To use a phrase that has been used more often than I’ve had mince pies, 2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenges and whilst this time of year heralds the start of the festive season, thanks to the incoming wave of advertising, it is undeniable that Christmas as we know it is going to be very different.
Typically, advertisers have their Christmas
campaigns in the bag by early September, but in an ever-changing environment,
the need for agility has been paramount. Tonality is key for any promotional
campaign to land well. Understanding what matters to your audience and crafting
communications and messages accordingly is an art, but when so many have been
affected by the pandemic, and with a plethora of concerns as we continue on in
lockdown 2.0, this is a complex challenge.
For the impending season’s advertising approaches,
my prediction is that retailers will either walk the fine line between
acknowledging the context of Christmas this year and taking the usual
heart-warming approach to storytelling, or they will depart current reality all
together and send us into a different time and place.
And it seems that this is already being realised by the few offerings that have been released thus far.
Coca Cola has stuck to having Santa at the heart of
their advertising story, albeit after one Dad's epic journey to get his letter to the man in red for his daughter, Disney takes us on a nostalgic journey through a
girl’s childhood, punctuated by receiving a Mickey Mouse toy (the ad has had over 1.3m views in just five days), and Aldi presses
on with the adventures of Kevin, in an escapist tale of one carrot’s epic
journey home.
Other retailers first out the gate with a festive ad include Amazon and TK Maxx, both of which address that situation indirectly by using ‘the show must go on’ and ‘we know it’s been a hard year’ messaging to acknowledge the obvious, without having to dwell any further. Retailers have products to sell, after all, and depressing one’s audience isn’t going to do see things flying off the (virtual) shelves.
M&S has refocused its festive promotional campaign on its
food, with the help of nine celebrity friends, Very has highlighted the clichés
of Christmas, both good and bad, to raise a smile and Asda has continued using its
real-life family, introduced earlier in the summer, to keep a relatively upbeat
tone. As dad Sunny puts it, "I guess
Christmas is going to be different this year, so let's really make the most of
it. The parties might be smaller, but we can still have great food and we can
still party."
Well, you said it Sunny! Other retailers are yet to reveal their
offerings to the gods of Christmas retail, and of course, the usual star of
them all, John Lewis, is the one we are all waiting for. They’ve signalled that
this year will see an understandable step-change but I am sure their treatment
will be as heart-wrenching / warming as ever. Looking back at their
back-catalogue for Christmas characters and stories told, almost any of them
could run again this year without the need for change, but the central message
will need some consideration, when you consider how so many will not have the
opportunity to have their loved ones near or so many presents under the tree.
Twitter: @KellyinPR / Website: kellyohanlonpr.co.uk
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