The gift that keeps on giving: repeat ads top consumer testing

Repeats have triumphed this Christmas with five of the top ten performing TV spots reusing previous ads, new consumer testing by Kantar shows. Comparing performance against its advertising database of over 200,000 ads, Kantar found that Cadbury’s Secret Santa was the most effective ad overall followed by Coca-Cola’s Holidays are coming, with both advertisers rerunning previous content.

Overseas, some of the world’s largest brands have provoked ire of viewers, possibly on purpose, by deploying controversially generated AI-based commercials. In the US, Coca-Cola used the technology to approximate its iconic ‘Holidays Are Coming’ trucks – which vary in size and number of wheels in each shot, and may or may not be on an icy collision course with pedestrians – while in the Netherlands, McDonald’s used generative imagery to depict the ‘Most Terrible Time of the Year’, including a shopper being dragged through the snowy streets by a tram, and a cyclist pushing a Christmas tree up an implausibly steep hill in the famously flat nation.

For whatever reason, however, many advertisers baulked at the idea of rage-baiting consumers in the UK – with the latest Kantar research on the festive marketing slate for 2025 finding that the top performers this year were actually repeats. Christmas in Britain is already a time of year heavily dependent on nostalgia – including a television schedule traditionally stacked with ‘classic’ Christmas specials from decades ago – so, perhaps it makes sense that brands might simply look back to old successes there, rather than seeking to churn out new content.

Lynne Deason, head of creative excellence at Kantar, explained, “In a cluttered season, brands reusing and evolving familiar assets are cutting through more effectively than those starting from scratch. That’s not lazy, it’s smart marketing. Our brains forget things easily and in today’s busy world, brands have to keep drumming into people’s minds what makes them different in a way that’s memorable and meaningful to cut through.”

As a result, while John Lewis (which so often tops the tree for Christmas commercials) kickstarted a public conversation about modern masculinity with its ‘Where love lives’ campaign, it has been ‘Cadbury’s Secret Santa’ repeat which scored the highest with consumers – also for its positive male portrayal.

Deason added, “Effective advertising takes more than simple repetition. Brands need a clear, core idea, rooted in their strategy, that can be refreshed and adapted to trends and consumer realities. And that idea works most powerfully when it comes to life across every interaction with consumers, from advertising to the in-store experience, online shopping and apps, and even how staff come across.  It’s about getting to the point where the idea is so distinctive that it’s instantly recognisable as being for the brand featured. We know that brands which maintain a cohesive image and messaging, which sets them apart from their competitors, ultimately grow better in the long run.”

Coca-Cola also cashed in on the power of repetition to that end, foregoing its much-criticised AI ad in the UK, and instead repeating the same ‘Holidays Are Coming’ commercial that has graced UK television sets for decades. But that is not to say that no new content scored highly in Kantar’s analysis. Aldi – which deployed a seasonal twist on a continuous campaign – was judged to have one of the best performances in terms of long-term power. The second instalment of its ‘Kevin’s Stag-Do’ series was picked as the year’s funniest ad for the holidays.

And while television still dominates the Christmas advertising season, the research also found that new media is changing the shape of campaigns across multiple platforms. The role of non-TV channels in driving campaign awareness, with one-in-four consumers saying they were looking forward to watching ads on YouTube and 18% on TikTok, with John Lewis the most talked about ad on the latter platform.

Deason concluded, “While television is still incredibly important for landing a central idea and making it famous, non-traditional media formats are doing more of the heavy lifting in terms of magnifying and extending the impact of campaigns. That means having a consistent, recognisable creative idea that’s intrinsically connected to your brand is more important than ever for advertisers to ensure things join up across this long tail of media outlets.  Kantar data shows the contribution of campaign synergy to overall success has doubled in recent years.”