5 Examples of Christmas advertising: awaken your imagination
Christmas advertisements should not only seek to convey a catchy message and a ground-breaking image to achieve the highest number of sales at the time of year when people are most open to spending their money. In addition, Christmas advertising should appeal to the innermost feelings of the target audience, as this is a very special time of the year when love, friendship and the feeling of missing those who are no longer with us are paramount.
Planning a good Christmas advertising campaign, therefore, is much more than just advertising. It is about communicating values, conveying that you are with people far more than trying to get them to invest their money in one brand or another. That is why, although there are many Christmas spots that we could highlight, we have chosen 5 of the ones that have reached us the most in recent years. Are you ready for a trip back in time that will not leave you indifferent?
The bald man of the Christmas Lottery
Let's start with one of the most legendary Christmas adverts in our country. And although the actor who brought it to life retired years ago, we all remember it as one of the most delightful shows of the Christmas season... everyone knows the 'bald man of the Lottery'!
This particular time traveller went through different Christmas scenes in black and white, in sepia tones and even in colour in his latest versions while a recognisable music played and ended up blowing on the palm of his hand and scattering the numbers of the most awaited lottery of the year.
At the end, a very attractive slogan: "Every Christmas, your dreams play the Lottery. May luck be with you".
Of course, since the retirement of the British Clive Arrindell, as he was called, we have continued to see great Lotería Nacional Christmas advertising campaigns, but those sensations that the organisation managed to awaken in us between 1998 and 2005 will be difficult to repeat.
Come home for Christmas, by El Almendro
And if the Christmas bald man kept us glued to the television for almost a decade, for even more years we have been listening to one of the most hummed songs of the Christmas season, that of the Christmas advertisement for turrones El Almendro and its "Vuelve a casa por Navidad" (Go home for Christmas).
Playing with the double meaning that the brand sells a seasonal product that returns to homes at Christmas time, the company always shows us mothers welcoming their children after months away from home and relatives meeting again after a whole year without seeing each other.
And if you have a very small window in which to sell your products, appealing to the most basic sentiments of the Christmas season seems the smart thing to do. There may be nougats that are tastier or cheaper, but El Almendro is the one that comes home for Christmas and there is no one who doubts that.
I think my dad is an Elf, from El Corte Inglés
The Christmas advertising of these shopping centres was so popular that we were able to see several other versions, although the first of all was the mythical "I think my father is an Elf (yes he is, yes he is!), he is an Elf!
Even though we adults know perfectly well who leaves the presents under the tree, making the parents the protagonists ahead of Father Christmas or the Three Wise Men with such a catchy song was a great idea. After all, who are the ones who have to order the presents? Well, that's just it!
We have to see more of each other, by Ruavieja
And now we get to the part of the post where we get sensitive, although what Christmas advertising article would we be writing if we didn't shed a few tears?
Ruavieja, a brand of spirits, decided to throw a dart straight into our hearts: how much time do we think we have left with the people we love the most?
With this experiment and their "We have to see each other more", this company not only managed to sell us their product, but also to consolidate themselves as one of the most Christmas-like companies on the national scene, as since then we can't stop waiting to see what they surprise us with.
Ruavieja 2018 advert - We need to see more of each other
Life is what happens between Christmas and Christmas, by Suchard
Finally, it's the turn of Suchard, a brand that has probably made the best advertising campaign of 2023.
Once again, far from just telling us how delicious its turrones are, or how many years it has been making them, the company decided to tell us a Christmas story in just a minute and a half of footage.
In it, we see an elderly couple wondering if they have done well in life and we take a journey back in time with them and their large family to the moment when they themselves started it with the pregnancy of their first child. Their slogan, a twist that reminds us of how important their product has always been in our homes, "Life is what happens between Christmas and Christmas".
Outside are Christmas advertising classics such as the Freixenet ads and its bubbles, the polar bears and Coca-Cola's Father Christmas, Isabel Preysler's Ferrero Rocher pyramids or the girl who never found him, but has never stopped looking for Jacq's.
We are sure that all these examples will help our students of the Official Degree in Advertising and Brand Creation in Madrid to get an idea of how important it is to go a step further in the world of Christmas advertising and innovate, but without leaving aside some classic elements that are non-negotiable at this special time of the year.