When a commercial airs in the first week of November, some viewers greet it not as a campaign announcement but as a sign that the season has begun. It is therefore no surprise that in Britain there are news stories about the release dates of Christmas ads, the films are listed, and new instalments are awaited. What the brand wants to buy is not just a few seconds of attention; it is an expectation that repeats on the calendar.

The 2026 season opens a good window to see this relationship. Barbour brought back Wallace and Gromit on 5 November. Marks & Spencer, on 6 November, turned Father Christmas into a character who shaves off his beard and blends into homes. One tells a new adventure in an already beloved world, the other disrupts the familiar form of a well-known figure. Although both films show products, the first promise that makes them watchable is the question “what will they tell this year?”

It’s not a single good film that creates the ritual

A campaign can attract attention. A ritual, however, requires repetition. When trust builds that a similar creative world will return in the same period, the audience starts looking for the ad. This is not an easy formula for brands: every year they work between remaining recognisable and not repeating themselves. Character, music, setting and tone of storytelling provide continuity; a new conflict makes that year’s film worth watching. One year’s success also raises the bar for the next.

According to Aardman’s 2026 announcement, Wallace and Gromit appear again in the Barbour work after last year. This time a snowy walk and Wallace’s new invention carry the story. The brand’s product is placed inside the fictional world as the material of the invention and part of the gift. The audience first gets to know the characters’ behaviour; then they see the product’s place in that universe. The difference from the brand mascots issue previously examined on our site is this: these characters are not the brand’s property. Barbour collaborates with a ready-made cultural memory and must keep it compatible with its own material.

Familiar figure, new behaviour

In M&S’s 6 November announcement, Father Christmas shaving his beard and moving around unrecognised is not just a humorous start. Instead of listing store, food, home, clothing and gift categories one by one, it builds a day in which they are experienced together. Actors and music increase visibility; the narrative’s main task is to make very different products look natural on the same seasonal stage. In M&S’s own research with its customers, 81% wanting to spend a special Christmas with loved ones also shows the commercial background of the creative choice. This number should not be read as a rate representing all of Britain.

The creative methods of these two works are different. Barbour invests in the character relationship the audience already knows. M&S brings a symbol almost everyone knows closer to an everyday human. Both reduce the burden of building a world from scratch; but familiarity alone is not enough. If the audience can guess what will happen in the first scene, annual expectation can turn into annual habit and lose its effect. A new film must open a field of behaviour for the old character.

The distance between emotion and product

The University of Augsburg’s Christmas advertising research shows the limit of seeing seasonal advertising as a single genre. Adding a Christmas motif to product-focused films does not create a clear superiority in measured attitudes, while narrative-heavy films can benefit from this context. The study included 370 people; most were university students and the narrative comparison was based on only three pairs of films. Therefore the result is not a definitive formula for broad audiences. Still, it sharpens this question: Does the brand incorporate the Christmas feeling into the narrative, or use it merely as decoration?

In Ireland, Ipsos B&A’s 2025 research examined the preferences of a thousand adults and the impact of nine films. The organisation draws attention to the importance of returning characters and distinctive brand elements. This result does not deliver a flat verdict like “an emotional film always sells.” Remembering the story and remembering the brand are separate things. Indeed, System1’s 2025 evaluation also emphasises that it must be understood which brand the emotion-creating scene belongs to.

This distinction is also visible in the debate around the new John Lewis film: The film can be talked about, but the direction of the conversation does not always strengthen the relationship the brand intended. Being a ritual does not mean being exempt from criticism. On the contrary, a brand that demands attention on the same date every year also accepts being compared every year. If a distance opens between what the audience expects and what the brand wants to tell, the love accumulated over past years also turns into a benchmark.

The cost of securing a place on the calendar

According to the Advertising Association’s 2026 forecast, November and December advertising investment could reach 14 billion pounds. This is about one fifth of the year’s total spending. It is understandable why commercials have become big productions; being visible in the intensity is expensive. However, a higher budget is not a ticket of admission to the audience’s annual gathering. That ticket is earned when a repeating language comes with a new reason each time.

Moreover, the word ritual can turn into a romantic cover. A film about a family dinner, friendship or a gift ultimately carries a sales goal. The ad being expected as part of life does not eliminate this commercial purpose. A good reading sees two truths together: People can genuinely love the return of familiar stories; brands compete to link this love to the moment of purchase. Treating every emotional scene as sincerity, or dismissing every film as mere manipulation, misses the point.

Therefore, seeking the success of a Christmas ad only in view counts falls short. Whether we want to see the same character next year, whether we can match the film with its brand, and the connection the story builds with the product are better questions. When the season ends, the ad comes off air; if it has become a ritual, it leaves a place in the audience’s memory for next November.

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