24 Dec The Top 5 Christmas Commercials of 2015

With deference to my friends of different (or no) faiths, there really is a lot to like about Christmas — from carolers singing to jingle bells ringing, and from last-minute shopping to Yule logs a-popping.

 

And the Ebernezer Scrooge’s of the world not withstanding, in general I believe that most people just seem to be happier at this time of year, with sounds of Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy Chanukah being shared almost everywhere.

 

So even though it seems that Christmas decorations are going up in stores, malls and shopping centers earlier and earlier each year — much to the chagrin of most reasonable souls — the reality is that wise marketers recognize that the end of the year is a fantastic time to create awesome marketing messages targeting customers and prospective customers alike, to strengthen connections with followers, to cut through the typical commercial clutter of the numbing humdrum that seems to overwhelm our senses each Holiday Season, and to use Christmas as an opportunity to stand apart from and above the crowd.

 

After hours and hours of research combing the interwebs, I now have come up with what I believe to be the Top 5 Christmas Commercials of 2015. And as a bonus, I’ve also identified what I am confident is the Best Marketing Campaign of Christmas 2015. So without further ado, let’s begin.

 

The 5th Best Commercial of Christmas 2015 (from Ferrero Rocher):

 

 

To be honest, I believe there are very few people living anywhere on this planet who have a treehouse as awesome-looking as the one highlighted in this commercial. But I sure WISH I had a treehouse like that one!

 

And that’s the point. This commercial is aspirational without being over-the-top about it. It is simply designed to make viewers WISH

 

• they had a treehouse like that,
• that they were invited to a Metro-cool party like the one featured in the commercial,

 

and then at the very end, it’s like

 

“Oh, it would be so FANTASTIC to be sinking my teeth into the buttery-soft insides of a Ferrero Rocher delicacy: This. Very. Second.”

 

And yes, they really are that good!

 

Good job, Ferrero Rocher.

 

The 4th Best Commercial of Christmas 2015 (from Apple):

 

 

Ever since I first heard those crisp horns leading into the words

 

“Baby, everything is alright. Uptight — outasight!”

 

I have LOVED Stevie Wonder’s music. And I suspect most music lovers LOVE Stevie’s music too. Naturally, the bright people at Apple know this too.

 

But what’s absolutely the best about this commercial is that Apple isn’t overtly selling anything. In fact, the commercial ends with the “Live” signing of the commercial — Love, Apple — just as if the company were sending each viewer an electronic love letter . . . the only difference is that in place of the word “Apple” they use a reversed-out, all-white version of the Apple logo.

 

Nicely done, Apple. Nicely done.

 

The 3rd Best Commercial of Christmas 2015 (from Coca-Cola):

 

 

In general, Coca-Cola does a good job in marketing — ALL aspects of marketing.

 

But when Coke stretches itself marketing-wise, you end up with a fun, feel-good piece like this commercial, one that also includes a surprise (or too), like this commercial.

 

I liked this commercial A LOT. So props to you, Coca-Cola. Well done.

 

However, I do have three questions, namely

 

Was this commercial all staged, or was it really a “Live” experiment, an experiential event (so to speak)? 

 

And if it was an experiential event, why not undertake several identical experiential events on the same day all over the globe? Wouldn’t that make this concept into a worldwide breakthrough day for Coke?

 

Just wonderin’.

 

The 2nd Best Commercial of Christmas 2015 (from Sainsbury — in the U.K.):

 

 

Short of taking a quick jaunt all over the world like jolly ol’ St. Nick, there’s really no way to stay on top of all Christmas/Holiday commercials. Thank goodness for the Internet!

 

Which is how I found the beautiful gift from the good folks at Sainsbury, the second largest grocery store chain in the United Kingdom.

 

Mog, the family pet in this wondrous fairy tale from Sainsbury, is both the unwitting protagonist and protagonist of this fairy tale set during Christmas in an English suburb. As such, the viewer is sucked into a seemingly unending litany of mishaps that Mog accidentally unleashes on his masters.

 

And yet, is it exactly because of these mishaps that Mog saves Nicky, Debbie and Mr. & Mrs. Thomas from almost sure disaster.

 

{In case you haven’t watched the commercial yet, I shan’t share any more lest I spoil the ending for you.}

 

In the end, I LOVED this commercial — A LOT! Good on ya’, Sainsbury.

 

The Best OVERALL Commercial of Christmas 2015 (from Duracell):

 

 

Everything about this commercial is perfect.

 

It begins with the familiar undertone of John Williams’ Star Wars theme as a young boy dashes into his bedroom and jumps onto his bed next to a toy lightsaber that lies waiting for him as he reaches for a package of Duracell batteries.  How fun!  😉

 

But if you take a few minutes dissect the commercial, the comprehensive attention to detail make it simply delicious. For example . . .

