Important Secret Santa: Little Finn also big in 2018
In collaboration with Marketagent.com, *Werbewoche* tested retailers’ Christmas campaigns as part of its “Impact Check.” The results show that Migros’ Finn the Elf remains a big hit with viewers for the second year in a row.
The market research company Marketagent.com surveyed 7707 web-active people between the ages of 14 and 65 about the commercials that flickered across the country's screens during the Christmas period. The respondents were shown the films from Migros, Coop, Aldi, Manor and Globus and were then asked questions about the campaigns. For example, which TV commercials the test subjects could remember without mental aids or outside help.
The results show: Finn the elf has not only taken root in people's hearts, but also in their minds. 87% of all respondents remembered having seen a Migros commercial. Migros and Coop presumably also benefit here from their generally high profile and the frequent placement of the campaign.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the fantasy character Finn with the checkout scanner cap, created by Wirz creative director and "Advertiser of the Year" Livio Dainese, stands out and appeals. This is also underlined by the other values surveyed. Almost a third of all respondents (32 percent) liked the commercial "completely". Manor, with its animated fairytale world featuring the elf Elfried, achieved the second-highest score with 18%. It should be noted that it was not Manor's entire two-and-a-half-minute online film that was tested, but for methodological reasons the teaser version that was broadcast on television and had the same length as the other commercials used in the study (30 to 45 seconds). Consequently, Finn did not appear in the unabridged original version (72 seconds), but in the 40-second TV version.
However, this obviously did not detract from its popularity. Migros also stood out from the rest when it came to the average score for the "I like" feature: on the six-point scale, Finn achieved a score of 4.2, while the Coop and Manor spots scored 3.7, Globus 3.6 and Aldi 3.5.
In general, Migros achieved the highest scores for all the attributes surveyed, both for the mean values and for the "top box" values, which show how many respondents gave the attribute their full approval. The lead in the question of the extent to which the commercial stands out from other TV commercials is striking: While Finn's high average of 4.4 reflects a perceived uniqueness, the spots from Coop (3.4) and Aldi (3.3) seem to have a slight aftertaste of interchangeability. This is not surprising: The films show classic, filmed Christmas scenes and thrive on atmosphere; a continuous, self-contained story is missing.
The retailer with the capital M now seems to have become one with its Secret Santa gifts, which it unleashes on customers at Christmas time. This explains the high scores for the "Fits well with my image of this sender" feature. Manor, for example, is actually having more trouble with the elaborate Christmas f lm created by BETC Paris, which has also gone viral internationally. Almost 3.5 million people have watched the commercial on YouTube so far. Although "Manor Special Christmas" is entertaining and appeals to many people, the world of elves does not (yet) seem to be irrevocably linked to Manor.
Explanations of the method and the detailed results can be found in this PDF. The Impact Check appears in every second or third issue of the printed Werbewoche. This article has already been published in the Advertising Week 1/2019 was published.
