Tag Archives: christmas

It’s a wrap! What was your favourite Christmas campaign?

29 Dec

It was a hard choice this year don’t you think? Let me know your favourite.

2018 has been another tough year for retailers. In Australia, Myer has had it’s woes, while globally we saw Toy ‘R’ Us go into liquidation. In a trading period during the Christmas months which can be the busiest for retailers, getting your Christmas advertising right is paramount to seeing great returns, but also high customer experiences around the brand, brand love and engagement. If your brand can connect on an emotional level during this time, it can last into the following year, but also have high brand conviction and loyalty moving forward in what will be another tough year.

John Lewis

Elton John stars in this blockbuster and it doesn’t disappoint. A beautifully crafted story about thoughtful gifts and not just giving for the sake of giving. It is about how an inspired gift can change your life.

With the tagline of ‘some gifts are more than just a gift’, the John Lewis campaign called ‘The Boy and the piano’ takes you on a two-minute historical voyage through different stages of Elton’s life, with glimpses of early days of concerts, memories and parties.

Each scene features Elton at his piano, with the conclusion of the ad at his first school concert, before eventually showing the first note four-year-old Elton John played on his newly-regifted grandmother’s piano for Christmas. Heart stopper ‘Your Song’ plays in the background and agency adam&eveDDB have really hit success with this.

This campaign is totally integrated and John Lewis sold iconic Elton T-shirts. If you happen to be in London, the flagship Oxford Street London store was renamed ‘John’, but even more impressive was that the 3rd floor has been dedicated to an experiential space where customers can explore many aspects of the ad including the recording studio, living room sets, listen to recordings and immerse themselves while shopping.

Not a John Lewis fan? But still love Christmas lights and store windows? Well every 30 minutes from 4pm, you can see an amazing one minute light show featuring another Elton classic, ‘Step into Christmas’. Watch some footage here (32 min:46 is where you will see John Lewis, but there is cool footage of London lights 2018 and it’s worth skipping through if you have time over your Xmas break)

But do not fear dear readers if you can’t get to Oxford Street. There is  a very long video here of the Christmas lights around London. Watch it here.

Elton John T shirts

AirNZ

Always a winner, and this year, Santa and the elves are back and it’s a winner. This year Santa messes up and sends out his naughty list to one of the boys on the actual ‘naughty’ list – as Santa is not very good with email! This would have to be my favourite, even though I loved the John Lewis campaign. But I do love Elton John. But I did also enjoy ALDI Australia’s effort.

 

Pedigree

Get the tissues out. This ad is delightfully shot and like John Lewis’s theme, it is about a gift for life, and has many life themes. You can watch & read about it here.

ALDI Australia

BMF Australia’s second attempt for ALDI Christmas campaign is heartfelt and totally Aussie. Its images are funny as well as beautifully shot. All against the backdrop of the Australian outback. The narratives are easy to follow: friendship, pitch in just like Aussies do to help a friend, and if someone pops in, you’ll have enough food.

ALDI Santa.png

 

ALDI UK – Kevin the Carrot is back and this time in a three part series! Part 1 is a Spoof of the CocaCola truck of happiness. In this case, our hero Kevin is driving the truck.

Read about it and watch it here. More links at the end of this post.

CocaCola saw the funny side to this campaign (and would have appreciated the parody and free advertising), after all isn’t the best form of flattery copying? CocaCola got in to the Christmas spirit and tweeted this clever response:

Coke ALDI

Part 2 & 3 – Kevin the Carrot fights to save his family from Pascal, a wicked Parsnip living in a dark castle. And Kevin saves Little Red (carrot) Riding hood in a spoof of the fairytale. Both fun productions with fabulous imagery of amazing food.

 

Let me know what your favourites were for 2018?

 

Extra viewing & reading:

ALDI Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/AldiUK

ALDI – http://www.bandt.com.au/advertising/aussie-christmas-ad-ever-aldi-goes-outback-years-spot-via-bmf

John Lewis – https://www.johnlewis.com/content/christmas-advert

House Beautiful – https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/christmas-adverts-round-up/

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Christmas (advertising #3) just keeps getting better – but you will need tissues for both crying and laughing

10 Dec

Yes I may be a little bit obsessed with Christmas advertising, but after you’ve read my 1st post and 2nd one about Christmas, how can you not be?

Just to refresh your memory: amazing ALDI brings back spunk Kevin the carrot and he slays it promoting the movie Murder on The Orient Express. And my other favourite, Debenham’s clever modern day take on Cinderella.

Aldi-Christmas-advert-2017-Kevin-the-Carrot-1121237

Bring out the tissues as these two latest campaigns are gold. 

BBC One – The Supporting Act (click to watch)

Another fantastic UK offering (aren’t they all?), this time by BBC One’s in-house creative team. This works for me because I remember that song lyrics to Cats in The Cradle,

“When you coming home Dad? I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then, you know we’ll have a good time then?” by Harry Chapin, or more recently Ugly Kid Joe.

We’ve all had a parent, sibling or carer that was too busy to play with us, to read with us, jut to sit with us and chat. Life is busy! This is a simple and gorgeous story as we see a single Dad trying his best, and the daughter just keeps dancing and being happy and thinks that Dad doesn’t notice her. You’ll be toe tapping and up dancing before you know it. Love it BBCs in-house team BBC Creative.

ALERT: More tissues

RSPCA Christmas 2017 (click to watch)

Sniff, tissues, heartstrings, RSPCAs tearjerking film highlights the kindness of RSPCA staff as they all contribute to saving animals’ lives. Woody the puppy, represents all the animals that the RSPCA cares for, from exotic pets, horses and small animals to dogs, cats, rabbits and everything in between. Also great message about a pet is for a lifetime, not just for Xmas.

Now to finish with a really good ROFL

AirNZ have done it again, with a(nother) rollicking and brilliant ad that plays on the Kiwi accent. Remember the brilliant safety videos when they played on The Hobbit ? Or the videos that saw real (and nude) employees covered in body paint uniforms with the Nothing to Hide campaign? First class (pun intended).

Remember last year 2016, with Ronan Keating’s hilarious effort with child actor Julian Dennison? Mixing up vowels and confusing the entire world with their crazy words!

If you were confused with 2016 lines such as ‘a brown bird instead of a blue bird’, and jandals, this year you’ll be even more confused! We love the Kiwis (aka New Zealanders)!

2017s offering is just as good. What starts off as fun phone calls from Chinese children talking to Santa about what they’d like for a present, we then see the faces of Santa and chief elf turn to horror, the music changes, bells toll and we know the story is about to start. You will need the tissues, but this time for crying with laughter.

We will have two weeks until Christmas, so I am assuming I have at least one more Christmas advertising post! Until then…..  have a look at this hilarious recruitment video for NZ Police (stay for the bloopers at the end, plus dancing to rival Miley Cyrus 47 seconds in, the actual Police Commissioner at 1.47 and so much more).

 

Further reading:

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/bbc-one-the-supporting-act-bbc-creative/1451862, published December 5, 2017.

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Christmas advertising take #2

13 Nov

Yes I know only a few days ago I posted a blog post about loving Christmas advertising (see it here). But over the weekend three amazing campaigns dropped…. all from the UK.

First I dove into Marks & Spencer’s brilliant campaign (much like the Murder on the Orient Express tie in by ALDI with Kevin the carrot), that sees the much-loved Paddington Bear save Christmas around his neighbourhood by confusing a burglar with Santa. The M&S ad has many messages, and hits the nail on the head with emotion, and of course ties in with the Paddington Bear 2 movie which was released in the UK today.

Second I watched the John Lewis ad. I connected with this ad as when I was little I was sure there was a monster underneath my bed! I watched Moz the monster and the young man Joe connect and play at night. That was a gorgeous time of bonding. I was wanting to cry, waiting to cry, but didn’t. (And I cry at the drop of a tissue)! I suppose you outgrow monsters, but Christmas isn’t a time for that. There have been mixed reviews about this ad. Read one from the BBC here. You can make up your own mind.

Moz the monster from John Lewis christmas advert

The final ad was my favourite from Debenhams. Based on the fairytale Cinderella, but with a modern twist (kind of like Rowse’s new three bears – see my post here), Debenhams take you on a wonderful magical love story, click here to watch the ad and tell me if you don’t cry! What girl doesn’t want to be Cinderella? The #YouShall Find Your Christmas is a great teaser campaign, which is really a love story. It captures the spirit of the season, and takes you on their journey.

Cleverly, Debenhams have allowed you to shop what Ellie and Josh are wearing at this site here, including personalised gifts.

personalised gifts

Which is your favourite ad and why?

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Do you love Christmas advertising?

8 Nov

What’s more to love about Christmas than family, feasting and napping? Yes, it’s Christmas advertising! I have just received the first of what will be many emails promoting brands, and it was from one of my favourite brands: ALDI.