 

• There are Star Wars figurines arranged on the bookshelf in the bedroom and two Star Wars masks hanging on a bedroom wall, as well as a TIE Fighter model hanging from ceiling;
• Unbeknownst to the viewers, Star Wars droids C3PO and R2D2 are waiting for the boy in his room;
• Over C3PO’s shoulder viewers can see more Star Wars figurines and models displayed on another wall-shelf;
• In fact, upon closer inspection, there is Star Wars- and space-related stuff all over this kid’s room. (I. LOVE. IT.)
• Then there are Stormtroopers lurking in the upstairs hallway waiting to waylay the unsuspecting boy;
• After talking about his chances with both droids, our young hero’s lightsaber is magically transformed from plastic into metal capped with pulsating plasma stream — WOW!
• And then there’s the brief hallway skirmish with the Stormtroopers;
• Followed by the dash downstairs where he finds his parents assembling a 1/24th scale model of a Stormtrooper AT-AT Walker on the front room couch;
• And then his mother hands him another lightsaber and states, “Hurry! You’re our only hope.” LOLOL

 

The commercial continues on from there as the young Jedi teams up with his young sister to fight against what appears to be an entire Task Force of Empire evildoers, then closes with Duracell’s three-note, musical tagline along with the words:

 

“TRUSTED EVERYWHERE.”

 

The idea to combine Duracell powering a toy lightsaber to fuel the gameplay fantasy of a young boy and his sister and then combine it into a miniature film tied the biggest opening movie opening of all time, a worldwide event surrounding the cultural phenomenon known as Star Wars? Brilliant, simply brilliant!

 

Kudos to Duracell marketing team for envisioning and creating the No. 1 Christmas Commercial of 2015!!!

 

But wait; there’s more.

 

The Best Marketing Campaign of Christmas 2015 (from The Mormon Church):

 

If you didn’t know it, I’m a person of faith; a Christian to be more precise, and specifically, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be exact — a Mormon. I don’t hide the fact, but then again, I try not to shove it in people’s faces either.

 

I make mention of this only because I might be a bit biased on this last “Winner.” Then again, from most objective perspectives, the reality is that the Mormon Church has had a very comprehensive and evolved marketing campaign underway for more than a decade now. And the LDS Church’s “A Savior Is Born” campaign for Christmas 2015 is absolutely topnotch.

 

It began with a teaser campaign via social media and news media outreach around Thanksgiving in the U.S. (November 26) advising Mormons and others to look for the Church’s forthcoming campaign tied to Christmas 2015.

 

The month-long “A Savior Is Born” campaign then launched Sunday, November 29 with video-boards and taxicab toppers in New York City, as well as billboards in Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, St. George and Idaho Falls, Idaho.

 

Central to the campaign is a new Website — christmas.mormon.org — a subdomain of the prominent Mormon.org site (and a screenshot of which is shown below).

 

 

And the lead item of the Website is the A Savior Is Born video, which I’ve included below.

 

 

This (and the campaign itself) are supported by the hashtag — #aSaviorIsBorn — with requests from Church leadership to its members to share the hashtag through social media platforms. Additionally, through Church outreach efforts, several performers / entertainers with fairly strong celebrity followings agreed to participate in the campaign by recording and sharing performances on YouTube, a few of which included

 

David Archuletta (featuring Nathan Pacheco), singing “The Prayer,”

 

 

Lindsey Stirling performing “Hallelujah” (anonymously) in a New York subway station,

 

 

and

 

The Piano Guys performing (and Placido Domingo singing) “Silent Night,”

 

 

with each performance featuring the hashtag, #aSaviorIsBorn.

 

(The performances are each amazing, by the way.)

 

The now annual Christmas Marketing Campaign for the LDS Church doesn’t stop there, however, as the Christmas.Mormon.Org website also features another video, this one titled “Why We Need A Savior” (included below).

 

 

The Website also features

 

• Twenty-five Animated GIFs about Christmas for sharing electronically with friends, neighbors and strangers,
• Three Print and Share docs that can be modified and also shared electronically with friends, neighbors and strangers (an example of which is found here, and
• A Worship with Us link that ties to the “Find A Church” search engine on the main Mormon.org Website that apparently works all over the globe, as suggested by the screenshot below highlighting the location of an LDS chapel in Johannesburg, South Africa that I was able to find using this service.

 

 

 

To top it all off, the Christmas.Mormon.Org Website is published in 29 languages, ranging from Albanian to Indonesian and from Italian to Ukrainian (as noted in this Daily Herald article).

 

All told, it is clearly a massive, massive undertaking, and yet no less an expert than Advertising Age noted that the LDS Church video, A Savior Is Born, ranked #4 last week with nearly 9 million online viewings last week alone.

 

Taken together, the LDS Church comes out on top this Holiday Season as the purveyor of the Best Marketing Campaign of Christmas 2015. Congratulations!

 

And to all six companies/organizations noted here (as well as any outside agencies and consultants), as well as to my readers and friends, Merry Christmas to all . . .

 

“and to all, a good night!”

 

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UPDATE:

 

So . . . I shared two modified versions of this column as Posts on LinkedIn, one on Christmas Eve Day (12-24-15) titled “The 5 Best Christmas Commercials of 2015” and different version on Christmas Day (12-25-15) titled “The Best Marketing Campaign of Christmas 2015.”

 

What’s fascinating to me is that the one Post generated over 1,700 views in less than 36 hours. The other one? A grand total of 55 views.

 

Wanna guess which one did better? I’m adding a screen-grab below so you can see for yourself.

Crazy, huh?

 

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