Walmart is filling their stockings with awards this season. Right now, they lead the “nice” list in terms of new holiday creative with 40+ ads and growing. But perhaps more importantly, they are delivering some superb creative, adding to their market share haul from Black Friday weekend. This week finds them scoring the rare double—winning BOTH the Category Overachiever and the Top Ace score with their “Christmas Magic” ad. This spot’s theme of giving back is not a new one for this season’s Ads of the Week. We have already seen top, philanthropic-themed ads from Kohl’s “Christmas Surprise” and Duracell’s “Very Special Batteries”
Ad of the Week: Category Overachiever & Top Ace Score
Walmart’s commercials usually score higher than other discount stores’ ads (about 2.5% higher, in fact). However, this last week, Walmart debuted “Christmas Magic,” whose high scores enchanted us all. With an Ace Score of 687, 32.4% above the Discount Store category norm, this spot is filled with a child-like and charitable Christmas cheerfulness and takes home both the titles of Category Overachiever and Top Ace Score.
Women ages 50+ were especially charmed by Walmart’s “Christmas Magic”. This gender/age group rated the ad, on average, over 41% higher than the 90-day category norm. Equally as impressive, males 50+ aren’t the low-scorers here—it’s actually males 36–49 who awarded the ad an average Ace Score of only 640, which is still a very impressive 21% above the 90-day category norm.
The Emotional Sentiment score for this ad is 71, which is nearly 48% above Walmart’s 12-month norm.
This ad had its highest scores in Likeability and Attention, which may not be surprising given its charitable message with a hint of suspense.
Many optional write-in responses mentioned the “heartwarming” message in the ad; and 8% of those talked about the importance of “giving” back to others this holiday season. However, of course, the real winner of this commercial is Walmart, who was mentioned in 20% of these responses. However, it is noteworthy and noble that several consumers revealed that this ad made them more likely to donate this year.
Just as we were hoping for, the theme of charitable giving continues to top our holiday ads list with now 3 of top 10 ads having this heartwarming attribute. With only 21 days left in 2013, we will be stunned if any ads are able to top “Christmas Magic”—but the race isn’t over ‘til the ball drops.
Watch this year’s winning Ads of the Week by Category Overachievers.
