Which retail campaigns hit the right note and which need a rethink? Rebecca Thomson gets the views of two advertising experts and assesses social media reaction to some of this year’s Christmas ads.

John Lewis’ emotive The Bear & The Hare

From 50 minute films to entire ad breaks during The X Factor, the launch of retail’s Christmas ads gets bigger every year. Logan Wilmont, executive creative director at Cheil UK, and Richard Huntington, director of strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi, give their opinions on this year’s crop.

Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury's Christmas ad

The premise: Real families were asked to send in clips of their Christmases, which were edited into a 50 minute documentary entitled Christmas in a Day and a 3.5 minute trailer by Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald.

Huntington: I’m fascinated and intrigued by Sainsbury’s - it’s such a big, confident, powerful step to take. At one level I admire the grocer simply for the confidence to make an ad for 2013 effectively while it was making the ad for 2012. There’s a lot to love about it. I hope it’s going to work. But I’m worried because nobody’s watching it or sharing it. My fear is that it’s a fascinating content case study but I’m worried about its commercial impact.

Wilmont: The one that stood out was Sainsbury’s. It used real people, and conjured up emotions. It was fresh, the sort of stuff that advertising can’t fake. Social media is only one measure. The most TV-driven idea was John Lewis - the closest it got to being digital was when it used Twitter to publicise a TV idea. I think this will do as much sales for Sainsbury’s as The Bear & the Hare will do for John Lewis. It puts Sainsbury’s at the heart of the Christmas experience and it felt very genuine.

John Lewis

John Lewis Christmas advert 2013

The premise: A cartoon named The Bear & the Hare. The ad depicts the two animals’ friendship over the soundtrack of Lily Allen singing Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know.

Huntington: You’re foolish to try to copy John Lewis. It does it extremely well, throws a lot of money at it and it is an extremely confident brand. It is ruthlessly integrated - online, in-store, it’s all bound together. It has surpassed itself. I desperately wanted to hate it - I wasn’t going to succumb to the cloying smugness of the John Lewis brand - but it won me over. It’s utterly entrancing and captivating. I really admire it - hats off. There’s something about the relationship between agency [Adam & Eve DDB] and client, and John Lewis’ ability to continue the campaign in store, that is working.

Wilmont: Beautiful - very nicely executed and well handled.

Tesco

Tesco Christmas advert

The premise: The home-video filmed memories of a family over 50 years or so, Tesco’s offering differed from
Sainsbury’s by using actors rather than real people.

Huntington: Tesco has walked into an authenticity disaster zone. This year it seems to have lost its way. It’s too fake and too much like [2010 advert] Always a Woman by John Lewis, which has been done so many times now.

Wilmont: This was disappointing. It was so fake.

Marks & Spencer

M&S Christmas ad 2013

The premise: Supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley returns in a lush production, joined by male model David Gandy and actor Helena Bonham Carter, skipping through a series of scenes from fairy tales with the tagline Magic and Sparkle.

Wilmont: M&S’s ad felt very similar to Debenhams’. It had the same tonality, which seems to permeate everything.

There’s a formula. It is a very confident piece of work though. It is a massive production. I like the idea and it’s well executed. It’s romantic and glamorous and in that way it captures the spirit of Christmas.

But with John Lewis and Sainsbury’s I feel something - with this I just observe. I respect it and admire the production values but I don’t connect with it emotionally.

Huntington: This is a significant misstep from M&S after a powerful and confident autumn/winter campaign. It’s a couple of pointless models in an ad looking pretty. It seems extremely underwhelming considering the nature of the task it has got as a business, and given some of their more recent work. It should show us the confidence and imagination that it showed in the autumn/winter campaign, but it’s back to its old habits of throwing a supermodel at it. All eyes are on M&S and it deserves stronger work than this.

Morrisons

Morrisons Christmas ad

 

The premise: Ant and Dec enjoy a Christmas feast with a singing gingerbread man.

Wilmont: This is a safe play - celebrities, it’s snowing, there’s a gingerbread man - it’s cliché ridden. Our industry really struggles not to be cliché ridden at this time of year and handle emotions well. That’s why Sainsbury’s and John Lewis stand out - one generates emotions, the other one captures emotions brilliantly. This feels
rather clunky.

Huntington: If you look at the advertising this Christmas you can smell the confident and less confident retailers. This is play-it-safe. Morrisons has aimed to please the loyalists and doesn’t want to upset anyone.

