Kevin the Carrot has beaten Mozzy the Monster and Paddington Bear seen in the annual race to create the best Christmas ad, with Aldi’s bargain bin vegetable dethroning meatier seasonal competitors.

Data firm 4C calculated that most Social Media users were rooting for Kevin,  who generated greater engagement within five minutes of being aired than other campaign, becoming the single most discussed ad overall by totting up mentions made in advance of its release.

On this measure the Aldi ad scored a whopping 152% increase in social Media mentions, ahead of its nearest competitor Boots which scored sweet success with a tale of two sisters.

When it came to the crunch the carrots scored highly for sentimentality as well, ranking second overall following a careful analysis of both positive and negative language with 85.9% of viewers responding positively, just behind M&S's bear from darkest Peru at 87.5%.

The numbers will make disappointing reading for John Lewis which has traditionally monstered its competition, placing a disappointing tenth in terms of its own ‘lift’ rate at just 54% - although the vast majority of these (71.2%) were positive.

4C used artificial intelligence software to scour millions of Christmas ad related social media messages across Facebook and Twitter to calculate its rankings.

Most Discussed ads

Aldi (152%)
Boots (141%)
Tesco (120%)
Lidl (100%)
Sainsbury’s (99%)
Vodafone (77%)
Coca-Cola (70%)
Waitrose (70%)
M&S (64%)
John Lewis (54%) 

Most sentimental ads

M&S (87.5%) 
Aldi (85.9%) 
Boots (81.9%) 
Apple (80.5%) 
Waitrose (78.1%) 
John Lewis (71.2%) 
Sainsbury’s (71.1%) 
Coca-Cola (68.9%) 
Tesco (63.6%) 
Lidl (63.5%)