August saw Zenith host our inaugural quarterly Think Thursday session. Whilst the nation will always debate when you’re allowed to talk about Christmas, here in media land we decided the conversation can’t start soon enough.
With a packed room, Andrew McLean (Head of Media Planning, Zenith) posed the question “Is Christmas over?”. Andrew’s challenge was rooted in the fascinating story of the fortunes of John Lewis over the last 20 years, mapped against their very famous Christmas ad strategy. The evidence presented was compelling. Whilst those beautifully crafted one-off festive TV spots, be they tear-jerkers or heart-warming tales or frankly both, have been proven to drive search volumes and talkability they weren’t necessarily driving underlying brand benefits. Why? Because they were effectively new ads every year or worse just a TV spot without a cohesive, lasting campaign ecosystem beyond.
The antidote to that was the evidence of consistency and compound creativity. Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot has been on our screens for 10 years now and the data would suggest he’s been building consideration and quality perceptions incrementally over that time. In fact System 1 that consistent campaigns on average score 5.6 on their ‘star rating’ methodology with 91% brand recognition, versus one off campaigns only scoring 3.9 on the same scale with 84% brand recognition.
So Andrew’s final thought wasn’t that the Christmas period isn’t any less effective nowadays. But “the formula has changed”. A well invested and planned campaign that works from a PESO perspective will improve brand health over time due to the compound effect of advertising. And that is what drives disproportionate effectiveness.
Next up we had Lucy Irving, Cultural Strategist at ITV, who started by landing the psychological theory of ‘liminal transition’ – the concept of pivoting between two distinct phases of life or identity, which is characterised by a sense of transformation. Lucy’s thought for the audience was that “Christmas marks a period where we can think and act differently to the rest of the year.”
Lucy then walked us through the ebbs and flows of ITV’s programming across the year, revealing that the first Christmas ads tend to appear on 3rd October, and then using some clever in-house subtitle tracking the brains at ITV can confidently say the first mentions of Christmas in the soaps tend to appear around mid-October. Christmas is a mode across the year it would seem, rather than a moment in December alone.
One other intriguing piece of insight was around Christmas TV co-viewing. Shared viewing certainly surges over the period with certain genres like films and documentaries seeing a particular surge (circa + 10%) when compared to pre and post-Christmas. Whereas Sport tends to go the other way and sees an equivalent drop.
Our second partner presentation was from the team at Bauer – Jessica King, Creative Director of Partnerships and James Digby, Commercial Director of Audio. And the team made it very clear how Christmas is a year-long opportunity for brands as people move through different mindsets – anticipation, inspiration, preparation and urgency.
33% of people start purchasing their presents for loved ones before October, whereas 5% of us don’t get round to it until that muddled ‘betwixmas’ week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day!
But there was a sobering reminder that the range of emotions over the festive period can be wide-ranging. 46% of people end up feeling guilty at the over-indulgence, and 28% of people admit to feeling overwhelmed by the whole experience. The note of caution from James was to “remember the mix of feelings, and brands showing emotional connection are more likely to win.”
The event was rounded off with a hugely engaging panel discussion between the returning Andrew McLean, Paul Sylvester (Content Director, Magic and Absolute Radio), Adam Wilson (Joint Head of Strategy at ITV) and all expertly moderated by Zenith Managin Partner Amy Keaney.
Opening comments centred around the need to balance the emotional and the rational. Christmas looks very different for people, so best-in-class modern comms strategy plays to those nuances.
To the question of who does Christmas well, Adam shared that Omaze’s charity drive is a brilliant example of an organisation tapping into the nation’s sense of charity, but also that part of all of us dreaming to win big.
Paul shared that Magic FM went as far as starting up a specific Magic Christmas station those of us that are can’t get enough of Mariah and co’s festive classic starting as early as September. With the main Magic station moving to a Christmas playlist much later in mid-November. The point being we need to remember that not everyone gets into the mood at the same time.
It wouldn’t be a media panel without a question about the rise of AI and whether it can help or hinder us in navigating the noise, and increasingly the fragmentation of experience and reach. The panel were unanimous in their view that whilst it holds definite production efficiencies, we must not lose the human magic of a well-told story creatively or a well crafted human-centric media strategy.
As the audience departed with a festive jingle in their heads, we now look forward to the next session in Q4 – how we navigate the emerging restrictions of LHF. The answer is going to be more than just extra veg at Christmas!
