Brand Barometer - Boots ad delivers early festive cheer

Away from the celebrity-packed supermarket Christmas ads, one of the most fun (and thankfully celeb-free) is for Boots. From being known purely as a chemist a decade or two ago, Boots has become a Christmas institution, with swathes of the store given over to its annual "3 for 2" Christmas gift offers.

The Christmas advertising campaign is a big deal and this year's one looked like a winner. The ad shows an office full of women getting ready for the Christmas party, at first subtly filing nails under the desk, then swarming the bathrooms to get to mirrors, packing the boardroom with hair-dryers and crimpers, and filling the office with perfume.

Meanwhile, the men, obviously happy to turn up for the party in their suits, wait downstairs awkwardly picking at party snacks, oblivious to the army of dolled-up women about to descend. The ad ends with the women tottering out in high heels and big hair, asking each other "you don't think this is too much, do you?" The strap line is "Tis the season to be gorgeous".

It is a straightforward, fun ad and has created a positive vibe around the Boots brand.

Since it first aired at the beginning of November, its buzz rating has risen four points to plus 15.

However, other ratings on BrandIndex aren't looking so rosy: its quality and value scores are both falling, down four and six points respectively. It may well reflect something we saw last year - the sheer unpleasantness of venturing into the bedlam of the high street in the run-up to Christmas drives down brand perceptions of many retail brands, regardless of strong advertising and offers.

METHODOLOGY

YouGov interviews 2,000 people each weekday to form its BrandIndex, a daily measure of public perception of more than 1,100 consumer brands across 32 sectors.

It is measured on a seven-point profile:

1. Buzz

2. General impression

3. Quality

4. Value

5. Satisfaction

6. Recommend

7. Corporate reputation

In addition, we supply an index score.

www.brandindex.com.

This article was first published on Media Week