IT’S. HERE. The most wonderful fiscal quarter of the year! Santa is driving a Mercedez-Benz, Amazon boxes are singing carols, M&M’s are making Santa faint. All sorts of companies across all markets are squabbling to get their slice of the Christmas sales.
And with that squabble, we are inundated with bold red letters, flash sales, deals that change daily, and a metric crap-ton of Christmas cheer.
Then, there’s the constant pressure. Pressure to buy the right gift at the right price for the right person.
Guys, it’s a lot.
So, what breaks that mold? What makes one holiday ad stand out from the rest?
Here are three examples from 2017 that manage to do both:
1) Macy’s
Tugging at the heartstrings always makes a lasting impression, which Macy’s does in this ad.
It doesn’t focus on sales or an actual product. It focuses on the simple action of gift-giving, on the people who are giving the gift, and on a relationship between mother and son.
2) Amazon
Pure unbridled joy also cuts through the barrage of deals and discounts, which Amazon does with their aforementioned singing boxes.
Here, Amazon doesn’t focus on the things they sell, but rather on what it feels like to receive what they sell. Also, adorable singing boxes. Which I feel like are self-explanatory for why this ad works.
3) Spotify
When all else fails, make a joke – or multiple jokes – across an entire city. Like this:
Spotify used their own customer data to create outdoor ads to go along with their year-end campaign, 2017wrapped.com, which gives customers a year in review of their listening habits. We all tend to reflect at the end of the year, and Spotify turned that data into biting ads that have already been duplicated.
Bottom line: Holiday advertising can feel like an onslaught of red, green and sparkles. But for those who have figured out how to cut through it all with actual feelings, the holidays get back to their heartfelt roots.
