London, UK. As the festive season gains momentum, Ipsos unveils the results of Week 2 of its second annual ‘Race to Christmas’ campaign, which analyses the latest festive offerings from retailers to see which are capturing the hearts and minds of the British public. This week, we’ve seen a herd of new competitors entering the race, with major brands such as Waitrose, Tesco, Amazon, Disney+, and Lego launching their ads.
· Waitrose makes a strong entrance: New entrant Waitrose is making waves with 42% ad recognition after just one week in the campaign. Their use of well-known celebrities Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson, as well as a comprehensive marketing ecosystem has also propelled them to joint second place in the nation’s favourite ad rankings (tied with M&S at 10%).
· Digital engagement: According to Ipsos iris* data, Lidl experienced a 93% increase in website visitors on the day of its ad launch compared to the previous week – the highest of any brand in the race so far. John Lewis had the second largest increase, with a 70% rise in visitors on November 4th. In fact, the 1.13m people who visited johnlewis.com was the highest number since January 3rd.
· John Lewis maintains the lead in week two for spontaneous favourite: Leading the pack for the second consecutive week is John Lewis, with its ‘Where Love Lies’ ad remaining the public’s favourite. 19% of respondents named it their favourite spontaneously.
· Sainsbury’s takes the lead on ad recognition: When showing respondents de-branded stills from the major ads, Sainsbury’s ‘The Unexpected Guest’ takes the top spot, with 50% of respondents recognising it from stills. This is followed closely by Aldi’s ‘pear-shaped stag do’ (47%). Last week’s winner, ASDA’s ‘A Very Merry Grinchmas’ has maintained strong recognition (45%), although there has been an increase in consumer polarisation.
· Aldi maintains its lead on branded recognition: In branded recognition (ads recognised and correctly linked to brand), Aldi holds the lead with 32%, with Sainsbury’s and M&S Food following closely at 31% each, followed by Coca-Cola at 29%.
· New entrants score highly in ad empathy: We asked respondents whether the ad was ‘for people like me’. Coming through well here are Burberry (59% agree the ad is ‘for people like me’), and new entrants Lego (50%), with Aldi in 3rd place (47%).
Commenting on the findings, Senior Director, Creative Excellence at Ipsos in the UK Samira Brophy said:
“Waitrose has made a strong start in week 2 of the Ipsos race to Christmas. With 42% ad recognition, they are looking well placed to give the other well recognised ads from Sainsbury’s, Aldi, ASDA and M&S a run for their money. We particularly like Waitrose’s subversion of the Hallmark holiday movie genre and the 360 way it’s been brought to life using large billboards, screenings in the cinema, trailers on TV and taking over the ‘Pie Max’, for example.”
“Amazon have also made a strong entry, re-airing their joyful ‘Joy Ride’ with strong cut through and branding.“
There are some big hitters in the live action and animation camps. We wonder which of these camps will become more crowded and therefore more Christmas category defining by the end of the race. All the way back in 2020, Ipsos proved that brand characters outperformed celebrities in a paper entitled ‘The Power of You’. However, we also know from our creative database that breaking category conventions gives you a +21% boost in attention. So, who will the true effectiveness Misfit this Christmas? We will find out in 4 weeks.”
Technical note:
· For media queries, please contact MacKenzie Horn at mackenzie.horn@ipsos.com.
· For the full findings, please visit the Race to Christmas webpage.
· Source: Ipsos Fast Facts. Week 2 data: n= 300, UK Nat rep sample, fielded on 14th November 2025.
· *A nationally representative 15+ passively collected panel, Ipsos iris measures over 7,000 website and 1,500 apps daily to create a synthetic data set of 2m devices, providing detailed demographic, geographic, and attitudinal audiences. For more information visit https://iris.ipsos.com
· Full charts available upon request – please reach out to MacKenzie to discuss.
· Ipsos Power of You, 2020. A report on distinctive assets in advertising: https://www.ipsos.com/en/power-you-why-distinctive-brand-assets-are-driving-force-creative-effectiveness
