Emotionally connected customers are more valuable, spending 70% more.* But beyond the festive period, emotion-driven campaigns yield better long-term returns than short-term rational campaigns (expanding share, reducing price sensitivity and growing profits, to name but a few*). So, let’s have a look at this year’s Christmas ads to see which brands are doing it well, and tapping into some of the core feelings we’re seeing with consumers.

*Sources: Binet + Field, IPA, 2008 + 2018

Embracing imperfection

Very few supermarkets and brands this year are going flashy and fabulous; instead it’s all about embracing the imperfect. Take Tesco’s, for example, where we see the very familiar and very relatable scenes of family squabbles, awkward neighbour encounters and the one person who always questions traditions.

Lidl’s ad looks beyond the materialistic and focuses on those small, everyday human moments at Christmas that we can all relate to: people being slightly less grumpy on the bus or kids getting away with things just because it’s Christmas. This reflects a real desire for something more authentic and grounded rather than a ‘perfect’ festive set-up.

This year has felt a lot more divisive and uncertain for a number of reasons, and as a result many consumers are planning ahead more and cutting down on their spending this Christmas. To align with their own experiences, they want to see something relatable rather than an unattainable ideal, reflecting a desire for realism over perfectionism. At Christmas, perhaps even more so this year, people are looking for a sense of connection, community, and belonging and brands like the above have responded to this, showcasing all the funny, often awkward, but relatable ways of coming together.

Humour as escapism

Humour and Christmas ads go hand-in-hand, and this year even more so. As consumers navigate economic uncertainty and continuous information overload, humour is an ever-reliable escape route. People are craving moments that let them disconnect and feel a sense of shared understanding, and you may have noticed that this year that humour has skewed towards wit and satire, rather than the absurd.

This type of humour is grounded in reality; it validates how people are feeling, recognising what’s difficult and what they’re struggling with. But it also laughs with them at the the world today and provides light relief without trivialising things. ASDA have used one of the most famous Christmas haters, The Grinch, to show that they understand people’s money concerns this year around the festive period. Amazon have also delivered a strong take on this angle, with Benedict Cumberbatch putting a ‘serious theatrical performance’ on funny customer reviews of their products.

Comfort and nostalgia

You might be thinking that some of the big Christmas ads this year seem very familiar, and that’s because a number of them are; brands are returning to well-known festive characters or ideas they’ve used in previous years, like Sainsbury’s opting for the return of the BFG, and Waitrose’s nods to Love Actually.

In my opinion, the most nostalgic ad so far has to be Wallace and Gromit for Barbour. It’s a funny, heartfelt, and playful ad (with a side joke that sometimes new tech isn’t always best). People look for comfort and stability during stressful times, so nostalgic throwbacks like these offer brands shortcuts to the feelings of hope, happiness and joy from our past. It’s part of a continuing nostalgia trend we’ve seen this year, and of course you can’t talk about it without mentioning the John Lewis 90s house classic ‘where Love lives’.

Final thoughts

Comfort, escapism, and relatability; these are the core qualities that consumers are looking for from their Christmas ads this year, and that’s what the most popular ads have delivered. Far from opting for generic ‘emotional’ campaigns, these brands are either connecting with customers’ real experiences, highlighting the perfect imperfections of Christmas, or giving them an all-important escape after a testing year with some comic comfort.

By having an understanding of what their customers are going through in their everyday lives, brands can build powerful emotional stories and authentic connections with them. That not only makes for some great Christmas ads but it’s more effective than rational brand claims, and messages especially over the long term.*