Sainsbury's Christmas advert is about to beat John Lewis

Sainsbury’s has reportedly already sold out of Mog toys

The first Mog book since 2002, illustrated by Judith Kerr, has stormed up the bestseller list for children (Sainsbury's)

Three weeks since John Lewis launched its blockbuster Christmas ad campaign and its plea to remember the nation’s elderly this Christmas, evidence shows it may be losing the battle for the best Christmas ad – to Sainsbury’s.

(YouGov)

Sainsbury’s has reportedly already sold out of Mog toys after it revised the popular cat for its Christmas advert, narrated by Emma Thompson.

The first Mog book since 2002, illustrated by Judith Kerr, has stormed up the bestseller list for children.

“As with John Lewis’s Monty the Penguin from last year, this strategy means the advert becomes more experiential,” Stephan Shakespeare, CEO of YouGov, said.

Shakespeare added that Sainsbury’s has followed John Lewis lead in reducing emphasis on its actual goods, in an effort to minimise the obvious commercial motivation of their campaign.

But it’s still a more lighthearted approach than their World War I ad, which caused controversy in 2014.

It seems to have paid off. YouGov BrandIndex data shows that in the weeks since the adverts went live, Sainsbury’s has equalled John Lewis in the ad awareness stakes, a measure of how many people have seen an advert for a brand in the last two weeks.

That’s especially impressive when you consider that Sainsbury’s posted their advert a week later than John Lewis, because it wanted to wait until after Armistice Day.

Sainsbury’s purchase score, which measures whether a respondent would consider buying a product from a brand, is now at its highest point for six months.

“Lidl and Aldi, the German ‘budget retailers’, have achieved a 10 per cent market share for the first time. It is therefore more vital than ever for retailers to maximise income over the Christmas trading period,” Shakespeare said.