AdMiration feature: Aldi’s "Get into the Christmas Spirit with Kevin the Carrot"

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Aldi’s "Get into the Christmas Spirit with Kevin the Carrot" ad. The ad is part of their 2024 Christmas campaign, which features everyone’s favorite carrot.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to a shot of the Aldi logo and the words “Kevin the Carrot’s Christmas Mission” across a sky lit with festive holiday lights. A bell chimes as the narrator begins, “On the darkest and coldest of Christmas Eve’s, the festive spirit had been stolen by Christmas thieves!” Viewers can see a covered truck whipping through town, snatching up all the holiday lights and decorations, leaving it dark and barren. 

Kevin the Carrot awakens on a dining table to a call from Santa, with his phone screen displaying all the lights diminishing across the map, as well as a tracker for the Christmas spirit they captured. The narrator continues, “The very last thing that Kevin expected: An impossible mission. Would he choose to accept it?”     

The scene shifts to the thieves' lair, where the Christmas spirit is trapped in a jar surrounded by lasers. Their humbug leader exclaims, “My humbug friends, success at last? The Christmas spirit is a thing of the past!” They all laugh maniacally, but little do they know, Kevin is on his way to save the day. 

Shown jetting through the snow, wrapped in Christmas lights and wearing a fake mustache, Kevin and his partner Katie the Carrot start making moves as the narrator continues, “At Humbug Headquarters in cunning disguise, it was a race to the vault for our vegetable spies.” 

Kevin is shown navigating the headquarters in true spy fashion, opening what looks to be a vault (but is actually the stovetop dial), running past delectable food being cooked in the oven with flames surrounding them, jumping from tiered pie to pie and more as the narrator says, “The peril and danger they faced while inside can never be told — it’s classified.”

As the carrot spies get to the vent, Kevin asks Katie for the briefcase with the false bottom (literally a briefcase with a bum inside). “Cheeky!” Kevin exclaims, as he is lowered down towards the trapped Christmas spirit with the bum strapped to him. Katie struggles to lower him and the false bottom swirls to his front as he drops, triggering the laser beam alarm. Kevin shouts, "It's a booby trap!” and grabs the Christmas spirit among the screaming humbugs. Their leader screams, “Stop them!” and Kevin, Katie and the Christmas spirit are shown flying away from the lair as it bursts into flames behind them.

The narrator asks, “The agents looked doomed, would they fail or succeed?” The christmas spirit suddenly pops out of its jar prison, turning the carrot spies getaway car into what looks like Santa’s sleigh, returning the christmas spirit to all with lights and delicious spreads of food from Aldi. As they celebrate in the town square, Santa calls Kevin to say, “Well done, you’ve cracked it!” 

The ad concludes with the narrator stating, “Even the humbugs seemed to have learned that Christmas is better when good will is returned” as the Aldi logo appears on screen with the words: Have a cracking Christmas.

3 facts

• This year’s adventure with Kevin the Carrot is another highly successful episode in the series, with exceptional potential to drive short term sales as well as build the Aldi brand (achieving an 88 on both sales and brand impact).

• The ad emotionally connects with people, driving both Love (32% versus norm of 19%) and Laughter (14% versus norm of 7%). We have found this to be a great combination for many of the most effective ads. Part of the ad’s success is that it has something for everyone, with Likes covering everything from the storytelling and the narrator's voice, to the characters (especially Kevin!), to the puns and humor, right through to delicious food and holiday cheer. 

• The ad is truly engaging. Even with it being 90 seconds long, 85% of people watched it until the end. In an era of short attention spans and more and more things vying for consumers' attention, capturing an audience who chooses to stay with the execution for the full 90 seconds is very impressive and testament to fantastic storytelling. This is a great example of entertainment over advertising.

2 learnings 

• Establishing distinctive brand assets is a real foundation for success. It allows people to immediately recognize your brand (in this case unaided brand recall was 85% versus a norm of 72%). But not only that, it provides creative freedom for compelling storytelling without ‘forcing’ in the brand. People’s love and likes for the ad starts from the moment Kevin’s Christmas mission is presented and the well known narration begins. And people know they’ll love it so stick with it.

• Great emotionally engaging storytelling doesn’t limit you to long term effects from the advertising. Done well, it can support shorter term effects too. In this case, the love for the ad combined with delicious looking food shots and Christmas cheer means that people take out a clear message that Aldi has everything you need for the festive season and this results in strong brand appeal and persuasion.

1 reflection

Does your organization put as much emphasis on the value of consistency and unearthing a truly campaignable idea as they do on creating a brilliant one-off execution? Examples like Aldi and a recent AdMiration on KitKat show that consistency has as big an impact (if not bigger) than any individual execution. When developing ads and considering their potential,  it is worth adding campaignability to the list of success criteria.

Created by McCann UK and directed by Psyop’s Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick, "Get into the Christmas Spirit with Kevin the Carrot" marks the beloved characters 9th appearance in this 90 second spot.  

The ad also features Kevin’s wife, Katie the Carrot, who aids him in the big mission to save the Christmas spirit.

