Now December is here, we can finally start singing Christmas songs wholeheartedly without any remorse… if you want to.
The festive furore began in November (rightly or wrongly), with the launch of the most eagerly anticipated Christmas adverts – closely followed by the not so eagerly anticipated ones.
We’re embracing the festive spirit at Vizulate the only way we know how, with an in-depth marketing analysis of the best Christmas ads this festive season has to offer.
Scott, Director of Operations & Marketing
I love this time of year personally, and professionally I look forward to seeing the creativity behind the major retailers’ Christmas ad campaigns.
This year has been really disappointing, however. I don’t know if they’ve all run out of ideas but nothing really stood out for me from the usual suspects this year.
The plus side of that is it has allowed some of the smaller ad campaigns to shine. Which is why I have picked this digital-only campaign for the Children’s Hospice charity as my favourite Christmas ad of 2017.
Cara, Digital Marketing Business Administrator
Similarly to Scott, I’m a big lover of the festive season and everything that comes along with Christmas – from the launch of the Christmas adverts, to supermarket shelves being packed full with Christmas food.
However, a lot of the highly anticipated adverts this year weren’t as intriguing as in previous years. Nevertheless, there was one advert that stood out for me, Heathrow Airport’s Christmas Advert. As a sucker for a romance film, it was easy to pick my favourite 2017 Christmas advert. Who doesn’t like a happy ending to a love story?
Richard, Technology Lead
I haven’t seen any Christmas ads, in fact these days I don’t really see any adverts while watching television – the BBC, Netflix and Now TV don’t have any adverts and most of the other programs I watch have been recorded so I fast forward through any adverts.
As far as I’m concerned Christmas shouldn’t even be considered until December.
Mick, Director of Strategy and Growth
I am with Richard, in that I think it all starts a bit too early for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas Day with the family, but the run up shouldn’t start before 1st December!
I quite like the Paddington ad. It’s a clever story line, but like many of them you remember the ad, but not the associated brand (M&S). I like the Tesco one (although I had to look up which supermarket it was!) as it captures ordinary people – I particularly like the end where the guy is clearly stuffed, but doesn’t say no to a turkey sandwich! We’ve all done it.
One of my favourite Christmas TV ads from the past is the Coca Cola ad with the illuminated truck, which was originally from 1995 (yes, I did Google this!), but is now shown nostalgically every year. Another favourite is the Sainsbury’s First World War one from 2014.
My all-time favourite is one from a company that was a household name, but sadly went under in 2008. Woolworths, Woollies, as they were known, did a great Christmas TV ad in 1983, which featured many celebrities, fashions and products of the day (remember C90 tapes, Speak & Spell, Commodore computers and Brut anyone?)
Ryan, Creative Designer
I like all the adverts around this time of year, they always come up with some really good campaigns. The only thing that ‘grinds my gears’ is that they appear on our TVs and social media feeds way too early – the now (in)famous Coca-Cola ad is usually the first to break cover.
One of my favourite adverts for this year has to be the TK Maxx ‘A White Christmas’ ad which makes me smile from start to end. It’s a campaign for customers to find a rather exclusive snow globe in store or online, which guarantees you a white Christmas as TK Maxx will deliver actual snow to your front door.
There are a few funny moments in the ad which I like and there’s even a part at the beginning which not everyone will notice. Tell me in the comments if you did.
I think it’s a great idea and any family would love it. I hope we do have a white Christmas. It always makes Christmas Day that little bit more special when you open the curtains to find a world of whiteness.