Debenhams

Debenhams Christmas 2013

 

The premise: A glossy walk through different Christmas situations displaying Debenhams’ wares.

Huntington: The Debenhams ad does a great job of strutting the fashion credentials of the brand and positioning it as somewhere special to shop this Christmas. But no matter how many impossibly good-looking models it
has thrown at the ad, it still lacks the sort of bite - whether in terms of insight or execution - that would help it stand out in the Christmas advertising crowd. Great in the board room, less powerful in the living room.

Argos

Argos Christmas ad 2013

The premise: Argos returns to its family of friendly aliens, who take us through a range of gift ideas.

Huntington: I don’t understand the aliens, I never have. It’s got many more views on YouTube than Sainsbury’s or Tesco have but nobody has shared it. It’s the sort of thing retailers push out there but it has no social value and is pretty standard stuff. It is just ‘here’s a selection of gift ideas from Argos with some gags about Christmas’.

Asda

Asda Christmas advert

The premise: Asda uses a group of snowmen to attack its rivals on price, highlighting its low prices in comparison to the other big supermarkets.

Wilmont: This is very functional. This is the toughest time of the year for advertising people - how do you drive business while delivering an emotional message? It’s a real challenge. You’re either trying too hard, or as in this case, it feels like it doesn’t have any emotion at all.

Huntington: It’s a significant change from last year [accusations of sexism were levelled at Asda after its ad focused on mums’ role in producing the perfect Christmas] and it won’t be attracting any complaints this time.

I like Asda more when it doesn’t play the game - it’s a different retailer and the more it stands aside the better.
I could say it’s a bit mean, at this time of joy and giving, that it’s still bashing the other supermarkets. If you are going to do ‘extra special’ you have got to make it feel special. You need to help people trade up. My worry is that nobody will notice this.

Waitrose

Waitrose Christmas ad 2013

The premise: This is Waitrose’s second Christmas ad, and it focuses on Waitrose farmer Jonathan Martin as he tends to turkeys on his farm.

Wilmont: This is very dull. It has a different ambition because it’s about preparation for Christmas. There is a message about quality, but it’s not a particularly quality piece of communication. I like that Waitrose introduces specialist Christmas dishes, but as advertising this isn’t great.

Aldi

Aldi Christmas ad

The premise: A pointedly varied group of Aldi shoppers tell us which products they enjoy.

Huntington: Everybody is impressed by their advertising. Aldi has an ability to focus on price comparison without denigrating the competition. This one isn’t as funny and as well observed as in the past - was this not the time to commemorate its achievements with a slightly bolder approach? It’s the first and only classless supermarket and it should be brimming with confidence. You can see why Aldi stuck with that campaign - it has done so much for it. But I would expect a little bit more.

Wilmont: I like the irreverent tone but it’s not brilliant. I do like how Aldi has kept consistency with its other marketing throughout the year. Many brands become schizophrenic at Christmas and play the Christmas game, rather than marketing their values. At least Aldi has stuck to its values.

Boots

Boots Christmas TV ad 2013

The premise: A teenage boy turns secret Santa, distributing gifts to his nearest and dearest.

Wilmont: I was a bit disappointed in this because I felt like it should have been better than it was. You could feel the client being heavy handed and this frustrated me - I expected more from Boots because its Here Come the Girls campaign was fantastic. I like the idea, as there’s something very sweet about the teenage boy as Santa, but it feels heavy handed.

Huntington: It’s a very strange piece of work. It has lost all of that magical insight about the way that women operate at Christmas that gave Boots such a good run with Here Come the Girls, which gave Boots a real personality. There’s no joy and it’s not uplifting. Too much is ornamental and simply filling the air time. This is a highly competitive environment and you are up against brands that are putting a lot into their advertising.

Opportunity for creativity

While lots of effort has clearly gone into this year’s crop of ads, Huntington says the retail sector still has some work to do in terms of imaginative advertising. “The only two that have shown any imagination are Sainsbury’s and John Lewis. Everyone is making the same commercial,” he says.

Wilmont agrees: “The issue is a lot of them are identical. It’s almost a competition to tell them apart.”

Retail advertising has become a central part of Christmas for many - but there is still an opportunity to introduce more creativity into it.

Analysis: Retail Christmas adverts - sifting the crackers from the turkeys