So here it is, Merry Xmas. The festive period brings with it some of the most anticipated ads of the year, and 2024 is no exception. At least, not if you work in PR, Marketing or retail trade media. Like it or not, festive advertising discourse is \u2018a thing\u2019 \u2013 so here is our take on 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firstly, the big question for grandparents everywhere: is it really \u201cgetting earlier every year\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our analysis reveals a sharp spike in online discussions and searches for festive adverts in early November, aligning with their initial release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s all about the buildup<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n This anticipation is a very British phenomenon, with 27,000 social mentions of Christmas ads generated by the UK, compared to only 5,000 mentions in the same period from the USA. This enthusiasm, however, is fleeting. Social mentions plateau by mid-November, with only a handful of the most memorable campaigns sticking in public consciousness. John Lewis is still dominating the Christmas ads discourse with the release of its advert spiking mentions by 220% right after the mid-November plateau, but again this is not sustained with mentions dropping sharply only a day or two later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This all suggests that the anticipation \u2013 the teasers, the speculation \u2013 plays a larger role in the collective experience than the ads themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some brands are trying to counteract this attention deficit through experimentation. Waitrose chose an episodic format for its ads, developing a whodunnit-style mystery theme which unfolded over several star-studded iterations \u2013 leading to a more sustained level of social mentions than John Lewis. Mentions of Waitrose\u2019 ads saw two notable peaks that levelled higher than pre-advert launch while mentions of John Lewis\u2019 adverts only saw a single, sharp rise and fall in the few days around the advert\u2019s release. With audiences now more time poor and less willing to give attention to individual executions, making them part of a wider campaign arc that rewards engagement is a clever way to build brand engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SAD(vertising)!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a(nother) particularly turbulent year, brands have had to make some tough decisions about their creative direction. We\u2019ve come to expect festive campaigns to communicate an ideological purpose in an engaging and emotive way. From John Lewis using its Christmas spot to talk about loneliness among older people, in partnership with Age UK, to Sainsbury\u2019s reminding viewers of the Christmas Day truce during WW1, raising money for the Royal British Legion, recent ads have seemed to focus as much on empathy for specific community groups as they have on products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not this year. Brands have moved away from a \u2018purposeful earnestness\u2019 and instead focused more universal topics like generosity and family. Crucially, there\u2019s also been a focus on entertainment \u2013 with audiences seemingly tired of \u201csadvertising\u201d <\/em>and looking to escapism more than ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back to the good old days?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n How is that trend for escapism presenting itself? Firstly, through nostalgia. Sainsbury\u2019s incorporating The BFG into its festive campaign seeks to connect us with memories from our youth, whilst John Lewis\u2019 focus on the shared memories between two sisters is another tug at the heartstrings. With such a fractious year full of division and instability, these ads seem to reflect a want to sooth and be soothed. A need for comfort and familiar faces, whether that be beloved characters or tropes and trends we remember fondly from our childhoods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More practically, escapism means that many brands have not reinvented the wheel, instead choosing to leverage characters and campaigns that have been used before. Whether it\u2019s Aldi\u2019s Kevin the Carrot, Cadbury\u2019s Secret Santa, or the Coca-Cola truck\u2026familiar, nostalgic creatives have been the choice for many. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keeping it simple<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n What does this tell us about the future \u2013 and how communicators should position their organisations? Audiences are increasingly spread across myriad platforms and increasingly along ideological lines. With some notable exceptions, an overtly virtue-driven campaign may not land particularly well among some demographics, and instead focusing on simpler, more universal truths seems to be the route to success. Similarly, focusing on nostalgic, shared experiences is more likely to resonate among a wider audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also key to remember that people generally don\u2019t pay much attention to ads \u2013 and this extends to owned channel content \u2013 in general. If you want to stay top of mind with your audience, it\u2019s important to show up with multiple touchpoints, which is why we saw more sustained discussion with Waitrose\u2019s episodic content than others which had one large splash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So when those festive feelings float away, remember: multichannel, sustained campaigns that focus on deeper audience truths are for life, not just for Christmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So here it is, Merry Xmas. The festive period brings with it some of the most anticipated ads of the year, and 2024 is no exception. At least, not if you work in PR, Marketing or retail trade media. 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