AdMiration feature: Asda’s “A Very Merry Grinchmas”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Asda’s “A Very Merry Grinchmas” ad, which promotes the brand's promise of reasonable store pricing, even during the holiday season.

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 an outdoor Christmas market, following a snowflake falling down to the sound of sleigh bells. The snowflake lands on the familiar nose of the Grinch, who in his typical fashion, quickly blows it away. 

He looks around the market with his family, bothered by the prices, and says, “Are they taking the —?” when a horn interrupts him and he starts to sing to the tune of “Let It Snow”: “Oh the prices this year are frightful Spenny gifts, I’ve seen a sightful We’re getting quite low on dough It’s a no, it’s a no, it’s a no!”  

As he starts to sing the final no (pointing at the high priced items) he suddenly spots the green glow of the Asda sign, emitting a “Oohhh, nice color…” 

Now inside Asda with his family, the Grinch continues to sing down the aisles as his family picks up store items, but this time his jingle takes on a different tune, as he sings: “Oh, my worries show signs of stopping Wait, am I enjoying shopping? With prices rolled back down low Here we go, here we go, here we go!”

He takes off with a green sparkle and a full shopping cart at this, before continuing with his song, as shoppers start to join in, dancing around him. The scene shifts to the Christmas dinner table at their home, completely filled with delicious looking food and happy people, as the Grinch (now donning a Christmas sweater and green Santa hat) continues to sing about how his “Christmas cheer is flying and his wallet is no longer crying,” when the doorbell rings.  

As he opens the door for more guests, he suddenly transforms from the Grinch to a regular man with a green sparkle, singing, “Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!” out into the night. 

The ad closes with the “That’s Asda price” logo and the sound of sleigh bells and Santa’s “Ho ho ho” heard in the distance.

3 facts

• This is a very strong Christmas ad from Asda, falling in the top 10% of UK ads for ability to drive short-term sales and brand equity over the long term (Sales Impact: 93, Brand Impact: 93).

• The spot resonated strongly with viewers, making them feel the love and holiday cheer (Overall Emotion: 60 vs. 46 norm) while also clearly communicating the brand’s key message that “Asda supports shoppers with prices that make the season stress-free” (Key Message Clarity: 4.2 vs. 4.0 norm).

• Through the combination of creatively landing the message that Asda has lower prices and evoking the feeling of festiveness, the ads helps drive people into the Asda store this holiday season (Purchase Uplift: 24% vs. 16% norm) and make people feel more positive towards Asda into the future to support the brand well into 2026. 

2 learnings

• Music is a wonderful way to set the tone of your ad. In this case, the music was a big hit (Musical Appeal: 4.2 vs. 3.7), with people mentioning the music as one of the most liked aspects of the spot (28%), driving a burst of love and laughter as soon as the song starts and the Grinch begins to sing. The customization of the song added another layer of holiday cheer to the spot as it was set to the tune of the already popular “Let It Snow,” allowing it to be easily remembered and stick in listeners’ ears! This was a great way to engage viewers and bring the feeling of festiveness to the spot, while telling the story of the ad and conveying the Asda brand message — all at the same time.

• Holiday ‘celebrities’ can be a great addition to your advertising when done right. In this case, while certainly not an Asda character, the brand has been a leading retailer of official Grinch merchandise, and their brand colors bear a striking resemblance to the Grinch’s iconic green (with green being a distinctive brand asset many already correlate with Asda), making his celebrity appearance feel like a natural extension of the brand. Because of this, the inclusion of the Grinch was an excellent way to not only cue the holiday theme, but also the brand (Unaided Brand Recall: 83% vs. 73% norm) and their narrative — showing how money fears can cause us to feel like Grinches — while still generating lots of love (Love: 35% vs. 22% norm) and making the brand the hero of the story. 

1 reflection

Are you leaning into a real consumer insight when creating your advertising? While the holidays are usually a time of cheer and nostalgia, they can also be a time of hardship and anxiety for some families — particularly in tough economic periods. 

Asda paid attention to this reality, conducting research to find that 70% of families are anxious about the expense of the holiday season. The brand does an excellent job at not only addressing this very real insight, but tying it to their existing brand messaging and creating an ad that still feels festive — making for a relatable spot that truly makes sense for the brand. 

Asda did a beautiful job of taking a fear and turning it on its head to deliver a spot that’s upbeat, festive, fun and creative in delivery.

Christmas advertising can often be very fun or very emotionally driven, but it should still connect to your brand — and Asda did a great job of that this year. As one viewer brilliantly shared: “A creative way to show Asda's cheerful holiday spirit and great value.”

Asda’s 2025 Christmas spot, “A Very Merry Grinchmas,” was created by Lucky Generals and directed by Dexter Fletcher and amplifies the brand’s message and ongoing strategy of ‘That’s Asda Price’  — aiming to deliver value and the promise of reasonable pricing to hard-working families, particularly around the holidays. 

Loz Horner, Strategy Partner at Lucky Generals, explains: “The Grinch is a ‘perfect shortcut’ to a universal insight: every family has one person who is a little grumpy about Christmas, often because of cost…You see him grumpy at the beginning, but as Asda price comes to the rescue, he turns back into the festive dad he really is.”

