Christmas is a great time to get creative with your marketing! At the Bold Craft Marketing office, we’ve put together some of our favourite Christmas campaigns in a list we’re calling “The 12 Days of Christmas Campaigns”.
Today our love goes out to the coolest carrot around – KEVIN! Aldi first introduced us to Kevin the Carrot back in 2016 and since then he’s starred in some iconic Christmas ads by remaking some of our favourite movies! We thought it couldn’t get any better than “I see dead parsnips” but we were wrong – this year’s Home Alone Tribute is car-reat!! 🥕 😂 🙌
Aldi has also gone on to sell thousands of Kevin the Carrot toys over the years providing entertainment to all! Take a look for yourself – the hashtag #KevinTheCarrot has 33.6K mentions on Instagram alone!
This year An Post pulled at our heartstrings in their Tin Man advert! ❤️ An post highlighted the magic in sending love this Christmas with this emotive campaign – it had the perfect mix of nostalgia from an old classic movie and a catchy and effective tagline #SendLove
An Post’s idea behind the tin man ad campaign was to drive demand for stamps by elevating “the emotion that receiving a card can bring and in doing so inspire people to send post to those that matter most.” As well as a heart-filled message An Post ran a 12-day competition asking followers on social media to do various tasks such as; send a photo of their Christmas tree, their favourite Christmas cracker jokes & the last day to send post, using the hashtag #SendLove
Tell us a more iconic ad than the Christmas Coca-Cola truck?! #DidYouKnow the Holidays Are Coming ad has been on our screens since 1995?! 🎅🏻
Coca-Cola has been known to run this iconic ad with a new Christmas campaign for many years now, however, this year they are going back to their roots and focusing on #TheHolidaysAreComing. Coca-Cola brings this iconic ad to life in an interactive way by touring the world with their famous Coca-Cola Christmas truck, You can find hundreds of selfies with the famous truck using the hashtag #ChristmasFindsItsWay and #YourPresenceIsYourPresent
Our beloved Kellogg’s Cornflakes ad first aired in 1991 featuring three children who opted for the “unorthodox” approach of leaving a bowl of cereal out for old St Nick. The children fall asleep until Santa’s sleigh bells awaken the youngest little girl. Santa buys her silence by offering her his cornflakes. She and Santa then share the bowl of cereal, making sure they stay quiet so as not to awaken the rest of her family.
We absolutely love this iconic ad as we all can relate to staying up late to catch a glimpse of the main man himself! 🎅🏻
When it came to picking a John Lewis ad to highlight there were just too many to choose from! From the Bear & the Heir, Moz the Monster and the Man in the Moon to this year’s heartwarming campaign to raise awareness for children in care, John Lewis hits the mark every year!
But what’s their secret? John Lewis has been making Christmas ads for years however it was only once they moved away from selling products and started to tell us a captivating story paired with emotive music that they found their winning streak!
Who remembers Iceland’s controversial Christmas advert?
In 2018 Iceland ran a Christmas campaign around choosing a Christmas without palm oil and struck a deal with Greenpeace to rebadge an animated short film featuring an orangutan and the destruction of its rainforest habitat at the hands of palm-oil growers. Ending with an emotive dedication to “the 25 orangutans we lose every day”.
Unfortunately, the tear-jerking advert was banned in the UK for breach of rules banning political advertising as laid down by the 2003 Communications Act. However, the campaign blew up on social media with 3.7 million views on YouTube and millions of shares across social media platforms.
So the question is: Can you ever be too controversial in marketing?
In 2014 Sainsbury’s gave us an emotional history lesson to remember in their 1914 Christmas Campaign depicting the first world war truce on Christmas Day. The campaign was in partnership with the supermarket’s charity partner Royal British Legion. Charles Byrne, director of fundraising, was quoted discussing the intent behind the Christmas campaign: “One hundred years on from the 1914 Christmas truce, the campaign remembers the fallen, while helping to raise vital funds to support the future of living.”
However, not everyone agreed. The Ofcom subsequently received almost 25,000 complaints about politics and racism within the advert.
We have to commend the Sainsburys for this historic and moving marketing campaign 👏🏻
In 2014 Marks & Spencer ditched the celebrity ad cameos and instead brought their ‘Follow the Fairies’ advert to life by performing random acts of kindness across the UK 🧚🏻♀️
M&S created a series of small unbranded events such as creating real snow outside a primary school in Cornwall, giving gifts to night shift workers and creating fairies made of lights above Newcastle’s Tyne Bridge. These random acts of kindness were linked to the Twitter hashtags #followthefairies and @thetwofairies rather than the brand itself, focusing on spreading the Christmas spirit to their customers.
At Bold Craft Marketing we love a UGC-based campaign – there is no better person to spread the message about your business than your customers! Marks & Spencers hit the mark with this Christmas Campaign!
McDonalds done it again and made us cry! This year’s Christmas advert The List was created by The King’s Speech director Tom Hopper and it is good! The ad tells the story of a young boy named Alfie who gets very excited writing his Christmas list that gets as long as his house. Unfortunately, Alfie’s list gets blown away by the wind, after being consoled by his family at McDonalds Alfie reveals the only part of his list that we have able to hang onto – a drawing of his family ❤️
The List not only made us cry but many people took to Twitter saying they were also teary-eyed over Alfie’s story under Mcdonald’s Christmas hashtag #ReinderReady
McDonald’s does not only give us a heartwarming story but paired it with a beautiful cover of Only You by Beck Hill to set off the waterworks! In this collaboration with Becky, they will be giving 10p to Children in Need every time the song is downloaded.
Every year Brown Thomas makes an impact with its beautiful Christmas window display. This year Irish aeronautical engineer, Norah Patten unveiled the iconic Christmas window theme of “Out of this World”.
The Out of this World campaign was inspired by many intergalactic things from Georges Méliès iconic 1920s film a Trip to the Moon to the glittering runways of Gucci and the work of Baz Luhrmann, Tim Burton and David Bowie. The Head of Creative, Conor Dunbar said that “this year Christmas is all about a renewed sense of discovery, we want to bring you to a world beyond your imagination, a journey among the stars.”
Have you spotted the BT22 Robot in the Brown Thomas window?
The List not only made us cry but many people took to Twitter saying they were also teary-eyed over Alfie’s story under Mcdonald’s Christmas hashtag #ReinderReady
McDonald’s does not only give us a heartwarming story but paired it with a beautiful cover of Only You by Beck Hill to set off the waterworks! In this collaboration with Becky, they will be giving 10p to Children in Need every time the song is downloaded.
It’s been 11 years and we’re still in love with the Guinness Christmas Christmas campaign Dream of a White One.
Guinness’s concept for the advert was based on the idea of going to bed on Christmas eve hoping to wake up in the morning to a blanket of snow. This is the longest-running ad in Guinness history and we can see why. From showcasing iconic Irish landmarks to small towns and villages paired with music that was produced specially for the advert by composer Kevin Sargent, giving us a real sense of community.
What better Christmas campaign to finish our list on than lighting up the way for Santa on Christmas Eve with Dunne Stores 🎅🏼
Dunne Stores embraced storytelling in their heart-warming 2018 Christmas campaign and it has graced our screens ever since. Drawing inspiration from movies such as ET, Home Alone and The Goonies, the supermarket told the story of how a bunch of children come together to gather Christmas lights to make sure Santa can’t miss their town. The music in the ad was specially composed by Stephen McKeon and recorded with a 62-piece orchestra.
Viewers loved the storytelling aspect with many people commenting on social media that it brought a tear to their eye and loved how it was filmed in Kilkenny.