November 1, 2024
The 7 Best Christmas Marketing Campaigns (of All-Time)
Now that everyone’s eyes have turned to Christmas after Halloween, getting prepared for all the gift-giving and gift-receiving they’re about to do becomes more important than anything.
The long shopping lists, the high spirits, the cold weather—all infused together to bring such a magical time to everyone involved. Although it’s a time for a lot of people to chill, it’s also a time for marketing specialists to ramp up their digital marketing efforts.
Some brands know exactly how to connect their product, services, and audiences to the magic of Christmas, and some never seem to find their groove. That’s why today we’re going to look at the 7 best Christmas marketing campaigns of all time so that, if you’re a marketer, you can take some inspiration from these incredible advertisements to increase customer engagement.
1) John Lewis Advert (Christmas 2013)
Although this was a long time ago, it still stands out as one of the most impactful and emotion-driven holiday marketing campaigns of all time. It’s a wonderful animation that shows a bear who needs to hibernate over the winter, missing the Christmas period, but is awoken to experience Christmas in all its glory with his friend the hare.
John Lewis has a clear goal of spreading love, togetherness, and festivity, once again putting a real emphasis on the magic that Christmas can bring to everyone, no matter their age.
From a marketing perspective, however, apparently, according to the Marketing Society, they have a revenue ROI (return on investment) of £25.68 with a profit ROI of £8.91. John Lewis always seems to do it big in retail!
2) Quality Street – Magic Moments (Christmas 1995)
You’d think that because the year is 1995, that it can’t be an extremely powerful Christmas campaign, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Even though it’s a short advert, it’s extremely powerful.
It shows the little boy returning to “Mr. Johnson’s” household over and over again. The first few times, the little boy brings nothing, but then on the last attempt, he brings the popular confectionary brand (Quality Street) to him, and the reaction is priceless.
It clearly shows that the magic of Christmas should be magical for those of all ages, and a time for spreading positivity and love.
3) M&S – With Love From Mrs Claus (Christmas 2016)
In this lovely, heartwarming advert, Mrs Claus receives a letter from a little boy called Jake, asking her for a favour. As it was something Santa Claus was unaware of, she had to take on the job herself and deliver the gift herself to their home.
Jake had an on-and-off relationship with his older sister, with them oftentimes fighting, and in the event of him letting the dog wreck his sister’s shoes, he asked if Mrs. Claus could bring a new pair for his Sister. On Christmas morning, there was a heartfelt and emotional moment where the Sister opened the present and thanked her brother with a big hug.
This holiday campaign just shows although they sometimes have an on-and-off relationship, that when it comes to Christmas, no matter what’s going on, everyone who’s close to you deserves a thoughtful gift. M&S did a wonderful job with this one and still remains some of the TV viewers’ favourite Christmas ads of all time.
With over 10 million views on YouTube, and driving positive growth (compared to lacklustre performance from the previous 6 years) for Christmas merchandise sales— a full 8.1% better than the previous year—it’s fair to say that this was a success among the masses. In fact, M&S even carried out 15,000 acts of kindness over Christmas for customers to show everyone that Christmas is for everyone!
4) Heathrow Airport – Coming Home For Christmas (Christmas 2016)
Heathrow has specialised in bringing people home to see their loved ones for over 70 years, but this Christmas advert really touched the hearts of the masses. It shows supposed ‘teddy bears’ travelling back on a flight, collecting their baggage, and attaining small gifts along the way, until they finally get to the meeting point.
What were meant to be teddy bears were actually grandparents and their grandchildren came flying towards them with love, joy and compassion. With almost a quarter of a million people passing through Heathrow airport daily (increases during Christmas), they only received positive reviews from viewers watching on.
5) Liverpool ONE Christmas (Made by Guide Video)
Now, of course, this is slightly biased because it is one of our own but to see the Liverpool community come together like this and to capture every ounce of magic from the beautiful colours, the smiles on the children’s faces, the performances of talented actors, etc., gives everyone a sense of hope and togetherness during this festive season.
Rather than letting talking do the work, we let the visuals do that for us. Sometimes there’s no need for words, as emotions, expressions, and family time do the talking. This was an absolute pleasure to capture and thanks to our high-quality production team, we managed to make it almost impossible not to smile during the video.
6) McDonalds – Inner Child (Christmas 2020)
This incredibly emotional TV and social media marketing campaign shows a teenager spending the day with his Mum, finding it difficult to connect with Christmas the way he used to.
However, after his Mum tried again and again and again to help her teenage son reconnect, it was the McDonald’s drive-thru that gave him the spark. Taking him back to his childhood, he decided not to care anymore and connect with his inner child.
McDonald’s actually connected with FareShare in this advertisement, providing 1 million meals to families in need, along with some other bits, such as an audiobook, mobile games, and Christmas jumpers. It also has now over 2.4 million views on YouTube alone, and always finds a way to trend every Christmas!
7) Aldi – Kevin the Carrot (Christmas 2016 – Present)
Christmas marketing campaigns have not been the same without Kevin the Carrot each year, and since 2016, he’s been the mascot of Aldi’s marketing strategy during the holiday season.
Especially in the video above (which has 7.8 million views and counting on YouTube), Kevin the Carrot’s family feels as though Christmas cannot start until he’s home, and when Santa finds him all alone, he only has one goal but to return him to his family for Christmas.
Colm Meaney, the actor playing Santa, said, ‘This year has been incredibly challenging for everyone, but I hope that over the festive season people will be able to enjoy this special time with family and friends—and maybe the odd mince pie or turkey sandwich.’
This just puts an emphasis on how important Christmas is and the role that holiday shopping for food can play in the happiness of it all. The first ad helped Aldi see a 15.1% increase in sales and over 1 million new customers, meaning they had to keep the ball rolling each year with Kevin the Carrot!
In Closing Thoughts
What this shows you is that creativity, high-quality video production, and a great team of directors for social media campaigns, merged with the Christmas spirit, really can make Christmas a special time for all.
Now, if you’re a business owner and want to make an impact on your customers and clients at this time of the year, we’d love to help you out with your Christmas projects, replicating some of the feelings you’ve experienced watching these ads today.
Yes, Christmas is a great time to rest and enjoy family time, but why not try and increase your sales and revenue over the winter period with our video marketing services? We look forward to hearing about your plans!
Jay Hynd is a media professional with 25 years experience working in radio, TV and journalism. He launched The Guide Liverpool in 2015 and Guide Video in 2023 and heads up a team of ten within the businesses. Jay is also an event host fronting shows like Eurovision in Liverpool, Pride, LIMF and more.