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My Top 4 Christmas 2014 Advertising Campaigns
It doesn’t seem like five minutes ago that I was reviewing last year’s Christmas adverts and virals videos. This year everyone has raised their game, adding extra sparkle, love and laughter to their mini films showcasing their goods and entertaining us all at the same time. Let’s take a look at my favourite video advertising campaigns for 2014.
(1) Aldi “Everyone’s Coming to Us This Christmas”
I like to play a game of guess the company when a new advert comes on and sometimes you get quite a surprise. From a company known for its witty advertising, Aldi’s Christmas advert came as a bit of a shock. They ditched the down the earth and went for the more classic Christmas advert, and I didn’t guess right first time.
The consistency of shooting at table level is a great way of pulling the audience in as if you’re sat at the table with everyone one of the those families, even the traditional “family” setting of a Christmas advert is turned on its head with work colleagues eating together in their very own “friend-family unit”. The seamless links of dialogue picking up between scenes makes the advert flow continuously even when then setting changes, and the finishing treat of Jools Holland tinkling away on the ivories is a perfect ending.
(2) Marks & Spencer “Follow the Fairies”
For the first time in a long time Marks and Spencer has broken tradition and decided not to go down the celebrity route. Instead, they’ve made their two fairies the centre piece of these adverts, stringing scenes together with a bit of magic, sparkle and fairy dust. The two fairies fly around gifting random acts of kindness for all in their path.
It seems quote a simple advert on its own but M & S have been very clever in their marketing this year. They’ve used #followthefairies and have really committed to their social media campaigns. Their two fairies have been undertaking random acts of kindness up and down the UK since the advert first aired. It’s been a joy to watch, not only on TV but also on Twitter as people get personal surprises and gifts. It just goes to show, you don’t need a celebrity endorsement when you have real people power to connect you with your customers.
(3) John Lewis “Monty the Penguin”
I’ve heard many people say that they were moved to tears with this amazingly sentimental and gentle advert. Sticking with the same type of sound as last year, they’ve stripped back a well-known song and reinvented it for Christmas, with the lyrics fitting perfectly with the non-dialogue montage of Sam and his penguin best friend.
What starts out as a fun advert the message of love begins to shine through, as Monty starts getting distracted by couples, old and young, around him sharing moments together. The moment where Mum and Dad find Sam playing with his toy penguins says all about the magic of Christmas: it does a great job of reminding us what we felt like when we were younger and shows the magic of Christmas for children today. Their tagline “give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of” is the perfect slogan and adding their #montythepenguin alongside the John Lewis logo ensures people will tweet and get Monty trending.
(4) Tesco “Light’s On”
Tesco haven’t gone for a traditional foodie advert this year, instead opting for another uniting theme: twinkling Christmas lights. With Tesco’s current financial troubles, it may be best that they’re focussing on something away from the shop floor this year. Instead Tesco highlights what many of us consider the real start of Christmas, when the decorations come out of the loft and go up in the house.
Clever montages are abound: those which are obvious (in store) and those not so much (home delivery at a house in full festive decoration swing). The music builds to a crescendo and we see the lights flicked on and the huge light display that Tesco have put on for us. With an addition of “Every little helps make Christmas” Tesco show customers their values are the same and as strong as ever, a good message to send to their shoppers in light of recent events. The reasoning behind this ad is shown it this short film on youtube, showing that Tesco listen to their customers and are prepared to put mistakes right.
Have you enjoyed the Christmas adverts this year? Do you think companies are starting to think outside the box and tie in better social media campaigns? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If have any ideas for digital marketing but don’t know the next steps to take, get in touch to find out what I, as a social media marketing specialist, can offer you.
Many thanks and Christmas wishes to all who have read my blog, commented on my posts and shared ideas and thoughts with me over 2014.
Check back on new year’s eve to find out my new year’s resolutions for 2015!
