What beauty brand wins the Christmas marketing battle 2025

The 2024 Beauty Ad Awareness Landscape in Sweden: Who Won the Battle for Consumer Attention During Q4?

The Swedish beauty industry enters its most competitive phase every year in Q4, when brands fight intensely for visibility during the Christmas season. Holiday gifting, beauty calendars, fragrance campaigns, and retail promotions converge into a massive advertising push — making Q4 the single most important quarter for brand awareness in the category.

In this analysis (*), we explore the Top 20 beauty brands by Ad Awareness in Sweden, based on fresh Q4 data from 2024. We also unpack the deeper seasonal trends that shape how consumer attention behaves during the industry’s busiest — and most crowded — advertising period.

* Analysis based on data from Beauty Compass - Odyssey´s on-going brand tracking solution for the beauty market.

Why Q4 Matters: Christmas as the Peak Season for Beauty Advertising

Q4 is not just another quarter — it is the engine room of the beauty industry. During November and December, consumers shift their shopping behaviour dramatically, and nearly every touchpoint becomes beauty-relevant. This is when:

Beauty becomes one of the most gifted product categories
Fragrance campaigns peak in November–December
Advent calendars drive massive early-Q4 hype
Retailers launch their biggest multi-channel pushes (Singles Day, Black Week, Christmas)
Investment in both brand and performance advertising accelerates sharply

This seasonal pressure creates an inflated media landscape, raising the stakes for every brand. Those who manage to cut through in Q4 earn disproportionate mental availability heading into the new year.
The ranking below reflects which brands succeeded in making themselves impossible to ignore.

Top 20 Beauty Brands in Sweden by Ad Awareness (Q4 2024)

Caia – 28.5%
L’Oréal Paris – 27.9%
Nivea – 26.8%
Rituals – 23.0%
Dove – 21.6%
Maybelline – 20.7%
Aco – 20.5%
Xlash – 19.8%
CeraVe – 19.3%
L’Oréal Professionnel – 18.6%
Adidas (Personal Care) – 18.5%
Sol de Janeiro – 18.1%
Schwarzkopf – 17.0%
Rexona – 16.0%
Max Factor – 15.9%
By Lyko – 15.6%
Hugo Boss (Fragrance) – 14.7%
By Kicks – 14.6%
Lancôme – 14.6%
Axe – 14.5%

These results paint a clear picture of which brands successfully rose above the Christmas advertising noise.

Seasonal Insight 1: Skincare Still Dominates — Even During Q4

Despite Q4 traditionally being a fragrance-heavy period, skincare brands hold the majority of top positions. Brands like Nivea, Rituals, Aco, CeraVe, L’Oréal Professionnel and Dove continue to deliver strong recall during the holidays.
This reflects a combination of:

consistent year-round visibility
strong category relevance during gifting
high trust and familiarity
powerful apotek presence
multiple touchpoints during Black Week and Christmas

Even when fragrance campaigns peak, skincare maintains the highest mental availability in Sweden.

Seasonal Insight 2: Fragrance Spikes — But Doesn’t Overthrow the Leaders

Q4 is the Super Bowl of fragrance marketing, with brands like ...

Hugo Boss
Lancôme
Dolce & Gabbana
Versace

... pushing major holiday campaigns.

They all see significant uplift in visibility — but not enough to surpass the strongest skincare and mass beauty brands. The reason is simple:
Fragrance delivers huge seasonal impact, while skincare delivers year-round presence.

Q4 boosts fragrance, but the long-term equity of skincare keeps it on top.

Seasonal Insight 3: Makeup Lags — Even When Holiday Trends Surge

With holiday looks, party makeup, and glitter palettes trending in December, Q4 should be a standout moment for makeup. And yet:

Only Maybelline reaches the top 10.
Most makeup brands stay mid-table or lower.

Why?
Because makeup discovery is now creator-driven, not media-driven.
TikTok, YouTube, and influencer content shape makeup awareness far more than traditional advertising — even in Q4.
Paid media remains important, but it no longer defines the category.

Seasonal Insight 4: Retail Media Intensifies — And It Changes the Landscape

Q4 is when retailers such as ...

Boozt
Lyko
Kicks
Åhléns

... run their largest campaigns of the year.

Retail media — from homepage takeovers to paid social, SEM, and onsite placements — surges during Black Week and Christmas. That’s why private labels like By Lyko and By Kicks appear in the Top 20.

However, the dataset measures brand-level awareness, not retailer-level campaigns.

This means:
The ranking reflects product brand awareness, not the full picture of retail-driven visibility. In reality, retailers play a huge role in shaping what consumers notice in Q4.

Seasonal Insight 5: Low-Awareness Brands Vanish Almost Completely in Q4

Brands with limited paid media — such as OPI, Sweed, Essie, Maria Åkerberg, and Ole Henriksen — appear at the very bottom.
Q4 magnifies this effect:

Media CPMs spike
Competition intensifies
Shelf space tightens
Smaller brands get squeezed out

Q4 functions as a visibility amplifier: strong brands grow stronger, while weaker or niche brands practically disappear.

Seasonal Insight 6: Winners Master the Multi-Channel Holiday Mix

The brands at the top of the list share one critical strength:
they are present everywhere during Q4.

They succeed through coordinated execution across:

TV & online video
social platforms
apotek & retail displays
holiday gift sets
influencer partnerships
Black Week promotions
Christmas-themed storytelling

This unified presence allows them to break through the seasonal clutter.
Q4 rewards both emotional storytelling and performance-driven retail activation. The brands that can master both dominate the quarter.

Final Conclusion: Q4 Is the Ultimate Stress Test for Beauty Brands

If a brand can stand out in Q4, it can stand out any time.
The holiday season compresses:

media competition
consumer attention
purchase intent
retail pressure
gifting behavior

…into a short, high-intensity window.

The Top 20 brands in this ranking are the ones that managed to rise above the noise — not only through advertising strength but through omnichannel presence, cultural relevance, and consistent visibility amplified during the Christmas season.

Read more about our Brand Tracking solution for the Beauty Market – Beauty Compass:

What beauty brand will win the Christmas marketing battle in 2025?