Regarding this insight, Adam Zavalis, Asda’s Vice President of Marketing shares: “Your typical hard-working family loves Christmas, but there’s also anxiety around cost. We did a survey of around 500 families and found that while 90% really lean into and enjoy the festive season, 70% say they’re anxious about the expense. This campaign reflects that reality, in a fun, relatable way.”

Zavalis adds: “We’re not just entertaining. We’re driving consideration, preference and trust in our prices. That’s critical. Customers want assurance that they can create a fantastic Christmas without breaking the bank.”

The campaign will run across TV and social, as well as print, out-of-home, video-on-demand, CRM and in-store activations.

Kicking off the holiday season’s lineup of ads, this festive but insightful spot from Asda landed in the the top 10% of UK ads for ability to drive short-term sales and brand equity over the long term (Sales Impact: 93, Brand Impact: 93). While these scores alone are fantastic, it’s worth calling out that this spot does even better among audiences under 45 (Sales Impact: 99, Brand Impact: 98).

The use of the Grinch and the new version of the classic Christmas song “Let It Snow” make for a very distinctive ad for Asda , allowing it to drive great reach and be noticed and remembered (Ad Distinctiveness: 3.9 vs. 3.7 norm, Claimed Attention 4.1 vs. 3.7, Brand Distinctiveness 3.7 vs. 3.5 norm). 

The green color, the Asda logo and the glowing Asda store location — were all important for people identifying the brand and really help the Asda brand to stand out and be remembered in the ad (Unaided Brand Recall: 83% vs. 73% norm). In fact, 12% of viewers even mentioned that the Grinch is how they recognized the brand, both through his color matching Asda’s brand color and the Asda logo appearing in his eyes.

The message that Asda offers reasonable pricing during the holidays and the wonderful Grinchmas tie-in also allowed the ad to resonate strongly with audiences. They enjoy it (Enjoyment: 3.9 vs. 3.7 norm), find it relevant (Relevance: 3.7 vs. 3.4 norm) and easy to understand (Understanding: 4.3 vs. 4.1 norm) — a true win for a retailer trying to stand out among a sea of holiday ads!

Asda’s key message also taps into a real consumer insight that people can be anxious about the expenses of Christmas, which speaks to how clearly relatable the spot is. The brand’s message that shopping at Asda can alleviate those anxieties comes through very clearly in the ad — with that key message that “Asda supports shoppers with prices that make the season stress-free” seen as clear (Key Message Clarity: 4.2 vs. 4.0 norm) and believable (Key Message Believability: 4.0 vs. 3.9 norm) to viewers. 

Some people even describe the message as: 

• That Asda has great prices and you will have a fantastic easy Christmas this year if you shop at Asda.”

• “Asda has everything you need to make Christmas fun and affordable.”

• “Everyone can have fun. Asda has low prices. You don’t have to be a grinch.”

This combination of relatability and festivity really resonated with viewers, making people feel something (Overall Emotion: 60 vs. 46 norm), particularly love! (Love: 35% vs. 22% norm).

In fact, the ad immediately starts with love as the Christmas scene is set, and then a mix of love, laughter and surprise when the Grinch is introduced and a snowflake falls on his nose! It’s immediately followed by the biggest spike of laughter in the ad when the Grinch says “Are they taking the — ?” and gets cut off by the trumpet. 

There’s a mix of love and laughter through the beginning of the song, with more laughter when the Grinch sings “It’s a no, it’s a no, it’s a no!” instead of the recognizable refrain “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” There’s more love as the Grinch sees Asda and is transported there, and more laughter when he says “Wait, am I enjoying shopping?” and when he starts flying through the air holding onto his shopping cart. 

There’s the biggest spike of love when all the Asda food is shown on the family dinner table — and then all love as the Grinch is shown enjoying Christmas with his family, when he turns back into himself and when the Asda logo appears at the end.

Diving deeper into what viewers specifically like about this ad, music was a huge driver of likes (Musical Appeal: 4.2 vs. 3.7), with people most mentioning liking the music (28%), people and characters — mostly the Grinch but also his family (23%) — festive cheer, nostalgia and relatable money concerns (21%), as well as the mentions of price (7%) as their source of likes.

Some people shared: 

• "What I liked about that advert was how relatable it felt. You know, it really showed that stress everyone feels around Christmas, seeing all the pricey stuff and worrying about money."

• "I liked that the advert was fun and festive, using the Grinch in a creative way to show Asda’s cheerful holiday spirit and great value, making it entertaining and memorable."

• "I liked how the ad combined the fun and nostalgia of the grinch with the cheerful spirit of Christmas. Also, the decorations and music in the ad caught my attention."

• "The lyrics to the music were funny & suitable. The use of the Grinch turning back to dad at the end when he is happy. And the fact that the Asda sign glows green which appealed to the Grinch originally, thought that was clever."

• "I liked the idea of the dad being grinch whilst his family is Christmas shopping but when he goes to Asda and shops he eventually becomes human."

• "Seasonal and a reminder that Asda has competitive prices which can help with the holiday season."

• "Loved using the Grinch in it, a famous character around christmas. Also works with the green which was fun and the song.

All this ultimately led to increased purchase consideration for Asda! (Purchase Uplift: 24% vs. 16% norm), exactly what a retailer advertising during the holiday season hopes to see! 

This was a wonderfully relatable and festive holiday spot from Asda! What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

To make sure you never miss one of our AdMiration analyses, subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter.