Great Examples of Holiday Ads

T’is the season to eat, drink and be merry. To get you into the mood for inspiration, we’ve put together our list of favorite holiday ads and campaigns.

• Valentine’s Day
• Mother’s Day
• Father’s Day

Without further ado, let’s jump right in and admire some great brands and ads!

Coca Cola

Do you think Santa would go for a Coke Zero in 2021?

Pepsi

Pepsi believes in star power, as they chose Cardi B to be their partner in 2019.

We especially loved the “Time to make it rain, deer!” pun and Cardi flying off in a sportscar as her sleigh. Or you can say, slayyy!

Google Assistant

We love a blast from the past! Stir up all the Christmas feels with Macaulay Culkin reenacting iconic scenes from Home Alone. Google cleverly worked its way throughout the McAllister home, highlighting their smart home features that made Kevin’s experience at home alone a lot cozier and a lot less chaotic.

Studies show that nostalgia creates a sense of connectedness, which reduces people’s desire for money. That means if you play into nostalgia, people are more likely to make emotionally-driven purchases!

Chase Bank

Starbucks

Amazon

Spotify

Alex Bodman, