The Spirit of Christmas (Adverts) Lives On

In this digital age, brands can often focus greater attention on digital campaigns and content, e-commerce strategies and website user experience, rather than on traditional forms of advertising (like print, TV and radio). This has been especially the case this year, since the pandemic has meant that many brands have been forced to reduce their advertising spend and the notoriously expensive traditional forms of advertising are usually the first to go.

Despite this, Christmas adverts have remained a central focus of marketing strategies for many big brands and they aren’t just vital for the success of the businesses themselves, they also play a key role in getting people in the festive spirit ahead of the Christmas period. The disruption caused by the pandemic has meant that many people are looking for Christmas adverts to offer a moment of escapism in what has been a truly unpredictable year.

Advertising agencies normally start working on their briefs for Christmas adverts a year in advance of the release date and, as we all know too well, the world is a very different place this year compared to last Christmas. For this reason, there is a very big variety in the focus and tones of this year’s Christmas ads.

A recent poll that we carried out on LinkedIn suggests that John Lewis’ ‘Give A Little Love’, McDonald’s ‘Inner Child’ and Amazon’s ‘The Show Must Go On’ are a few examples of adverts that have triggered emotional responses from viewers. These adverts cover a range of themes: including community and giving back (John Lewis), Christmas spirit (McDonald’s) and, perhaps most relevant to this Christmas period, cancellations and adaptability (Amazon). This shows that there is truly no universal ‘one size fits all’ advertising strategy when it comes to portraying Christmas in the midst of a global pandemic.