Coca-Cola’s heartwarming Christmas ads named top festive campaigns – see the full list

evaluated more than 3,000 UK consumers’ reactions as they watched this year’s selection, using artificial intelligence to capture emotions.

Festive adverts from Disney +, Tesco and Lidl, also made the top five.

Lynne Deason, Kantar UK’s Head of Creative Excellence said: "The top performing ads use very different approaches, including nostalgia, escapism, humour and fantasy."

Here we take a look at the full list of best performing Christmas adverts in 2020, ranked from highest to lowest:

Coca-Cola’s 'The Holidays are Coming'

This 25-year-old advert takes us on a magical journey around the UK as the iconic Coca-Cola trucks race to arrive at people’s homes in time for Christmas.

It scored top as the most powerful advert, the most enjoyable advert, the one with the strongest branding and the one which generated the most love. 

On coming first, Kris Robbens, marketing director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, said: “2020 marks 100 years since Coca-Cola first started advertising at Christmas, so to be crowned the top performing Christmas ad of the year by Kantar is a really special way to mark the century milestone."

Coca-Cola’s 'The Letter'

Coming in second is Coca-Cola's tear-jerking advert called "The Letter" which follows a father as he goes the extra mile to deliver a letter from his daughter to Santa Claus.

Kanta found the advert was still highly effective and was seen as “very heart-warming”.

Kris Robbens added: "As well as bringing back the nostalgic and iconic Holidays Are Coming ad, we’re thrilled that our new advert, The Letter has touched so many people.”

You can watch the advert here or look out for it on TV.

Disney +’s 'Make Christmas Wonderful'

In third place is this wonderful advert which cuts different clips from old and new Disney films over a rendition of the song, “What a Wonderful World”. 

Researchers found it taped into nostalgic memories of old movies with viewers finding it both “comforting” and “familiar”.

Watch the full advert here or look out for it on TV.

Tesco’s 'No Naughty List'

Tesco comes in fourth with a hilarious advert where people in classic Christmas Day settings make jokes about the coronavirus lockdown to the camera.

It scored high for being enjoyable, emotionally provocative, engaging, and well-branded.

You can watch the ad here and on TV after it made its screen debut during The Voice on ITV on Saturday night.

Lidl’s ‘A Christmas You Can Believe In’

Lidl is in fifth place with another humorous advert but its attempts to parody other brands, most notably Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot, were largely missed by viewers.

Kantar found that 52% of viewers found the ad funny compared to 67% for Tesco. 

You can watch the advert here, now or look out for it on TV.

Aldi’s 'Kevin the Carrot'

Aldi's Kevin the Carrot continues to win the hearts of the nation this year as he gets lost and faces a treacherous journey back to his family for Christmas.

Kantar found it hit home with its reinforcing of the real meaning of Christmas – looking out for each other and being with those we love.

Watch the full Kevin the Carrot advert here.

Amazon’s ‘The Show Must Go On’, 

Amazon’s advert was in the top 1% for presenting a positive image in the current climate, putting Covid lockdown and race at its heart with its story of a black ballet dancer’s determination to continue performing in lockdown.  

But Kantar also found that it failed to convey the link between the advert and the brand.

You can watch the advert here or look for it on TV.

Other adverts that performed well included John Lewis, M&S, Morrisons and Walkers who all use charity partnerships to convey a positive message about helping others at Christmas time. 

Sainsbury’s “Perfect Portions” ad was found to be the weakest ad this year and Plenty’s “#XMess” campaign was seen as inappropriate with viewers finding it to be “irritating”, “unpleasant” and “disturbing”.

There are also plenty of other top-notch Chirstmas adverts that didn’t make the cut but you can still enjoy and help get you in the festive spirit or take a look at our list of the best ever festive campaigns.