Top 6 Christmas Digital Campaigns
With Christmas just around the corner, what better time to check out some impressive digital Christmas campaigns?
Settle down with a mince pie and have a read of our top 6 Christmas Digital Campaigns!
1) John Lewis
I’m going to kick off with the most clichéd Christmas campaign, but it of course deserves a mention in any article about Christmas campaigns.
I think what makes John Lewis so special is the huge amount of anticipation that is seen across social media in the build-up to the Christmas advert being released. It’s fundamentally a television advert, but in recent years has been causing quite the stir online.
Within the first hour of 2016’s ‘Buster the boxer’ launch, the video had been shared 218,330 times on social media. According to Brandwatch, the campaign went live at 8am on the 9th November, and by 9.50am there were over 30,000 mentions of Buster, with 25,603 of the hashtag #BusterTheBoxer. 79% of tweets expressed happiness, and 14,500 people headed to social media to let everyone know that they had cried at the end of the ad. Pass me the tissues!
2) LIDL
LIDL have been seriously bossing social media as of late, and this campaign from 2015 included! Lidl created the ‘#SchoolofChristmas campaign’, which featured a selection of different cooking tips & tricks to help make Christmas day a little smoother. What was quite nice about his campaign was that the ad itself was launched on social media, and TV came later – which is unusual for a large Christmas campaign. Lidl also created sponsored content, sharing more tips, which was seeded out on various platforms, including Mumsnet.
3) Paperchase
Paperchase focused on one audience for their 2016 Christmas campaign – millennials!
And what better way to resonate with a young audience than launching a parody rap song…festive, eh?
The song features Paperchase products and gifts, but frames them in a shareable and funny way, featuring lines including “what you need bro, is a pencil case”.
When the campaign launched, Paperchase also responded to engagements on the post with a London slang and in a way that reflected the tone of voice in the video. The video itself was created and crafted purely for social media, with the shareable aspect of this campaign making it a huge success garnering over 500,000 views in just 4 weeks!
4) Gourmet burger kitchen
Burgers aren’t something you’d usually associate with the festive season, However in 2015 Gourmet Burger Kitchen got in on the action with a Christmas giveaway so good, your baubles might fall off..
Over the past few years, Christmas jumpers have taken over the internet, with countless selfies of lightup rudolphs and candy cane pullovers gracing Instagram feeds. Gourmet Burger Kitchen embraced the trend and created their own ‘Bah Humburger’ Christmas jumpers. People could claim a limited edition jumper by making sure they were one of the first 50 people to buy a burger from the Soho branch of GBK.
This mini-campaign did three things for GBK. Firstly, who doesn’t want a burger? People were tagging their friends and colleagues in the post which no-doubt saw engagement levels on the post rise. Secondly, hosting a giveaway like this means you can count on the extra custom. Extra feet stumbling into the restaurant equals more burgers ordered. Finally, whoever actually claimed the jumpers technically turn into a walking ad for GBK. Winners all round.
5) Boots
Campaigns that tug on your heartstrings are my favourite types of campaigns. And Boots UK did just that with the #SpecialBecause 2015 Christmas campaign. Boots had asked people to nominate those who were special in their lives, using the #SpecialBecause hashtag. From here, they created 3 beautifully crafted 60 second adverts and an integrated campaign across TV, print & social.
I think what’s lovely about this campaign is that it didn’t focus on the bright lights & cheesiness we usually see in Christmas campaigns. Yes, the ad was sentimental (it’s impossible for a British brand to create a Christmas ad without being so), but its subtlety is what makes it so great.
6) Ted Baker
Ted Baker merged their in-store Christmas activity with a digital activation involving customers in-store hunting down the elves which had gone missing – however customers can help find them with the hashtag #TedsElfie.
The game was based on Instagram and was made up of 36 Instagram accounts – the elves could have been hiding in any of them. Ted Baker then used their social channels to announce the winners of the competition. The campaign resulted in high engagement levels on Instagram – with over 14,500 competition entries and also increased footfall in their stores over the festive period.
What do you think makes for a great Christmas campaign? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
By Ruby Lowe