It’s Christmas time (well almost), but are you feeling Christmassy yet? As life gets busier, we work more, play less and, I suspect, are not quite in the festive mood just yet.
However, nothing stops the commercial Christmas machine starting up earlier and earlier and in the last couple of weeks the big retailers have been launching their Christmas ads. But which ones have been a triumph and which ones have been a let down?
While small businesses may not have the marketing spend of the big players, they can learn a lot from analysing the effectiveness of their strategies. The framework I would use to analyse the strategy behind each advert is:
- What is the human truth? (How are people feeling out there?)
- What is the market truth? (What is happening in this marketplace and with all brands in this space?)
- What is the product truth? (What are you offering that compliments the other two truths?)
Lastly, the acid test is what is the one thing you take away from the ad. More often than not, this should be what the company is trying to get across, but sometimes creatives can get a little carried away and the ad, while entertaining, is not as connected to the brand as it should be. There are quite a few forgettable TV ads this year from the big guns. None feel very wrong or out of place, just a bit run of the mill.
My Christmas TV ad festive five are:
- Harvey Nichols #giftface – where a young woman puts on a fixed smile while receiving some uninspired Christmas presents; does a great job of tapping into the awkwardness of receiving poorly chosen gifts and into the zeitgeist of the social sphere.
- Argos’s (#justcantwait) with its new set of high octane ads (featuring characters skiing and sledging down slopes) positions them as the place to get all of your gear this Christmas. By featuring Star Wars and Apple products, they are elevating themselves from the store that we thought we knew to something altogether more exciting.
- Asda’s ad is wonderfully bright, vibrant and exciting – it shows a variety of Christmas scenes from an office party, to a family watching The Snowman on TV, and is accompanied by an upbeat sound track. However, it is let down at the end of the ad by showing Asda staff in fleeces and a shot of the store. It jars with the rest of the ad. But mostly it shows them in a new, innovative and modern light.
- Tesco have done an amazing job of bringing gluten-free products to the masses, and this is the focus of one of a series of ads, which are clear and strong. The fact they even dared use a whole ad to talk about gluten-free shows innovation and a sense of security that they really do have something for everyone. They are trying to build brand equity with the family that talks directly to their target audience, with caricatures of a stiff dad, wacky mum and dim teenager – similar to the family in the BT ads did with Kris Marshall from My Family.
- Lidl are continuing to knock it out of the park by the use of comedy in the Lidl school of Christmas advert. Looking at the humour and characters in the ad, the discounter is positing itself as more upmarket.
It would be remiss of me not to mention John Lewis as it’s now Father Christmas himself in brand terms. But the store is also a victim of its own success – you are waiting for the internet memes as much as the main event..
The ad did not strike as strong a chord with me as usual. This was mainly due to the fact that I saw the end frame on social media, which meant I knew how it played out.
The last thing of note is that some ads have hashtags and some don’t. However, they do not push people to “search Tesco” or to their social media channels explicitly – and they should. This would be a good call to action at the end frame– it is a missed opportunity of a click or a sale.
Mark McCulloch is the founder and chief executive of WE ARE Spectacular.
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