How Leading UK Retailers Are Using Creative to Capture Attention This Mother’s Day 2025

In the UK, Mother’s Day spending is forecast to hit £2.4 billion, a 5% increase from last year.  

YouGov did a survey to find out how British adults will be gifting on the day and found that 34% would default to flowers, 22% would gift chocolates and sweets, and 12% purchase jewelry. 

The survey also looked at shopping influences and found that 44% of respondents shopping at supermarkets prioritized quality of products with 38% rating the range of gifts as the most significant.  

With this in mind we looked at the most popular retailers in the UK for Mother’s Day shopping. We ran their promotional creative through the platform to assess how much attention they were getting on the website and which ecommerce store came out on top! 

It’s all about beauty for Mum! 

We analyzed leading beauty retailers and their seasonal creative for Mothering Sunday. 

Boots 

Boots loves an offer and their Mother's Day is no different. Lovely use of contrasting colors to show the offers, a bit of an urgency push with easy calls to action to find just what you’re looking for. 

With 7 hotspots the clarity wasn’t as good as it could be and the Mother’s Day button only had 16% share of attention so some easy improvements all round. The banner itself got an attention score of 78% and when in context on the landing page it got a respectable 86% in share of attention. 

Sephora 

Bright, yellow, happy, and so much more. Sephora really pulls on the heartstrings with its banner this year. Clear contrasting colors, obvious call to action, and some lovely products being showcased. 

With an 83% clarity score on the banner and an overall attention score of 92% this is a nice piece of visual work. What's even better is that the position on the page and the size mean that the share of attention is a strong 85% too.  

Superdrug 

With 12 hotspots on the banner alone, including on some of the edges of the text boxes, it was no surprise that Superdrug got a clarity score of 34%. There are so many options that this is a bit busy and the hotspots support that. 

With 66% attention score, when analyzing the banner on page it only achieved a 64% share of attention which given its size and placement on the website is a shame.  

32% of respondents think supermarkets should offer special gifts for Mother’s Day 

Supermarkets are a popular place to purchase gifts especially when they all go beyond the standard flowers and chocolate offering. Tesco has been selling ‘Mum’ and ‘Nan’ pajamas this year and M&S has offerings like breakfast in bed hampers and coffee cups for ‘Mummy’ and ‘Mini’. 

Asda 

Going for the classic combination of Lindt chocolates and pink gin, Asda is all about the offers being front and center.  

A little high on hotspots meant a 53% clarity score but the offer messaging came in with 100% share of attention on the banner. This was also true when we looked at the homepage with the offer section of the banner getting the highest share of attention on page. Overall, in context, the creative got 100% digestibility.  

Tesco 

Now Tesco’s banner got an overall attention score of 88% but only 51% in context due to its size and position lined up against the other occasions.  

There was an additional navigation button above it which initially looked like a good strategic choice but with only 19% share of attention it might be better to skip it and make the main banner a bit more prominent. 

Marks & Spencer 

M&S have dedicated their entire homepage to Mother’s Day which makes it no surprise that the attention score lands at a comfortable 91%. 

The ‘Mother’s Day’ text gets a healthy 77% share of attention (room for optimization), and because there is such a focus on the occasion it is no surprise that in context the asset has a 100% share of attention. 

Sainsburys 

This supermarket had the smallest banner for Mother’s Day, and whilst the asset itself gets an attention score of 92% because it is clear and easy to understand, it is a different story entirely when analyzed on page. 

This is a great example of why it is essential to test creative in situ. It is one thing to score highly on the asset itself but like we see with Sainsbury’s, on the homepage the image gets a share of attention score of 17%. 

Waitrose 

A lovely occasion specific homepage but with the main banner struggling under 13 hotspots, the clarity is a low 25% which means the overall attention score is 49%. 

On the homepage the image gets 100% share of attention which based on the cards underneath it showcasing easy navigation to afternoon tea, cocktails and chocolates, gifts, and recipes – seems to distract from the goal of the page which we assume is to get consumers purchasing everything they need from Waitrose for the celebration. 

Morrisons 

In a lineup of upcoming events, the Mother’s Day image gets an in-context score of 17%. The creative itself manages 55% for clarity and an overall attention score of 78% which would manage much better if placed on a less busy page where there were clearer directives. 

Strategic Creative for Higher Mother’s Day Attention 

It is important to remember several key things when it comes to testing creative. 

1. If you are looking at competitors, as we have here, there must be consideration for the different layouts and sizes of images as this will affect seasonal calls to action.
   
   
2. The challenge is to test assets on their own to identify any potential for optimization and in context to see what share of attention they would get (Sainsbury’s is a prime example).
   
   
3. Due to the volume of testing required, you need a fast solution that gives you the insights you need to make decisions on creative and placement on the homepage. 

Here is an overview of individual creative attention scoring and share of attention on the homepage, you can clearly see the vast differences and the importance of testing for the environment. 

If you’d like to ensure your brand gets it right for the next seasonal push, book a demo with our team to see just how quickly you can optimize your campaigns for a bigger impact with consumers.