We are here again, it’s that magical time of year and Christmas is almost upon us once again.
With the dangerous hunting of the strawberry Roses between loved ones, eating too many Twiglets, or drinking Snowballs until you sink. The festive season can also be a time to look back on the year and to be thankful.
This time of year, although beautiful with crisp winter mornings and Christmas lights is an emotional time for many. It’s without a doubt year on year brands look to tap into the magic, profit and build amazing brand report. Many brands try to succeed at hitting your emotions and unfortunately fail, but we have seen some amazing festive marketing campaigns that play perfectly into this special time of year. Here are Honest London’s top three.
IKEA proves Maria Carey to be spot on
It’s been over 20 years since Mariah Carey released her festive belter ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You,’ but it seems the message is as true today as ever before. Just ask our Swedish pals, IKEA.
The ‘wonderful everyday’ Scandinavian furniture chain asked a group of Spanish young children to write down their Christmas gift wishes to the Three Kings which provided the standard answers of toys. But Ikea also asked the adorable youngsters to each write a second letter to their parents.
We watch on as the parents read the letters aloud from their children with tears in their eyes, a theme quickly emerged: time. The youngsters wanted to spend more time with their parents. Playing football. Being tickled. Having dinner together.
While we can all relate to searching frantically for that perfect present to put under the Christmas tree (Jingle All The Way style), IKEA’s moving marketing campaign serves as a humble reminder that sometimes the best gift we can give to others at this time of year is ourselves.
It seems marketing miracles do happen when we all collaborate as one. That’s the message (kinda) at the heart of WestJet’s ‘Christmas Miracle’ campaign, which saw a team of WestJet volunteers, spread across three Canadian airports, delivering festive surprises to more than 200 travellers.
It was produced wonderfully, with a live video featuring the man himself, Santa, asking customers what they’d like for Christmas while they waited to board their flight. The wishes came in all shapes and sizes – from big electronics to a pair of socks.
We follow the passenger's journey after making their Christmas wish to baggage collection at the end of their flight, their brilliantly confused faces were a treat to watch as named wrapped gifts released onto the baggage ‘festive’ carousel, the very gifts that they had mentioned in passing to Santa earlier.
It’s a brilliant marketing experiment from the airline, which would have taken months of planning and hard work to make Christmas wishes come true and to deliver an unforgettable brand experience for all involved.
Air Canada bringing friends and family home for Christmas
The Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden, London (One of our favourites) is where Canadians will regularly gather for a taste of home. Unfortunately many Canadian’s are unable to make the journey back for Christmas for financial reasons. Air Canada didn’t want to let a little thing like money stand in the way of a good (marketing) story.
Representatives from the airline arrived at the Maple Leaf and spoke with festive drinkers in the pub to find out their plans for Christmas. They then followed that up with a very special announcement to all the Maple Leaf customers.
It was Christmas time, Air Canada wanted to, first of all, offer everyone present a round of drinks… So we thought, but they didn’t mean a round of drinks. Oh no. Instead, the airline offered round-trip tickets for every single customer to go back to Canada for Christmas to spend quality time with their family.
The generous gesture prompted emotional outpourings from many of those lucky enough to have chosen to be in The Maple Leaf on that particular festive evening. If you are wondering where we are this December, we’ll be hanging around the Maple Leaf hoping for a remake.