Laura Mulcahy, Head of Culture Practice – TRA
The giant turkey on the table. Carols around the piano. Piles of presents under the tree.
The same backdrop has played in our minds through the canon of film, TV and Christmas ads. Everyone dressing their best, wearing smiles and sharing warm embraces with family and friends in a perfectly decorated festive home.
For years, we’ve become accustomed to the Hollywood fantasy. But, in reality, Christmas is messy and is different for everyone. We know this because we’ve seen it on social media, we’ve had front-row access to the un-curated messiness of other people’s real lives for the last decade plus. Which often means the shiny Christmas ads often don’t match the reality of the celebrations played out in homes across the nation.
Take Coca-Cola's recent, and controversial, AI-created Christmas ad. It firmly leans into nostalgia. For some, those twinkling lights and polar bears that are synonymous with Coca Cola’s brand only add to the magic. For the sceptics, grinches and realists among us, the Christmas polish doesn’t poke at the heartstrings. Critics argue the synthetic ad has lost its human-ness, emotion and real-life storytelling.
So, how can brands manage this contradiction? It’s a choice. Brands benefit from creative consistency, by continuing to bring out a reliable backlog of symbols and hard-won Christmas iconography each year. But if you don’t have that? There’s an opportunity to zig where others zag. Don’t compete with fairy tales, get real.
'Realism' can be just as engaging as ‘idealism’ when it comes to the holidays and engaging audiences. That doesn’t mean unpleasant – people still want brands to bring them moments of relief from the mundane. It’s about portraying a narrative that reminds us of our own Secret Santa bungles, awkward lunches and Cricket matches. It sits somewhere between ‘A Moody Christmas’ and ‘How To Make Gravy’. The stories of the connections, traditions and unique take on the holidays that we all have – without glossing over the unconventional.
So, what do real stories look like?
Good advertising is a truth well told. So, begin with identifying your brand's Christmas truths. Consider the role your brand plays, how you might bring about joy or what jobs you help people complete. Is your brand a stocking stuffer? Do you help get food on the table? Perhaps your product is much needed for the big post-celebration clean-up.
For every role, there’s a well-told, uncommon truth that sits alongside it. Think about the specific, those relatable emotions and moments that happen during the festive season. Is your brand being gifted? If so, who by – a colleague, a cousin? Perhaps your truth centres on buying a present for somebody you don't know well enough. Or captures that uneasy feeling of deciding what's appropriate to wear for the office Christmas party. Maybe it's the fear of burning the roast potatoes. Christmas has a long list of truths to tap into.
Real truths gain cut-through. They're memorable. JD Sports have been doing ‘different’ for a couple of years now, this year’s Christmas ad, ‘The Family Portrait’ shows the familiar get togethers of friends and family dressed in their Samba’s and Presto’s. The ad features an assortment of truths. Instead of an aesthetic fantasy world, snippets of family stories unfolding in everyday homes and public spaces are accompanied by powerful audio snippets that capture familiar family dynamics. From jokes over who gets the front car seat, to the quiet, unspoken moments with friends. Famous faces add to the sense of familiarity, although their usually glamorous lives are depicted in ways that are a lot grittier. It's imperfect. Both sad and happy. Not overly emotive, but very real.
Closer to home, take the 'Have a very grown – up Christmas' campaign that Motion Sickness created this year for Auckland's Heart of the City. Posters feature everyday adults sitting on Santa's lap with captions including lines such as "All I want for Christmas is a three-course lunch without the dishes." It raises a good point, the wish list for Santa doesn’t stop when you’re too big for a photo with the big guy. In fact, it gets longer, and a little more intangible.
Christmas ads don't have to be over the top fantastical or glossy to have an impact. There's an art to revealing the true, sometimes boring, reality of the silly season.
Because if there is one thing we have in common, it’s that Christmas is nothing like the movies.