Alongside decorating the tree, shopping for presents and a diary full of plans, in recent years another tradition has marked the start of the festive season: the Christmas adverts drop. While brands have created commercials in the run up to December 25th since TV adverts began, in the age of social media where video content is at our fingertips, these ads have gained additional gravitas where captivating content equals viral success.
No advert is more anticipated than British department store John Lewis. Ever since the brand’s 2011 ‘The Long Wait’ ad which saw a young boy counting down to Christmas to give a gift to his mum and dad on the big day, the brand’s festive commercial is always long awaited and dissected on social media. Subsequently, the brand has become synonymous with Christmas. John Lewis’ started seeing success with their Christmas TV ads when they switched from selling to storytelling and focused on creating a feeling that people resonate with, typically celebrating the non commercial side of Christmas that is about family, connection and togetherness.
Other brands that have chosen the emotive route have also seen similar success in this space. For example, H&M’s 2016 advert directed by Wes Anderson in which a train conductor played by Adrien Brody orchestrates an impromptu Christmas celebration when a train faces delays taps into universal desire for kindness and community. While in 2023, Ikea Canada’s ‘Take a Holiday from the Holidays’ shows people escaping the celebrations in various bedrooms and bathrooms, tapping into the widely felt sense of overwhelm at Christmas and a clever antidote to the often saccharine messaging during this period.
Beyond TV and the online space, successful IRL Christmas campaigns also take a similar approach. Airline KLM’s 2016 ‘Bonding Buffet’ campaign saw a table placed 4.5 metres in the air in the departure lounge at Amsterdam airport, only to be lowered when 20 solo travellers took a seat to enjoy their Christmas lunch together. The heartwarming campaign subsequently reached over 100 million people online. Cadbury’s ongoing Secret Santa Postal Service evokes a similar message. Empathizing with the fact that lots of people don’t have huge funds to spend at Christmas, Cadbury curated an initiative where people could send free chocolate, in secret, from a digital poster. Last year there were over 200 digital posters around the country and 150,000 chocolate bars were sent in secret while they also partnered with The Trussell Trust to donate chocolate to over 200 food banks to reinforce this messaging further.
This approach to bring people together was also well excited by supermarket chain Asda in 2023 when they followed up their TV advert starring Michael Bublé with a Bublé themed karaoke-powered Christmas tree at London’s Kings Cross Station. The 20-foot-tall tree lit up in response to individuals singing Michael Bublé songs into a microphone creating interactive, joyous and memorable moments between friends. While the activation didn’t bring people into the store itself, it created strong associations with the brand which was accentuated with participants receiving free Asda Christmas treats.
Creating activations in store or via pop-up shops can also be hugely valuable for brands, especially over Christmas when footfall is higher generally as people make shopping an occasion in itself. A Google survey found brands that had experimented with pop-ups, reported a 46% increase in sales, a 51% rise in market visibility, 66% greater brand awareness, and a 46% spike in social-media engagement compared to when they didn’t have a pop-up. Similarly, a survey from Storefront found that worldwide, 80% of retail companies that have opened a pop-up store said it was successful and 58% are likely to use the tactic again.
For instance, Iceland’s 2018 Shopping on Ice campaign saw the brand creating the world’s first in-store ice rink in Stratford, London. The store was refitted with 250 square metres of synthetic ice allowing families to shop and skate. 500 families skated on the rink and the campaign instigated over 50 pieces of news coverage bringing festive cheer, building brand awareness and boosting sales. In a similar vein, bath and body brand Lush created excitement in store for the 2023 Christmas period when it launched the Lush Christmas Grotto in its Liverpool shop. The interactive experience with maze-like rooms inspired by Lush favourites enticed people with bath bomb workshops and gifts from Santa creating joyous moments between shoppers.
While these successful Christmas campaigns vary in their scale and budget, the thread that runs through all of them is creating a sense of connection. If you can make people feel that, especially during the festive period, you are onto a winner.
If you’re planning a Christmas event activation, get in touch, we are full of ideas of how to get that connection with customer you’re searching for.