Is Woolies’ Recycled Christmas Ad the Smartest Play of All?

What kind of creative actually works best during the holidays? And how can Christmas campaigns deliver real results not just festive feels?

Last week our mates at Mumbrella revealed that Woolworths is rerunning last year’s “Make This Christmas a Classic” ad instead of producing new creative, and it is redirecting its TVC budget toward cost-of-living relief initiatives instead.

In an industry where it’s almost expected that brands will launch something shiny and new for Christmas will this move land them on the naughty or nice list with consumers? Analytic Partner’s Senior Director Jo-Ann Foo reveals what the data shows about building campaigns that perform long after the lights are packed away.

The most wonderful time of the year?

I don’t know about the most wonderful, but Christmas is definitely the most expensive time of year to be a marketer. Media costs soar, attention fragments and the pressure to stand out can tempt brands into investing in creative that doesn’t deliver the long-term value they expect.

So, what kind of creative actually works best during the holidays? And how can marketers ensure their Christmas campaigns deliver maximum efficiency, not just festive feel-good fluff?

Does the traditional 60-second Christmas TVC work?

For many marketers, the entire concept of a Christmas campaign includes a glossy long-form TV ad with grand production values filled with laughter, nostalgia and a storyline that builds to the reveal of the brand logo at the end.

It’s a well-loved tradition that can generate a lot of headlines (the new John Lewis Christmas ad is out - did you hear?!), but it’s one that may no longer make commercial sense.

Our analysis shows that when brands spread spend across five media channels rather than concentrating on one, they generate around 77% more sales per dollar spent. In contrast, the traditional long-form TVC demands a disproportionate share of production and media investment for a format that reaches fewer people, less efficiently.

The reality is that few brands have a unique message to share during the festive season that truly justifies 60 seconds of expensive broadcast airtime. Research from Amplified Intelligence shows that 85% of ads across modern platforms fail to hold attention for even 2.5 seconds. So, before investing in a glossy TVC, marketers should ask whether their ad can genuinely earn that level of attention. If so, consider earning it on social or digital video channels, which are more cost-efficient and allow audiences to not only watch but like, share and re-watch on their own terms.

Build on what you already have

While it’s tempting to refresh creative for the Christmas, it can actually be far more efficient to leverage what’s already working, especially if you’re paying a premium for the season. Launching an entirely new campaign during the holiday risks further diluting ROI. Instead, consider adding a layer of festive emotion or creative nuance to your existing creative. A holiday lens doesn’t have to mean an entirely new story – it can be as simple as reinforcing familiar brand cues with seasonal warmth.

The fact is, most creative continues to perform long after most marketers think it’s time to change. Of 51,000 campaigns observed by Analytic Partners, only 14 had reached the point where replacing them made economic sense.

Woolworths’ decision to re-run last year’s Christmas campaign shows some brands are getting it. In fact we’ve seen several examples where brands brought back a past Christmas campaign and achieved a ~20% uplift in both response and ROI compared with its first run by by triggering recognition and positive association - two powerful drivers of mental availability during a season when consumers are bombarded with messages.

Think broader, not just bigger

Another way to unlock efficiency is to consider your full business rather than a single product or line. Our analysis has found that campaigns covering more than 50% of a company’s portfolio typically deliver around 118% higher impact than those that have a narrow focus.

In practice, that means aligning holiday campaigns with brand-level messaging that lifts the entire business, rather than concentrating resources on a single stock-keeping unit or limited promotion. Over and over we’ve observed brand messaging outperform short-term performance activations 80% of the time.

Make this Christmas about smart creativity

The festive season will always be a creative playground – and rightly so. Emotion drives attention and Christmas gives marketers rare license to tell human stories. But great creativity should not come at the expense of commercial efficiency.

The marketers who challenge themselves to make Christmas campaigns work harder will come out fittest and firing in 2026. Build on what’s proven rather than starting from scratch, balance emotion with efficiency and remember that consistency and familiarity often outperform novelty.

Get that balance right, and like the best presents, it will continue to deliver satisfaction long after the Christmas lights come down.

Curious how long your creative will keep working?

We’ve been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ Report for Marketing Mix Modeling Solutions…again! So, if you need helping deciding when to refresh, retire or relaunch your campaigns for Christmas - or any other time of year - our modellers can help!