Christmas is not only about eating more than you ever thought you could but is also the time of the year where friends and family exchange gifts. A huge amount of money is spent on retail marketing over this time period. I’m personally an 80’s child, so I’m going to rack my brains and come up with what I think are the best Christmas adverts from over the years…
- Holidays are coming! Coca Cola – Over the years Coca Cola have had a huge impact on the actual appearance of Christmas, ultimately changing the colour of Santa’s original attire from green to the now famous red and white. Before the internet was even a thing, the ‘Coca Cola’ truck adverts popping up on TV were the first sign of Christmas really starting. You knew Father Christmas wasn’t far off when you saw the advert. This brand association of Coca Cola and Christmas has happened thanks to years of Xmas promotion. Even the ‘Holidays are coming’ song in the background has been used for over 20 YEARS!
- Toys R Us – “There’s a magical place…”. Those words still get me excited now; the start of a clever cartoon that illustrates the magic of Toys R Us to children. Knowing how much kids love toys, Toys R Us is literally a toy palace and what better way than to illustrate this than in a cartoon format. Whenever my other half goes to somewhere boring like Boots on our local retail park, I can spend at least 20 minutes walking around my favourite childhood place. What ever Toys R Us have done, it’s stuck with me. Not strictly a Christmas ad, but an advert that the company pushed considerably just before Christmas.
- Monty The Penguin – The latest to the party but arguably one of the best pieces of visual and creative advertising we’ve ever seen. I’ve covered this particular ad in much more detail in a previous blog, but Monty the Penguin has everything you could want from a Christmas ad – Christmas trees, excited children, a love story and obviously a super intelligent friendly penguin pet. It has that premium and trust worthy feel that is exactly what John Lewis want to portray to potential customers just before Christmas.
- Irn Bru ‘The Snowman” – One of the most famous short stories that appears on our screens on Christmas day is “The Snowman”, a magical tale about a boy who befriends a living snowman accompanied by one of the most famous Christmas TV songs of all time. Not entirely the most creative option, but effective nonetheless, was Irn Bru’s own version of the tale in their 2006 advert. The warm Christmasy vibe that’s been built by The Snowman over the years was projected onto the Irn Bru brand for that year.
Christmas adverts have peaked, in my opinion, in 2014. The introduction of fast internet connections and video streaming has given video marketing more power than ever, and sites like Youtube and Vimeo are currently up there with the most popular websites in the world currently. With films and video marketing, creativity and originality will find its way into the mainstream through social media. Encouraging sharing and viral marketing is a huge business, and is something that all big brands need to consider moving into 2015…
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