Christmas adverts

Christmas is considered a time to spend time with family and enjoy yourself. Within the decade, hype has been created by organisations to commercialise Christmas and some people aren't happy. However, one of the reasons why people look forward to Christmas is... adverts. People get so excited for the latest John Lewis advert. In 2012 John Lewis released their first mainstream Christmas advert "The Journey", which gained 7 million YouTube views alone. Since then they have gained over 100 million YouTube views with the recent Elton John Christmas advert achieving 1.6 million views in under 10 hours. These number shows the hype that consumers have for for Christmas adverts.

It's strange, no one would ever get so excited for an ordinary advert in the summer but because it reminds them that Christmas is nearby, most consumers feel excited and hyped because Christmas is a time for enjoyment. Other companies started to join in the hype of these adverts to gain massive awareness, like; Sainsbury's, Coca Cola, Debenhams etc.

Unlike adverts using traditional media methods like; billboards, buses, Tv etc. Christmas adverts are able to be shared around social media and are interacted with. As a twitter user, i have found many memes/content surrounding the Sainsbury advert. Because it's relatable and fun to mess about with consumers become more aware of a certain company because people they follow people/influencers on social media showcase it.

When i did a qualitative survey amongst 25 people at my University asking what 3 things they look forward to for Christmas, the common responses were; family, presents, snow, happiness. However, 17 people mentioned the yearly John Lewis Christmas adverts. This is incredible for a consumer to mention as it is commercial product and music to the ears for John Lewis.

Browsing the ITV HUB, they have a specialist time-slot for the John Lewis advert for their viewers. Nowhere else would have an advert headlining the app.

What have we learned?

In the future, i predict that many more companies jump on the bandwagon of Christmas adverts because of the seen success that companies have due to the ads. They will try and make the engagement with the target consumer as high as possible in order to get the most of of the ad/campaign.