The Wall Street Journal
As the critical holiday shopping season gets ready to go into overdrive on Black Friday, advertisers are leaving nothing to chance.
Many have been blanketing the airwaves with holiday-themed advertising for weeks. So far, retailers such as Macy’s Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Kohl’s Corp. are among the companies successfully breaking through the ad clutter.
Those retailers have created some of the most-liked holiday ads this season, at least so far, according to research firm Ace Metrix. The firm, which uses a sample of more than 500 people that is representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience to score national ads, tested 85 holiday-themed commercials that have aired as of Nov. 21.
Retailers have plenty riding on their marketing since the holiday shopping season is a make-or-break time for many stores. The National Retail Federation is projecting that holiday sales—online and in stores and excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales—will increase 3.6% to $655.8 billion this year.
The retail sector typically is the biggest ad spender during the winter holiday season, which runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 3, according to ad tracker Kantar Media. Last year, retailers shelled out $4.35 billion in media spending, which represented about 15.4% of the total spent during the winter holiday season, according to Kantar.
Here is a look at the top five most popular holiday ads as of Nov. 21, a few days ahead of the shopping bonanza expected the day after Thanksgiving:
Duracell: “How the Rebels Saved Christmas”
Macy’s: “Old Friends: A Tribute to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade”
Coca-Cola: “A Coke for Christmas”
Wal-Mart: “Giving Thanks”
Kohl’s: “Give A Little More: The Dinner”
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