Every year, unfortunately, the Christmas holiday advertising starts around Halloween and does not let up until Santa’s sleigh is overflowing. As much as it irritates me as a consumer, I do enjoy analyzing it all for creativity and effectiveness as a professional. While some holiday marketing is intended to simply make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the holidays and the brand, some are pretty hard sell. I enjoy the promotions that tend to be somewhere in between: “Feel warm and fuzzy about this great deal.”
Here’s a look back at some of my favorite campaigns that made my eyes sparkle with holiday merriment:
Coca-Cola. A holiday spin on their “Share a Coke” campaign. A great way to highlight the coolness of their personalized bottles with a great representation of another use/case for their product — a placeholder.
REI. Another shitty thing about consumerism over the holidays: Black Friday. Why anybody would use their time off for a day of moronic reveling in a shopping jungle is beyond me. REI’s campaign encourages you to go outside. To help inspire people for what to do with their day off, REI’s #OptOutside microsite featured hiking trails and adventure ideas. When the campaign was over, they sent this email thanking their members for opting to spend time outdoors and with friends and family, rather than shopping in stores and online.
Lagavulin Whiskey. Admit it, at least once over the years, you either downloaded or played a DVD of a looping yule log in the fireplace on your tv during the holidays. Lagavulin and Nick Offerman (actor/comedian, Parks, and Rec) filmed a video for the season. It’s 45 minutes straight of Offerman sitting in a leather chair next to a crackling fire … looking calmly at the camera while slowly partaking of his favorite libation. Not only is this hilarious the first time you watch and wait for what’s next (and it never comes), it’s a great conversation starter about the brand.
Mulberry. This one is for all of those outcries against the consumerism of Christmas and advocates for putting the “Christ” back in Christmas. What better way to focus on your product the entire spot than to celebrate it as a gift to all mankind? Enjoy this traditional Christmas Nativity story with a twist.
