your Ad platform, putting each eagerly-awaited creative to the test of real audience reaction. The ads are rated from one-Star to 5.9-Stars, a measure predicting their potential to drive long-term brand growth. Overall, only 1% of ads land in the five-Star range. But brands save their best, most emotional work for Christmas, and high-scoring ads are more common. 

McDonalds is one of the big Christmas advertisers, with 2017’s #ReindeerReady ad getting a five-Star rating. But while their 2020s Christmas ads have been well received, none have broken the four-Star barrier to join the top Xmas commercials of the year. 

That’s changed with the fast-food chain’s latest “Fancy A McDonalds?” commercial - the 30 second version of the ad scored a strong 4.1-Stars, well above the brand and category average. The ad, which shows a motley band of revellers taking a break from Christmas fun to head for McDonalds, follows up their highly successful “Eyebrows” commercial earlier this year, which also hit four-Stars. 

“It’s great to see brands stay consistent at Christmas and get a thumbs up from the British public” said Jon Evans, chief customer officer at System1. “What’s impressive about this ad is that they’ve taken the “eyebrows” idea which worked so well outside of the Christmas context and adapted it brilliantly. With a lot of ads, the Christmas commercial is terrific but it doesn’t tie in as strongly with their ongoing campaigns. McDonalds have avoided that problem in style. A great idea is for life, not just for Christmas.” 

The ad also has a lesson for wider Christmas advertising because its highest scoring variation is the shortest version, at 30 seconds. “Christmas ads have a tendency to be long,” says Jon Evans, “And with the big storytelling hits like Aldi it’s the full versions that do best. But in the wider world of advertising, we’ve found 30 seconds is the ideal length for effectiveness. And some of this year’s ads which are more idea- than story-focused like McDonalds and Morrisons’ are performing very strongly at 30 seconds. Lots of Christmas cheer but more bang for your budget too. It also performs strongly on Spike, our short-term measure. McDonalds is an impulse buy even at Christmas, so short-term effectiveness is vital, and they’ve nailed it.” 

With several big brands still to release ads, System1 testing continues - look for a final Top 10 list later in November.