What’s your favourite Christmas ad? It used to be the in thing to be top of the Christmas no.1 music list, however every year many global brands fight it out for the top Christmas ad of the year. But why?
It appears to be the time of year where marketing budgets go out of the window and media teams are handed cheques as blank as the snow in their sets to create something that will stick in consumers’ minds in the lead up to Christmas, and beyond.
There are many examples of timeless festive ads that have changed the way we perceive brands – The Coca-Cola “Holidays are Coming” Christmas ad (which for me is the first official sign of Christmas) has been synonymous with the festive season for years, to the extent that we all associate Father Christmas with red because of their ads (true story – he used to be green!). Even though they have arguably the most iconic Christmas presence of all time, they still announced this year that they will be forking our their largest ever ad spend on festive campaigns.
This may baffle you, but alongside a solid TV presence, there are countless avenues for brands to explore and reach the forefront of the consumer’s minds – such as out of home, social media and the new realm of influencers.
Other annual entrants from the likes of McDonalds (Are you #ReindeerReady this year?), M&S and all supermarket chains each have their own way to bring out the Christmas spirit in us all and cement themselves as the no.1 choice for festive feeding. You can see why they might, because for most businesses at this time of year it only means one thing: endless shopping!
While brands are focusing on putting themselves in your direct eyeline over Christmas, the newest trend is to immerse the consumer’s senses in every aspect of the brand, which at Christmas comes into a whole new life its own. The trick is to associate a scent, feeling or emotion with something that is synonymous to your brand – this is something our client at The Chesterton Hotel achieves successfully for their guests.
Our old favourites Coca-Cola have jumped on this bandwagon this year as they created a campaign to make London’s Oxford Circus station smell like cinnamon for the holiday period – something that no brand can say they have done before. In the same way that your experience with a brand influences your perception, the hotel experience has never been more important to create loyal, happy, returning customers.
Together with Thanksgiving and the chaos of Black Friday, the festive season is a critical time for all consumer brands looking to make a lasting impact when generosity is high and prices are low. With so many opportunities to reach the end consumer nowadays, brands (meaning you!) have never had more control over the way in which you are perceived from your audience.