We look back at some of the most fun, savvy and colourful Christmas marketing campaigns we’ve seen this year…
Boots
Boots launched an all-encompassing social media campaign that spanned Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Google Plus, with dedicated content for each platform. Eye catching individual offers were posted on Facebook and Twitter, and their Christmas TV advert offering was a tribute to women who work through Christmas, with the tagline “the gift of beauty”. Perhaps most individual was their comprehensive catalogue of Pinterest boards, showcasing their products and categorising them under such helpful titles as “Stocking Fillers”, “Postable Gifts” and “Gifts for Teens”.
intu
The chain of shopping centres have a huge variety of offers, events and brands to promote across the festive period, and their website makes it incredibly easy for users to see what’s in store for them locally. With dedicated webpages for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals, the ability to browse shopping, eating and drinking options ahead of time, and a unique advert featuring an array of colourful bird puppets, intu have endeavoured to create a streamlined and efficient site to make Christmas shopping an enjoyable experience for the whole family.
John Lewis
The retail giant played up to its now well-anticipated perennial advert with the subtle release of teasers before the advert’s first airing. The short clip, posted by the twitter handle @bouncing2016, sparked anticipation well ahead of time, not to mention the A-Level film project that was widely mistaken for John Lewis’ ad campaign even earlier. Buster the Boxer became an immediate sensation on social media. A smart aesthetic is portrayed across the seasonal section of their website, which includes decorating tips and inspiration, a catalogue of gift ideas, and rankings of festive favourites.
H&M
The fashion retailer partnered with offbeat director Wes Anderson to produce the short film titled “Come Together”, staring Adrien Brody. Characters on a delayed train, dressed immaculately in H&M’s winter collection, come together for a makeshift Christmas celebration en-route. H&M’s website hosts the video with an “explore option”, which takes viewers on an immersive journey, revealing character quirks and providing links to the fashion pieces featured in the film. In addition, the shoot for the winter collection took place in the distinctive film set.
Lidl
Lidl took a particularly unique approach to the festive season. Rather than invest money in a heart-warming Christmas advert, Lidl disrupted the Christmas Retail status quo with their Social Price Drop. Each week, Twitter users could tweet to lower the price of a different festive favourite. The number of tweets received would correlate with the price reduction of Lidl’s lobster, Serrano Ham, or mini butter stollen. With such a high level of customer engagement, Lidl put the customer back in control of their Christmas shop.
Get in the festive spirit, tweet about our CHRISTMAS PUDDING and the price will drop! Full info here: https://t.co/wEtE7XZQfZ #LidlSurprises pic.twitter.com/MGZL9fXsdY
— Lidl UK (@LidlUK) December 12, 2016
NSPCC
The children’s charity is offering more ways than ever for people to get involved and donate this Christmas. The NSPCC’s “little stars” campaign offers consumers the chance to make a donation and in return name one of stars in the 2016 Oxford Street Christmas lights. A responsive website allows donors to pick and choose a star among the interactive streetscape, and also send a personalised message to their chosen “star”. The charity has also partnered with Argos and Lindt, who are sponsoring the “Letter from Santa” campaign. Generous donors can donate to receive a personalised “Letter from Santa”, or bid in the online “Dream Auction” for gifts that money can’t (usually) buy.
Premier Inn
Premier Inn have a dedicated “Christmas Breaks” section on their website, hosting lists of well-placed hotels for shopping centres and Christmas markets. They’ve also got details of their festive menus, party venues and a whole host of reasons to stay with them over the holiday season, all helpfully arranged on one, easy-to-find page.
Aldi
As Kevin the Carrot made an intrepid quest across an Aldi Christmas feast to meet Father Christmas, Aldi’s website was turned into a Christmas inspiration extravaganza. Partnering with a host of chefs, bespoke video content showing the creation of their seasonal products, and profiles of their suppliers and farmers, Aldi created a home-grown Christmas campaign with the persona of a luxury brand, but an Aldi price tag.
#KevinTheCarrot has stollen one of these for himself they’re so good! #KevinsPicks pic.twitter.com/PFXxtIdnxr
— Aldi Stores UK (@AldiUK) December 10, 2016
Lookfantastic.com
Cosmetics retailer lookfantastic, part of The Hut Group, have created a dedicated “Christmas Shop” on their website, guiding customers to a host of gift-ready products, offers and festive themed sets. There is also a spotlight section for the season’s top products, glamourous beauty tutorials, and products helpfully separated into categories like “stocking fillers”, a “wish list” and a page of exclusive Christmas offers.
Tesco Direct
With an easy-to-navigate Christmas site, and reassuring promises and clear guidelines on delivery, Clubcard points and returns, Tesco’s site has an efficient layout directing customers to easily view products by category, and easily linking wider search fields, like children’s gift ideas and kid’s pyjamas, or Christmas place settings and the latest grocery offers.
Merry Christmas from the Figaro Digital Team!