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Holidays are coming: but the Coca-Cola truck is old news
The Sainsburys Christmas advert was unveiled last week but people are still reeling from John Lewis' festive instalment. The latest Christmas ad from John Lewis was an instant sensation; here Anton Dominique from London School of Marketing (LSM) looks at how the department store has made the festive season its own.
Within hours of its release online last Thursday, millions watched John Lewis’ latest Christmas commercial and fell under the marketing spell cast by a CGI penguin.
In recent years, the retailer’s Christmas advert has been such an anticipated event in the UK that some argue it marks the new start of the festive season - a torch that in previous years has been held by soft drinks giant Coca-Cola.
But how have John Lewis come to dominate this hugely competitive time in advertising?
Before the John Lewis advert gained its iconicity, Coca-Cola’s famous “Holidays are Coming” advertising campaign used to mark the unofficial start of Christmas.
A familiar sight on our TV screens at Christmas, the “Holidays are Coming” advert is rarely modified: the same fleet of twinkling red Coca-Cola trucks make their way across the same snowy landscape and lighting up the same town year after year since 1995.
But consistency has worked for the soft drinks company. They were one of the first companies to use an image of Santa Claus in their Christmas advertising way back in the 1920s – introducing the world to the idea of a red and white clad Father Christmas - and they haven’t looked back since.
Yet new Christmas advert leaders John Lewis choose to ignore Saint Nick in their festive campaigns and instead focus on the sentimental side of the season.
With a new concept each year, John Lewis steers far away from Coca-Cola’s “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” policy, but there is an underlying aim to all of their adverts: to pull at heartstrings.
Instead of boasting about Christmas offers or glamourising the season, the department store tells a simple story in the space of a two-minute advert.
With taglines such as “Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of,” or “Give someone a Christmas they’ll never forget,” the John Lewis campaign reminds its customers of the true festive spirit - consumerism.
John Lewis’ Christmas adverts rarely include direct product placement, with 2013’s festive commercial being entirely animated and featuring only a simple alarm clock at the end of the advert.
Cleverly, the adverts themselves provide a whole line of products for John Lewis to sell, with this year’s lovable Monty the Penguin available to buy in cuddly toy form for a mere £95.
John Lewis’ presence on social media also contributes to its success. The department store’s advert hype begins before it’s even broadcasted with YouTube bracing itself for millions of hits and hashtags already trending on Twitter.
It is this anticipation and knowledge of their demographic, along with the quality of the advert that is produced each year by John Lewis that makes it the new leader in Christmas advertising campaigns.
By Anton Dominique from London School of Marketing (LSM)
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