London, UK. Ipsos in the UK reveals the penultimate results of its ongoing ‘Race to Christmas’ campaign. With the holiday season in full swing, our comprehensive weekly analysis provides invaluable insights into what festive advertisements are resonating most with the public. In Week 5, Waitrose stands at the forefront of the festive marketing marathon, showcasing the effectiveness of their full-fledged campaign strategy. But the race isn’t over yet! There’s still one week left before the race concludes and we crown the overall winners.
Key findings – week 5:
- Waitrose remains the nation’s favourite ad: Waitrose remains the public’s favourite ad for the second week running. When asking respondents to spontaneously recall their favourite ad, 15% named Waitrose, followed by John Lewis closely behind at 14%. Aldi is third favourite (7%).
- Waitrose and Aldi tied for ad recognition: While Waitrose still retains first place for ad recognition, this week they’re sharing the title with Aldi. When asking respondents if they recognise the ads when shown de-branded stills, both ads were recognised by 56% of respondents. Sainsbury’s ‘The Unexpected Guest’ follows behind in second place with 49%, and McDonald’s ‘A Very Merry Grinchmas’ takes third place with 47% (an impressive +10% jump from week 4 race results).
- Aldi regains the lead in branded recognition: After sitting in second place last week, Aldi’s ‘It’s a 24 Carat Christmas for Kevin and Katie’ now takes first place for branded recognition – 40% of respondents who recognised the ad and correctly associated it to the brand. Sainsbury’s’ ‘The Unexpected Guest’ is in second place (35%), followed closely by Waitrose’s ‘The Perfect Gift’ with 34%.
- McDonalds and ASDA both featuring the Grinch continues to confuse consumers: Despite McDonald’s overtaking ASDA this week in terms of ad recognition, 34% of respondents who have seen the McDonald’s ad are still mis- associating it with ASDA’s ‘A Very Merry Grinchmas’ – this is on par with the percentage who correctly associate it back to McDonald’s (also 34%). Although this is an improvement from 55% in week 4, it shows there’s still some work to be done for the McDonald’s brand to shine through.
- Google Pixel resonating with consumers: Whilst sitting towards the back of the pack for ad recognition (which could be due to being a new race entrant last week), those that have seen the Google Pixel ad score it highly for ad empathy and brand feel good. When asking respondents if the ad ‘is for people like me’ 58% agreed, and 55% agreed the ad ‘gave me a good feeling about the brand’.
Commenting on the findings, Senior Creative Excellence Director at Ipsos, Samira Brophy said:
“The storytelling has been phenomenal this year and while some were worried about whether compliance with the Less Healthy Food regulations coming into force in Jan 2026 might hold back creative standout, our results show this isn’t the case.
It is branding that was the tough nut to crack in 2025.10 out of 29 Christmas ads are in the bottom 10% of the database on branded recognition, that’s a third of ads.
When it comes to our wallets and tables, we want to be prudent without compromising excitement. That’s a harder brief than we have had in a few years, and it’s good to see festive creativity and food innovation rising to the challenge.”
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 5 data: n= 300, UK Nat rep sample, fielded on 5th December 2025.
- *Ipsos synthesio source: Public posts from X, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Forums, YouTube and TikTok via Synthesio. Data collected 15/09/25 – 15/10/25 (2 months). Based on 2K posts on Christmas Advent Calendar category is not geolocated. Data filtered to remove spam, bots, and retweets.
- ** Duel offers a gamified research solution mimicking the speed of consumer decision making by using tournament-style choice exercises to measure preference and decision speed. This versatile tool works with various marketing elements such as claims, varieties, names, and visuals.
- Full charts available upon request – please reach out to MacKenzie to discuss.