4 January 2022
[column] The best December commercials of 2021
The winner with the highest average score this year is Albert Heijn with “Albert Heijn brings the smallest, biggest love story of the year.” This commercial scores an 8.4 and was designed by TBWANEBOKO. In the leading role we see two hamsters in love, images that appeal to many viewers, which is evident from this reaction: “What a beautiful commercial in which a loving togetherness for people and animals at Christmas is central, sweet and moving in its simplicity!” Albert Heijn also achieved the highest scores on two other factors: “Distinctive” and “Nice to look at”.
One point for improvement, mentioned by many viewers, is that the commercial resembles the end-of-year commercials of Staatsloterij. For some it feels like “imitating the State Lottery commercials.” This is a point of attention, where you can of course also say: Staatsloterij has been successful with this for years, so this is certainly not a bad source of inspiration.
We congratulate the winner Albert Heijn!
The commercials of PLUS Supermarkets (Wunderman Thompson) finished in shared second place with a 7.8, and Bruna (Giesbers Retail) also with a 7.8. The PLUS commercial is appreciated for its beautiful message, which is well summarized in this response: “Beautiful advertisement with a beautiful message and great music.” This commercial also scores high on, among other things, the factors “Fun to watch” and “Distinctive”.
Bruna's commercial is highly appreciated for the nostalgic feelings it evokes in many viewers. This is nicely summarized in this response: "Very empathetic and nostalgic feeling when seeing this advertisement. Seeing the title of a reading book from the man's youth - with good memories - is depicted in a visual way."
Bruna's commercial also achieved the highest score on two other factors, namely "Calls for action" and "Credible". This is a very good achievement by Bruna, especially after three years of not advertising on TV!
The “Credible” factor also provides other interesting insights with a shared second place for Etos (TBWANEBOKO) and CEWE (Stick). Credibility is of course an important factor for all advertisers, which means that these two advertisers can certainly pocket this score. At CEWE, for example, we see that brand awareness is still relatively low in the Netherlands, but that the message conveyed in this commercial comes across as very credible. This provides a foundation for further developing a stable brand name.
A factor for which a high score is slightly less positive is “Irritating”. This year the “winner” was BAUHAUS (Everybody likes Penguins), followed by MediaMarkt and Videoland.
Around the holidays it is a challenge as an advertiser to release a commercial that does not cause irritation, given that there are already so many commercials around often the same themes. In many reactions to the BAUHAUS commercial, we see that viewers find the commercial “unusual” or “special” and therefore often irritating. The other side is that we often read that viewers are not yet familiar with BAUHAUS and are now curious because it is so striking. Despite the fact that the commercial is the 'annoying winner', this could well help the brand gain brand awareness in the future.
The reactions to the Videoland commercial indicate that many viewers find the commercial “chaotic”, “unclear” and therefore irritating. This is certainly a point of attention, but on the other hand we also regularly see positive reactions that the music is once again highly appreciated and that this continues.
Staatsloterij (TBWANEBOKO) also attracted attention again this year with “Fritsie”. Even though this commercial did not achieve the highest score in any category, it received many positive responses and the commercial did achieve high scores or the factors “Nice to watch” and “Distinctive”.
It was again a treat to see so many beautiful and creative commercials and to be able to present them to our panel on our platform. If this sets the tone for the year 2022 that has just started, then we are looking forward to it! Staatsloterij (TBWANEBOKO) also attracted attention again this year with “Fritsie”. Even though this commercial did not achieve the highest score in any category, it received many positive responses and the commercial did achieve high scores or the factors “Nice to watch” and “Distinctive”.
It was again a treat to see so many beautiful and creative commercials and to be able to present them to our panel on our platform. If this sets the tone for the year 2022 that has just started, then we are looking forward to it!
Once again this year we help advertisers and agencies to test and benchmark their commercials (TV/online/radio). Every month we write about the most striking commercials on MarketingTribune. Submit your commercial via https://commercialreview.nl/aanmelden
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