Our top ‘Must See’ Christmas Comms Videos
There are of course plenty of companies making the most of the Christmas season to promote their wares and increase their brand visibility.
This blog showcases a few that we think are worth watching. They and may even inform considerations for your own comms strategy in December next year ( if so; diarise revisiting this blog in July!)
EE – Nick Saint Distribution
A firm favourite of ours.
We like the way that the treatment is true to EE’s regular customer case studies: Great casting and execution.
Two years on, we feel it was worthy of more views given the quality of the piece. A helpful reminder maybe of the importance of the promotion and distribution strategy being part of the film’s production brief. ‘Stick it on youtube’ is never enough alone. Enjoy…
Sainsbury’s – Christmas 2014
The best UK Supermarket TV ad of 2014.
Successfully identifying and harnessing the public mood in the centenary anniversary of one of the biggest battles mankind has ever witnessed. When you put it like that – it makes other Christmas commercials look out of touch with public sentiment! The tragedy and humanity of the events depicted made the ‘Christmas message’ of this film chime with great significance. An example of getting it right at every level!
Expedia – Santa Flies Coach
This film is here as an example of not quite getting it right; and for that reason is a ‘must see’.
The ingredients are all there – Father Christmas, a travel company (working in an industry aligned with Santa’s own service area; which should allow for a playful script), the emotive ingredient of Father Christmas meeting very sick children so to deliver their presents and congratulate their bravery in the face of terrible personal adversity.
It’s all there – So why is it not amazing!?
We suspect it is a case of ‘film production by committee’, too many stakeholders demanding that too much went in to the film, presumably to ensure that all their corporate messages were hit, holding on to fairly average footage in the edit, feeling that it could not be lost; trust us it should have! Editing is painful; you learn on day one of the job that the footage you worked hard to achieve on location now has to be thrown away unless it can fully justify it’s existence in the timeline; every shot, every transition, every effect must be ‘defensible’.
It’s far too long.
The sick children (the component that saves this film from being completely pointless) are not even featured until the viewer has suffered 2 minutes of Santa clocking up a hideous 19,602 miles over seven days.. If Santa had considered his carbon footprint for a moment and the likely impact it will have on his own North Pole, he may have taken the reindeer and sleigh instead.
During this epic journey the script lacks any development; Santa fumbles through every scene with a ‘ho ho’ that quickly becomes very tiresome.
Most online viewers will click away from a film during the first 5 seconds, so if there’s a reason for them to keep watching – tell them in the first 4 seconds why they should stick with you!
Christmas Starts with Christ
A very short advert produced by a collaboration of church and Christian partners, who have come together to use digital media channels to remind people of the very first Christmas when Christmas couldn’t have been any less glamorous, branded, materialistic or commercial!
In an age of abstract Christmas narratives, where fairies, penguins and the man on the moon are celebrated instead, we found it a breath of fresh air to be brought back to a ‘down and dirty’, cold and muddy enactment of the first Christmas, where there is nothing, and yet there is hope. It is one that is much more in line with the Christmas that many people around the world will experience this year. Good effort!
WestJet – Spirit Of Giving
An airline PR stunt, designed from start to finish to be captured and the story told on camera.You’d be daft to do it any other way these days right?
It’s a pretty good piece with a significant budget to cover the production model. What’s interesting is the evolution of their Christmas filmsover the years.
In 2014 a South American village was treated to the gifts they wanted from Santa.
In 2013 it was North American travellers who were surprised with the gifts they wanted when they got off a WestJet flight (view here).
We noted last year that although the film felt ‘magical’, it frankly took the edge off of the magic to see very wealthy westerners being shamelessly showered with more ‘stuff’, in a way that they clearly didn’t need (Air Canada did a better job last year with this). It made the emotion expressed when yet another huge TV rolled in to luggage claim area feel superficial and slightly vulgar. No surprise then that last year WestJet evolved their brief and selected a slightly poorer community of people, some of whom had material needs.
This could be taken so much further of course, and a daring agency would do so; but it’s a step in the right direction and has resulted in a more convincing piece second time round. What will they do in 2015
Liquona Actually
We can’t pass comment on this film – it was made by us as a thank you to our clients and supporters and frankly it was a lot of fun to make.
Parody laws were relaxed in 2014, allowingΒ us to play with copyrighted material in this way, as long as it is not for direct commercial gain. Suddenly a whole new world of opportunities opens up atΒ Christmas people!
Happy Christmas
The Liquona Team.