Emotional Resonance: The Key to Holiday Advertising in 2025

Every December, brands wrestle for something far more precious than mere views: emotional resonance. With compelling new data from DAIVID, 2025 is poised to become one of the most robust holiday seasons for emotionally engaging advertising across North America. This year marks an acceleration of essential storytelling trends—nostalgia, warmth, joy, and authentic human narratives—that resonate deeply with audiences, enhancing engagement and brand loyalty.

The Driving Forces Behind Emotionally Effective Ads

The hearts and minds of consumers are critical during the holiday season, where the emotional atmosphere often overrides straightforward marketing strategies. My previous observations concerning nostalgia marketing, the impact of John Lewis’s most cherished Christmas ads, and the spectrum of 39 emotions available to digital marketers reinforce the necessity of emotional engagement in advertising narratives.

Let’s delve into the top ads of the season and see what they teach us about crafting memorable, emotionally resonant campaigns.

1. Disney: Best Christmas Ever

Directed by Oscar winner Taika Waititi, Disney’s "Best Christmas Ever" tops the 2025 list with a staggering emotional profile, achieving 169% more adoration, 149% more nostalgia, 125% more warmth, and 115% more joy than the average U.S. ad. The storyline, where a young girl’s doodle comes to life after being mistaken by Santa for a wish, beautifully captures the intersection of childhood imagination and holiday wonder.

Strategic Takeaway: Emotional universality surpasses demographic targeting. Timeless stories, when well-articulated, resonate with everyone.

Score: 58.2% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

2. Chevrolet: Memory Lane

Chevrolet’s classic approach in “Memory Lane” continues to tap into family history and shared American experiences. Relatively reflective, the ad excels by showcasing nostalgia as a multifaceted emotion—longing, warmth, appreciation, and bittersweetness—all intertwining seamlessly.

Strategic Takeaway: When products have extended lifecycles, storytelling that references the past enriches the present’s emotional context.

Score: 57.5% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

3. Subaru: Support Charities Like Make-A-Wish

Subaru’s “Share the Love” initiative underlines its commitment to purpose marketing. This year’s ad blends charitable motivations with brand identity, an organic evolution that feels genuine rather than opportunistic.

Strategic Takeaway: Authenticity is measurable. Audiences can discern whether a brand’s social message aligns with its ongoing behavior.

Score: 56.5% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

4. Publix: Merry Birthday From Publix

Publix masterfully employs “quiet emotional power,” focusing on relatable family dynamics and cultural practices. The inspiration behind blending Christmas with a birthday creates a narrative that feels intimate and memorable.

Strategic Takeaway: Smaller, personal stories often eclipse grander concepts. Audiences desire both authenticity and relatability.

Score: 55.6% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

5. Lego: Is It Play You’re Looking For?

Lego positions creativity as an emotional asset with this ad, interweaving fantasy and holiday realities to captivate children and nostalgic adults alike. This dual appeal promotes deeper emotional connections by welcoming viewers into Lego’s imaginative world.

Strategic Takeaway: Invite viewers into the narrative. Ads that celebrate creativity tend to foster emotional involvement.

Score: 55% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

6. Real Canadian Superstore: Bringing The Magic Of The Holidays With The Moose

This advertisement surprises with a whimsical moose and emotional tones of warmth and gratitude, doubling the typical warmth levels found in U.S. retail ads. By utilizing metaphor and magic, Superstore elevates the mundane shopping experience into something heartwarming.

Strategic Takeaway: Unexpected characters can deliver familiar feelings when they contribute meaningfully to the overall narrative.

Score: 54.4% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

7. Teleflora: The Boy And The Bot

Teleflora’s innovative ad blends technology with emotional depth, illustrating a young boy’s friendship with a robot and revealing the profound meaning behind gift-giving. This genre-bending approach successfully shifts the narrative from typical holiday tropes.

Strategic Takeaway: Emotional relevance can stem from mixing genres, so long as it aligns with the brand’s overarching purpose.

Score: 54.2% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

8. Gap: Give Your Gift

Gap continues rediscovering its brand essence with a holiday ad rooted in music, movement, and human interaction. Their advertisement reflects a comforting warmth that resonates with contemporary viewers.

Strategic Takeaway: Legacy brands can emerge victorious by refreshing, rather than completely reinventing, their emotional themes.

Score: 53.7% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

9. Walmart: WhoKnewVille

Walmart introduces whimsy with a fictional holiday town, creating an ensemble cast that drives joy and humor. While not as emotionally heavy as some other contenders, it successfully ranks high for joy and warmth.

Strategic Takeaway: Joy can be a powerful emotional driver. When executed well, it rivals nostalgia or empathy’s effectiveness.

Score: 53.5% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

10a. Crayola: Blue Christmas (Tie)

Crayola taps into creativity as a pathway to emotional healing. The tonal shift from sadness to uplifting artistic expression resonates deeply with both children and parents alike.

Strategic Takeaway: Emotional arcs are crucial. Audiences respond robustly when narratives transition from negative to positive sentiments.

Score: 53.4% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

10b. Uber: An Uber Holiday Story (Tie)

Uber’s focus lies in connection, showcasing instances where rides facilitate reconnection and support. By shifting the storytelling focus to human moments, Uber adapts holiday advertising to fit the gig economy.

Strategic Takeaway: Service brands can craft significant emotional impacts by emphasizing the human connection over the services offered.

Score: 53.4% of viewers likely to feel intense positive emotions.

Embracing Human Emotion in Advertising

The 2025 holiday rankings illuminate a pivotal truth: emotional engagement, rather than budgets or celebrity endorsements, drives the effectiveness of advertising. Disney led the charge with a powerful story, Chevrolet and Subaru honored cultural values, while Publix and Lego underscored relatability and creativity.

As we navigate through the shifting landscape of holiday marketing, one consistent lesson emerges: human emotion remains the ultimate competitive edge. For brands looking to break through the noise, be it during the holiday season or beyond, starting with emotional engagement, building authenticity, and strategizing storytelling is crucial.

Methodology

DAIVID analyzed 176 holiday campaigns to rank their effectiveness based on the percentage of viewers expected to experience intense positive emotions. This hybrid methodology incorporates computer vision, audio analysis, facial coding, eye tracking, and extensive human feedback to determine emotional impact and brand lift.

For marketers, understanding these insights is vital because it underscores that emotion is the most dependable predictor of advertising success. With the advances in AI, emotional testing is becoming more accessible, aligning closely with contemporary behavioral research on the 39 emotions tracked by DAIVID.

Data Source: DAIVID’s AI-powered Creative Data API

For more in-depth insights and resources, keep exploring the evolving landscape of emotional marketing.