Kyrsten Halley, Marketing Director at Aldi UK, shares, “While the ad is packed with the light-hearted entertainment our shoppers have come to know and love, the message behind the campaign is a more serious one — we want to make sure everyone can have the best Christmas possible. It’s why we have a big focus on quality this Christmas, while making sure our prices continue to be unbeatable.”

McCann UK’s Chief Creative Officer, Dave Price, adds, “This year’s ad is a bit of a blockbuster, as Kevin goes on a quest to rescue the Christmas spirit. Once again Todd and Kylie, and all the team at Psyop have done an incredible job in bringing this story to life. We think Kevin’s got a good few assignments to crack yet.”

The ad premiered on November 4th and will run through the 2024 Christmas holiday season.

Aldi’s "Get into the Christmas Spirit with Kevin the Carrot" ad is an engaging and festive success — scoring high in both sales and brand impact (Sales and Brand Impact: 88)!

This ad captivates its audience from beginning to end with 85% of viewers watching the ad in full — not an easy feat for a 90 second ad spot. 

This clearly demonstrates the love and excitement for Aldi’s characters (especially Kevin) with Love and Like reactions for the ad starting from the instant the narrator begins and Kevin appears, and continues with emotional peaks right through to the end.

Kevin has become a well-known asset to the Aldi brand for nine years now, also making an appearance outside of the festive season for the World Cup this Summer. It’s worth noting that the power of his character shone through just as brightly during his Summer appearance as it did for his typical Winter spot (Summer Sales Impact score: 75) with the same distinctiveness and emotional pull.

The use of Kevin gives an immediate short cut to Aldi, meaning 85% of people recall the brand (versus a norm of 72%) and more astoundingly, 45% spontaneously say that Kevin Carrot is the reason they know it’s an Aldi ad — a much higher percentage than those mentioning the brand name or logo, which shows how beautifully established he is.

The ad is undeniably enjoyable and emotionally connects with people, driving high Love (32% versus norm of 19%) and Laughter (14% versus norm of 7%) reactions. 

The peak emotional moments occur when:

• Love: The opening where the narrator’s voice begins and Kevin’s Christmas mission is announced, the freeing of the spirit, the delicious Christmas food is shown at the end

• Laughter: When Katie says “Kevin, that’s the oven”, when Kevin asks for the briefcase “with the false bottom,” and when Kevin shouts, “Cheeky!” and “It’s a booby trap!”

• Likes: The Likes were truly seen throughout the ad, but especially when the narrator's voice began, the characters (especially Kevin) were introduced, during the puns, right through to delicious food.

Viewers particularly liked the storytelling aspect of the ad, which is a massive element to successful advertising. As we mentioned above, engaging storytelling doesn’t have to be limited to long term effects — when done well, this can support shorter term effects and help land key associations, perfect for seasonal advertising. 

Here’s viewers thoughts on Aldi after watching: 

• “Aldi has the Christmas spirit and you should stop there.” 

• “Aldi has great food for Christmas.” 

• “Aldi will supply you with all the Christmas food at affordable prices.” 

• “Aldi has all your festive food for a cracking Christmas.”

• “Aldi is the place for Christmas food shopping.” 

• “Aldi is a supermarket that caters well for Xmas with a wide variety of food sold.”

Here’s what viewers liked about the ad overall: 

• “The animation was amazing, the narrator's voice was very good, it all felt like a movie at the cinema,and it made me feel different about Aldi (in a good way). I’ve also seen other company’s Christmas adverts and Aldi’s was miles better.” 

• “Love the ad for so far it has been one of my favorite Christmas ads that are being shown. Great animation, genius shot of a growing festive table at the end makes you think that Aldi has everything you need for your festive table.” 

• “Kevin is a recognizable brand character; the echoes of Star Wars (Senate-type environment and architecture); the rhyming text is reminiscent of seasonal classics such as The Night Before Christmas.”

• “I like the music and the voiceover. I like the whole advert. Kevin and his false bottom, then being booby trapped, very funny. The whole advert was great, then the food at the end looked amazing.”   

• “It was an optimistic and entertaining ad. It was lighthearted but also engaging. It told an enjoyable story while highlighting all the tasty Christmas food Aldi has to offer.” 

What’s impressive about this Christmas ad is that it not only resonates emotionally and engages viewers throughout, but it also positions Aldi as a go-to for all things Christmas  and quality food. 

This all ladders up to the four key ingredients that make up Aldi’s winning formula, which are all present yet again for this blockbuster of a Christmas ad:

• Consistency (while still keeping it fresh): Kevin is the star character yet again, but this time embarks on a journey as an agent on a mission to save the Christmas spirit. 

• Playfulness, cuteness and humor: This year’s ad is playful and cheeky, launching viewers into laughter with lines like “the briefcase, the one with the false bottom” and “it’s a booby trap!”   

• Fairytale and Christmassy feel with a happy ending: The ad is almost a cinematic masterpiece, with engaging storytelling throughout — from setting up the mission to the happy ending with the Christmas spirit restored and tables full of delicious food.  

• Universal feeling of togetherness in food context: The ad brings everyone together in the end, including the humbugs, in the spirit of good will.  

Aldi’s "Get into the Christmas Spirit with Kevin the Carrot" is another hit installment of their series with their beloved Kevin the Carrot. While this year's ad was longer than most, it still kept viewers engaged and filled them with joy throughout.  

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