Supermarket PLUS reunites two feuding ones brothers, Kruidvat shows its regular faces record a Christmas song (for charity) and Albert Heijn allows young people provide a Christmas dinner for a lonely boxing gym owner. Many TV viewers will have shed a tear.
“The commercial break is old-fashioned fun these days,” Lucas Boon of marketing trade magazine Adformation describes it. “Many people often find advertising irritating, but now you are spoiled for ten minutes with beautiful videos.”
A selection from this year’s offering:
While supermarkets have dominated the December advertising breaks for many years, this year it is noticeable that other companies are also making off with bells, snow and pine trees.
For example, from a completely unexpected source, Schoonenberg Hoorcomfort comes up with a holiday advertisement. We see a father and his daughter growing older together with a hearing aid. ‘For a lifetime’ is the Christmas message.
And travel provider VakantieDiscounter is also entering the Christmas advertising world this year. Although they do this in their own unique way. Grandpa is “in a better place now,” says the father of the family. That better place turns out to be on a sunny island.
“The fact that other companies are now also coming up with Christmas advertisements is strange in itself,” says advertising maker Jordi van de Bovenkamp, ”because the bulk of what is sold around the holidays is food. So it is logical that supermarkets in particular are getting involved.”
‘People are more susceptible to advertising around Christmas’
“I think other brands see that the Christmas commercial is just gaining popularity,” says Van de Bovenkamp. “People talk about that at the end of the year. Christmas is the time to show a different side of your company. People are much more susceptible to the more emotional side around Christmas. Schoonenberg may be a flat seller for the rest of the year of hearing aids. But now they are sailing around the corner.”
Boon also sees that Dutch people are more open to advertising during the Christmas period. “It is a tradition among the general public in December: who has the best commercial? You can still reach the masses with Christmas commercials.”
“If there is a trend going on somewhere you want to respond to it, that is also advertising,” says Van de Bovenkamp. “This is just a popular moment. Schoonenberg is now suddenly on lists and ends up in the media in all kinds of ways.”
Parody of Christmas commercial
According to Boon, VakantieDiscounter makes good use of the popularity of Christmas advertisements. “They have actually made a parody of the Christmas commercial phenomenon. The commercial has a lot of humor and makes fun of other Christmas commercials.”
Risky, but the tour company gets away with it. “Holiday Discounter is also known for commercials with a wink.”
Very successful, according to Van de Bovenkamp. “The sector I work in often takes itself too seriously. Humor has been neglected lately, so when people stick their heads above the parapet, I’m a fan of that.”
PostNL calls on everyone to send a card, and not an app, at Christmas:
Then of course there are also ‘losers’. Jumbo disappoints this year, says Lucas Boon. The yellow supermarket opts for four short advertisements that all revolve around a different Christmas product. You get through all four commercials with dry eyes.
‘A bit faint’
And also Aldi in Lidl didn’t try very hard. Aldi says in the advertisement that it prefers to put ‘the Christmas feeling into great offers’. And Lidl opts for an advertisement with a raccoon that is used throughout Europe. “That is really different than a year ago,” says Boon. “All five supermarkets had good advertising at the time. Now, with the exception of Albert Heijn and Plus, it is a bit bland.”
“Jumbo, Lidl and Aldi are really focusing on price marketing this year. They mainly want to show that they have cheap products. That fits in with the current times, when people have less to spend and life has become more expensive.”
HEMA’s Christmas commercial is all about Siepie, the cat from Jip&Janneke:
For those who really want to become wonderfully ’emo’ and feel the ultimate sense of solidarity, Van de Bovenkamp would like to refer to Apple’s advertising. “In my opinion, they have created a very nice little piece of magic.”
2023-12-08 14:26:31
#Christmas #commercial #worst
