What makes Christmas ads like SuperValu and John Lewis iconic? We ask their creators
Christmas ads get commissioned in early summer
Over the next few weeks, every television, radio and social media feed will be full to the festive brim of invitations and exultations encouraging shoppers to part with our Christmas cash. Retailers invest heavily in creating the great Christmas ad, knowing full well that when it hits the mark, it can get millions of eyeballs looking at their brand in a positive manner.
“The first thing a successful Christmas ad has to have is a sense of the tone of the public,” says Darren O’Kelly of London based, Untold Studios.
“Christmas ads get commissioned in early summer. That’s quite a while away if you think about it. So there’s a real balancing act there for a brand.
"They have to think about what tone of voice they want to have. Is it cuddly, funny, cute, sombre? Because by the time it comes out, it really wants to tap into that underlying current that’s running through the country.”
Darren from Dublin, started Untold Studios some six years ago with a group of like-minded creatives. The company has been one of the driving creative forces behind the famous John Lewis Christmas ads, including Edgar the Excitable Dragon from 2019.
In the snowy lead up to Christmas, Edgar is as excited as everyone else. Unfortunately, his excitement is expressed through his fiery nostrils and, in some cases, his ears, resulting in several unintentional mishaps. In the end, and through the help of his loyal friend, he gets his moment to shine and has his part to play in making sure that everyone has a wonderful Christmas.
“It has that extra bit of magic that Christmas ads need,” says Darren. “That element of storytelling, where the viewer is a little perturbed or anxious about something but the story reaches a satisfying conclusion in some way and has some sense of joy in it.”
While over in the UK, the release of the John Lewis ad has become the unofficial announcement that Christmas has begun, here in Ireland it is arguably the tolling of the Christmas bells and the first falling flakes of snow in the Home of the Black Stuff that kick off the Christmas season. Guinness’s famous Christmas ad is now eighteen years old but still feels as fresh as ever.
“I think the reason it endures is that it's about us, the audience, and where we live,” says Neal Davis, CEO at BBDO Dublin, the agency behind the creation of the ad.
“All four provinces of Ireland are represented, under a blanket of snow. It doesn't show pints being poured, it doesn't show the interior of pubs, it doesn’t waste time showing you things you already know.
"Instead, it speaks of the Black Stuff, hinting at the cultural intimacy and unique relationship that the brand has with Irish identity. It’s a simple, evocative, Christmas card from Saint James’s Gate to the island of Ireland.”
Another firm favourite set for a seasonal return is even older. ESB’s Coming Home is an eighties classic that featured Alan Hughes in the starring role.
“The director told me what was supposed to happen in it,” recalls the Ireland AM presenter.
“Me, the student coming home, the mam making the bread, me looking happy to be coming home and what I had to do. He explained everything to me but I had no real sense of it until I actually saw it and now it’s such an iconic ad.”
Despite there not being the slightest hint of tinsel or fairy lights in the ad, it has somehow taken on a festive life of its own.
“It’s actually not a Christmas ad,” says Alan. “But it seems to be associated with it because of that theme of children coming home for Christmas.
"I suppose it might have had something to do with it being in the 1980s, a time of emigration and so that idea of the returning son was powerful for mothers and fathers. I think the Dusty Springfield music really resonated with everyone too and it plays a big part in the ad. It’s timeless somehow.”
The theme of family and families reunited was also taken on by Lidl in their 2016 ad, Homecoming. Four adult children return to their vacant childhood home, and bring it back to life for Christmas and for their ageing father, who moved out of the family home when his wife died.
“This tender act of renewing the home and filling it with Christmas joy does the same for their father,” says Linda Fitzgerald, Head of Marketing Activation, Lidl Ireland & Northern Ireland.
“It reminds us that it’s people, not presents that are most important at Christmas with the line ‘Share more special moments this Christmas’.”
Before the creation of the ad, Lidl carried out research to understand what is important to Irish shoppers at this time of year.
“We wanted to capture the nature of an Irish Christmas in a way that would ring true to how people feel at this time of year,” says Linda.
“At Christmas our attachment to specific places like home is incredibly powerful. Every Irish person has these special places in their lives and understands the emotional bond.”
Of course, emotional resonance is a key part of any memorable television advert but Christmas lends itself to that essential pulling at the heartstrings that wins over an audience. In 2020, food retailer SuperValu had the country in floods with the powerful Is he Coming?.
The ad features a young boy anxiously asking his immediate family if ‘he is definitely coming’. Though we are not told who he is, the audience assumes that he is Santa Claus. It turns out to be someone far more important.
Paul Arthurs and Martin Corcoran of TBWA Ireland, came up with the idea for the ad during a Zoom call at the height of COVID.
“Like most people, we were working from home,” says Martin, “sitting in front of our laptops, bouncing ideas back and forth. The restrictions in place at the time, in part led us to this story.
"We had a number of ideas, but this one stood out right away and changed very little from concept to completion.”
When the little boy’s grandfather arrives at the door on Christmas Day, he is greeted by a warm hug from the boy. Judging by the reaction to the ad, thousands of people around the country felt that warmth too. Unfortunately, the hug itself didn’t take place due to restrictions but it is testimony to the professionalism of the actors, camera operatives and editors that we are made to believe it did.
The star of the piece was young actor Cian Kearney who Martin says “displayed the perfect balance of wonder and consideration” in his role as the young boy.
“He had lived the character's experience himself,” says Martin, “having not seen his own grandparents in over a year, and that definitely shone through in the ad.”
“It can be easy to fall into typical Christmas tropes,” continues Martin.
“But cultural context always helps to keep ideas both fresh and relevant. 2020 would be a Christmas like no other, so that presented a new experience which we all shared. This meant we could use a typical festive scenario like a kid worried about Santa to deliver a unique surprise at the end.”
And what a wonderful Christmas surprise it turned out to be.
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