Last week, Halloween came to a close and social media went crazy over 2014’s Christmas adverts with John Lewis, Coca Cola, Marks and Spencer, Boots, Tesco, Debenhams, Mulberry and Aldi  all revealing their much anticipated adverts.

Hearts melted and grinches grumbled. Whether you love or hate Christmas adverts, you won't have missed the buzz on your social streams.

The Battenhall team were torn between adverts but what we really wanted to know was which advert translated the most effectively on social media. So we crunched the data and here's the top 5 social adverts on social media this year...

 YouTube Views

The John Lewis ad saw the highest number of YouTube views as their cute 'Monty the Penguin' advert soared through social media streams last week. Marks and Spencer’s followed in second place with their Two Fairies advert, Tesco’s 'light up the community' advert took third place, Boots 'special because' ad came in fourth place, followed by Coca-Cola’s Happy Holidays advert.

Number of Mentions

John Lewis remained in first place in terms of number of mentions, generating 346,347 mentions of their #MontyThePenguin campaign, wherein the advert generated a spike of 187,493 social mentions upon launching. Coca-Cola’s advert climbed up the rankings into second place as their advert and Christmas Truck tour pushed them up. Marks and Spencer’s random acts of kindness #Followthefairies campaign placed them in third place, while Boots' and Tesco’s followed behind.

Potential Reach

Again, John Lewis remained in first place with the highest potential reach; however Marks and Spencer sprinted ahead of Coca-Cola despite having fewer mentions, demonstrating that higher profile celebrities and influencers were talking about their advert online. Tesco also overtook Boots in terms of potential reach; however the two still remained bottom of the charts.

The Verdict?

John Lewis created an advert that translated effectively on social, reaching a large audience and engaging them in the campaign. While Marks and Spencers didn’t generate as many mentions as Coca-Cola, they did have the second highest number of YouTube views and reach, highlighting that influencers were talking about their campaign. Tesco had a successful advert in terms of YouTube views; however Coca Cola overtook them in social media engagement, showing that their advert didn't translate as effectively on social media.

Boots and Tesco’s had successful TV adverts which didn’t generate as high a number of views or social media engagement as the others but they did beat Debenhams, Mulberry and Aldi into the Battenhall charts.

John Lewis' 2014 Christmas advert wins but why?

We think it's a result of a couple of things:

• After years of creating fantastic Christmas adverts (that make us weep at our desks), people have learnt to expect it and John Lewis never let us down
• John Lewis was the first Christmas advert to go live this year and as soon as it was live, they had @MontyThePenguin tweeting, the Penguin available to buy in store and 'John Lewis' and '#MontyThePenguin' trending on Twitter almost immediately
• We also noticed that John Lewis had sent a couple of influencers such as Sprinkle of Glitter their very own Monty.

We cannot pinpoint John Lewis' success factor and it may be all of the above but they didn't let us down this year...