As soon as Halloween is over, Christmas becomes the next big thing in the marketing calendar and the festive campaigns start to flood the media and our TV screens.
I mean, it’s not Christmas until you see the Coca-Cola advert, right?
In 2019, Christmas in the UK reached a total of £83.1 billion. With this much being spent, it’s no wonder so many brands get involved – it’s a great opportunity to market your business and get involved in Christmas fun.
The most popular campaigns have been from brands that evoke emotion by using loved ones, charity appeals or humour to connect with audiences.
However, Christmas campaigns come in all shapes and sizes – whether they’re a simple advert or a big video campaign, holiday marketing campaigns are an essential part of your marketing plan.
Holiday Humour
To start with humour, Durex used the 2018 holiday season to make it’s statement during the Christmas period to convey its brand message in a fun, quirky way.
Over the years, Durex has maintained its brand personality with a series of light-hearted campaigns employing holiday humour too.
Festive Freebies
Known for its speciality coffee, every year Starbucks comes alive during the festive season with its Christmas-themed red cups and treats.
In 2017, they gave out a free limited-edition reusable red cup to customers that ordered Christmas drinks.
Each drink was given its own hashtag, allowing customers to promote them via social media. This created excitement around the brand and produced great user-generated content on Instagram.
Evoking Emotion
In 2018, the supermarket chain Iceland evoked emotion promoting its Christmas campaign on the company’s ban on palm oil products.
The campaign, narrated by Emma Thompson, was repurposed from a Greenpeace video and followed the story of an Orangutan befriending a girl because he had nowhere to live after his forest was cut down to make palm oil.
Iceland’s Christmas campaign was banned from TV for being too political. However, it went viral on social media and over 750,000 people signed a petition for it to be back on the air.
Watch it here.
Meaningful Messages
In 2019, Sainsbury’s told a meaningful true story of the Christmas Day truce during World War Two. The video depicts the two days that German and Allied troops stopped fighting to acknowledge and celebrate Christmas.
Sainsbury’s used the message “Christmas is for sharing’, bringing the ad to light on the 100 year anniversary.
In less than 24 hours, the official YouTube video had scored more than 1.8 million hits and viewers took to Twitter claiming Sainsbury’s had knocked John Lewis off the reigning spot of the best Christmas ad.
Watch it here.
Festive Fun
Oreo, known for its biscuits, introduced its very own Christmas packaging for Christmas, allowing consumers to choose package designs online and digitally colour them to create the perfect Christmas gift.
The #colou filledcampaigns created a fun way for Oreo to get involved with their audience and gave the chance for people to share their designs online.
As much as the holidays are for giving gifts, eating lots of yummy food and spending time with family, it also is a great opportunity to market your business, boost your end-of-year sales and get involved in the festive fun.
Need help with your 2021 Christmas campaign? Get in touch with our team today. Drop us an email at hello@brace.co.uk or give us a call on 01452 729 953. We look forward to working with you.
