System1 Christmas Ad Latest: Love for Morrisons Gloves and John Lewis Returns to Form

The latest Test Your Ad data from System1 shows the Christmas ad race is heating up, with Morrisons’ oven gloves joining Aldi and M&S Food in earning maximum points with the public, and John Lewis posting its best score since 2020. 

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 1-Star to 5.9-Stars, a measure predicting their potential to drive long-term brand growth. Overall, only 1% of ads land in the 5-Star range. But brands save their best, most emotional work for Christmas, when 5-Star ads are a lot more common. 

2023 has already seen a remarkable three ads get the maximum 5.9-Star score on Test Your Ad. Aldi’s Kevin The Carrot and M&S Food’s Fairy are now joined on 5.9-Stars by Morrisons’ Oven Gloves. The ad from Leo Burnett stars animated oven gloves singing Starship’s soft rock classic 'Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now' as they serve up Christmas feasts. 

“This is a beautifully simple ad from Morrisons executed with real magic”, said Jon Evans, chief customer officer at System1, “It goes to show you don’t need to make budget-busting epic stories at Christmas - sometimes all you need is one great idea, brilliantly done. A 5.9-Star score is genuinely hard to achieve and to see three ads do it shows how hard creative teams have worked to make this year’s ads special.” 

Rachel Eyre, Morrisons chief customer and marketing officer, said, "This Christmas - and every Christmas - great British food should be the star of the show and so our ad showcases Morrisons brilliant Christmas range. But there's always a lot to do when preparing the big Christmas meal and some classic 1980s power ballad encouragement is clearly in order.   

And so we've made the trusty oven glove the tuneful cheerleaders of the nation's Christmas chefs and we hope they enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it. We’ve once again placed marketing effectiveness front and centre across the whole planning and development process of this campaign with the aim being to get really emotionally engaging work that’s highly impactful’. Nothing's gonna stop us making this Christmas the best for our customers." 

Mark Elwood, ECD at Leo Burnett UK, said, “The humble oven glove is at the heart of every Christmas across the UK. Everyone has a pair in their kitchen drawer or hung up on the oven, whether they’re a fresh new set or the ones that got scorched while making Christmas dinner in 1993. Our singing oven gloves are there to support hosts up and down the nation whilst making their Christmas dinner special. Bringing a little festive joy to the nation with an 80s banger that everyone can sing along too. #GloveOke anyone?” 

The Top 10 ads so far on the Test Your Ad scorecard are as follows: 

• Aldi - “Kevin and the Christmas Factory ” (5.9-Stars) 
• M&S Food - “2023 Christmas Advert” (5.9-Stars) 
• Morrisons – ‘Christmas Advert 2023’ (5.9-Stars) 
• Lidl – ‘A magical Christmas with Lidl’ (5.8-Stars) 
• Sainsbury’s - “This Christmas, one little girl asks one BIG question” (5.7-Stars) 
• Vodafone “Feel the Connection this Christmas” (5.6-Stars) 
• Duracell ‘Bunny Saves Christmas’ (5.4-Stars) 
• Coca Cola - “The World Needs More Santa's (5.3-Stars) 
• Boots - “Give Joy” (5.3-Stars) 
• TK Maxx – ‘TK Maxx Festive Farm’ (5.0 Stars) 

“As expected it’s a strong showing for retailers so far,” said Jon Evans, “But it’s good to see Duracell break into the Top 10 with their first Christmas TV ad in a long time. Vodafone and Duracell are great examples of how tech brands can operate on a level with the big retailers at Christmas by using traditional Christmas icons well - both those ads have Santa in a starring role.” 

Finally, there’s good news for John Lewis too. The John Lewis ad, featuring a present-gobbling Venus Fly Trap, hit 3.6-Stars, a good score and the brand’s best since 2020’s animated montage. 

“John Lewis have landed outside the Top 10 this year,” commented Jon Evans, “But the public have responded well to the ad and they can still teach other brands a lot about taking risks, earning coverage and making your Christmas ad a real event.” 

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