Christmas is one the most important times of the year for brands, with the festive season being crucial for retailers and manufacturers as people spend money on gifts and Christmas treats for themselves, friends and loved ones.
Therefore, it is the perfect time to get creative with marketing campaigns that catch the eye and create an emotive response with audiences. Our Account Manager, Jack, has created a round-up of some of his favourite Christmas marketing campaigns and adverts from recent years.
Coca-Cola – Holidays are Coming
Would it be Christmas without the Coca-Cola advert appearing on TV?
The now iconic ‘holidays are coming’ television advert first appeared on our screens in 1995 and since then it has become synonymous with the start of the festive season – I don’t know about you, but in my house, it’s not Christmas until we hear the famous jingle and train coming into view on our ‘tele’.
In more recent times, Coca-Cola has taken the truck on the road, popping up in cities and towns across the UK, drumming up significant interest across social media.
It’s a truly iconic Christmas marketing campaign and one that will just keep rolling…
John Lewis & Partners – Christmas Adverts
The John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert first appeared on our screens in its current guise in 2007 and since then we have been treated to 15 often heart-warming marketing campaigns that symbolise the true meaning of Christmas.
Every year, the launch of the John Lewis advert is greeted by a wall of noise on social media, and it seems be the one advert that everyone seems to have an opinion on.
The most recognisable marketing campaigns over the years have included ‘The Bear and the Hare’, ‘Monty the Penguin’ and ‘The Man on the Moon’ all of which draw on the themes of friendship and togetherness at the festive season.
2021’s John Lewis advert, ‘An Unexpected Guest’ shows a boy called Nathan show an alien called Skye the spirit of Christmas and at the time of writing the video has over 2.5million views on YouTube; showing how many people are interested in their annual marketing campaign.
Aldi – Kevin the Carrot
Everyone’s favourite anthropomorphic vegetable, Kevin the Carrot, certainly makes this list.
The loveable Aldi character first made an appearance in 2016 and the German supermarket’s annual festive campaign has snowballed since then – with each marketing campaign focussing on Kevin and his adventures at Christmas time.
His stories have included trying to save his family members from the villain ‘Pascal the Parsnip’ and more recently, in 2021, learning about the spirit of Christmas with ‘EBanana Scrooge’
The marketing campaign has been such a success that Aldi sells a host of Kevin the Carrot toys, which often sell out in-store and fetch a pretty penny on online auction sites. Aldi also uses the branding to great effect in-store and across packaging, making it a true multi-channel Christmas campaign.
Sainsbury’s – Christmas wartime advert
All the Christmas marketing campaigns mentioned in this blog are long-running ones that are slightly tweaked year on year to refresh the messaging or creative.
However, as a ‘one-off’ the Sainsbury’s Christmas campaign from 2014 certainly deserves a special mention. It featured a ‘re-enactment’ of the wartime Christmas Day football match in no man’s land over the trenches in the First World War in 1914; marking 100 years since the Great War started.
British and German soldiers exchanged gifts in a poignant message, with Sainsbury’s selling the gifts featured in the adverts to raise money for the Royal British Legion.
The advert drew criticism at the time for commercialising this particular period of history, however, the emotional connection it made with the British public earned significant praise and, personally, (as a history buff!), goes down as my favourite Christmas marketing campaign.
Christmas is always a great time for marketing campaigns and it’s always exciting to see which brands will produce the best campaigns.
Looking forward to 2022 and beyond it will be interesting to see if there are any key themes in future Christmas marketing campaigns, such as brands finding creative ways to showcase their environmental credentials or further use of augmented reality (AR).
Let’s make your brand brilliant in 2022! Get in touch today for a chat.