The most emotionally engaging Australian Christmas ads in 2020

Paige Murphy
By Paige Murphy | 2 December 2020

The most moving Australian Christmas ad of 2020 is Disney's, From Our Family To Yours, according to research from Unruly.

The video advertising platform has released a ranking of the most emotionally engaging festive campaigns using its content testing tool, UnrulyEQ.

Top of Unruly’s Australian Christmas tree is Disney’s animated ad, which tells the heartwarming story of a grandmother’s relationship with her granddaughter and the importance of family traditions during the festive season.

Altogether 43.6% of Australians who watched the ad had an intense positive emotional response to the content, making it 118% more moving than the average Australian ad.

That put it just ahead of Coca-Cola's Christmas campaign, directed by Oscar winner Taika Waititi.

The two-and-a-half minute ad, which follows the story of a dad trying to deliver his daughter's letter to Santa against all the odds, generated an intense emotional response from 43.4% of Australian viewers.

Big W’s Bring On Christmas is third, with Toys R’ Us’ Make It A Christmas To Remember in fourth.

Ads from Australia Post, Ferrero Rocher and Coles finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

Other ads to make it into the top ten include Woolworths, St George Bank and David Jones.

Ads from brands such as Aldi, Myer and Target Australia failed to make the top ten.

Most Emotionally Engaging Australian Christmas Ads Of 2020

Rank 

Brand 

Campaign 

% of people who had intense positive emotional reaction 

  1.  

Disney 

“From Our Family To Yours” 

43.6% 

  1.  

Coca-Cola 

“Christmas commercial” 

43.4% 

  1.  

Big W 

“Bring On Christmas” 

43.1% 

  1.  

Toys "R" Us 

“Make It A Christmas To Remember” 

37.0% 

  1.  

Australia Post 

“Spread The Merry” 

33.9% 

  1.  

Ferrero Rocher 

“Say It With Gold” 

33.3% 

  1.  

Coles 

“Coles Christmas” 

33.0% 

  1.  

Woolworths 

“Sharing The Spirit Of Christmas” 

32.3% 

  1.  

St George Bank 

“Christmas For The Road” 

31.5% 

  1. 10

David Jones 

“The Home Of Christmas For 182 Years” 

29.3% 



“People are clearly in the mood for high-budget, epic storytelling this festive period," Unruly global VP of insights Rebecca Waring says.

"Disney and Coke’s mini-movies have led our Christmas ad rankings all over the world – showing us how emotional creative can cross cultural borders.

“However, Bring On Christmas from Big W has also done incredibly well, scoring less than half a percentage point behind these global giants with an ad that focuses on local community; three quarters of respondents said that the brand came across as genuine, relatable and trustworthy.

“As we predicted in our Christmas 2020 Consumer Research, COVID references and serious tones are not resonating as well with consumers.

"Toys "R" Us was the only COVID-themed ad to make the top ten. We knew this would be an emotional Christmas, and overall, this year's ads have proved to be 65% more emotive than the Australian average. This year’s Christmas ads are also particularly successful at creating purchase consideration; the average score exceeds the norm by 48%.”

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