It reminded me of last year and a fantastic array of Christmas goodness. Some of my favourites were Cadbury and love how the Myer one is truly Australian and shows true of Aussie culture of helping out your mates by repairing Santa’s star: Myer 2016 Santa’s Star TVC.

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.40.38 am.png

Over in sunny UK, John Lewis for years have been coming out with fantastic ads, Marks & Spencer also had a great campaign where Mrs Claus steals the show from Santa in the M&S 2016 TVC. This very touching one from Heathrow airport – bringing families together was also another standout, Heathrow TVC.

My favourite ‘Come Together’ by H&M, directed by Wes Anderson and starring Adrien Brody channels Grand Budapest Hotel, watch it here.  I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it still brings me to tears. Be warned, it is 3.52 minutes, but it’s worth the watch.

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.43.30 am.png

These three examples, and please share your favourites in the comments section, all use emotional based strategies: empathy, family and love and togetherness. Their messages are powerful, and not one bit of clothing or aeroplane to be seen (well maybe right at the beginning of the Heathrow TVC.

Bring on 2017 Christmas TVCs I say! ALDI have resurrected Kevin the carrot after the success of their 2016 campaign. This is their first instalment of the season and again the theme is love (and it only goes for a minute), ALDI 2017 TVC.

ALDI’s sales grew over 15% last Christmas, so why not bring back Kevin? The campaign has a clever movie tie-in with Murder on the Orient Express, and of course features a train, a gingerbread man, introduces a sexy female carrot Katie, and Kevin doing un-carrot hero acts! I’m sure ALDI are onto another winner here, as their Christmas food offerings are portrayed in a mouth-watering display. It is pure escapism and will win over more new customers. Let’s see what the sales figures show this Christmas.

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.36.29 am.png

While I have been reading many articles about this Christmas being lean on spending, brands will be enticing us over the next month to win over our hearts. And spend we will. Using emotive and escapism are two strategies that have worked previously, and will work again. Bring on Santa I say! And more Christmas magic.

 

 

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The solution to drunk Facebook happy snaps

22 Dec

Well with most of the Christmas parties done and dusted, it’s time to go back through Facebook and Tumblr and check those drunk happy snaps!

Thanks to http://www.sadanduselss.com the answer is only a photoshop away!

A recent UK study found that out of 2000 people surveyed by photo book website MyMemory.com 76% said they had tagged images of being drunk on Facebook. Worse, they have no conscience when it comes to who can see these images. Over half (58%) left the images available to all their friends and followers and 26% were public. Just 12% locked down images so only they could see them. For the full story, click on this link http://www.bizreport.com/2011/12/tis-the-season-to-be-drunk-online.html

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Forget The House: It’s Gingerbread TARDIS time

19 Dec

Not sure what to take to Christmas parties of give as your homemade gift this year?Well… here it is! No more Hansel and Gretel homes.

Fin the recipe @ http://crafty-tardis.livejournal.com/50028.html

Chutneys, rocky road shaped Christmas trees , onion marmalade, fig paste are all ideal homemade Christmas gifts (if you have time). And easy to make.

 

 

 

Here’s a great recipe for Rocky Road Xmas trees! via www.k8tography.com

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Xmas Present Woes – Give Experiences

18 Dec

This holiday season, instead of giving your girlfriends a necklace or a sweater, mix things up and gift them an experience they’ll never forget. Sometimes life’s responsibilities can get in the way of spending enough quality time with your gal pals, so what better way to make time for them than to give it as a gift? And the best part of experience gifts is that the memories and photos will last a lifetime. Here are 6 out-of-the-box girls’ night out ideas that you can share with your ladies, whether they are sporty, crafty, or have a sweet tooth!

c/- GeekTyrant.com

  1. Day spa
  2. Chocolate experience
  3. Wine tasting
  4. Pole dancing
  5. Zumba
  6. Book club

And lads, you can do the same thing… except no shopping on the list! And while you’d like to try pole dancing, I’m not sure how that would go down with your man-pals.

  1. Deep sea fishing trip
  2. Skydiving
  3. Wine tasting
  4. Duran Duran 2012 concert tickets (yes you may as well fess up – you loved ‘em too)
  5. Dr Who box set (or Star Wars) – fun for everyone & some downtime in the new year.
  6. Bikram yoga (yes… lose those unwanted Xmas kilos)
  7. If you’re in Australia – Harry Potter exhibition @Powerhouse in Sydney or Harry Potter World in the USA (and you can use the kids as your excuse)!
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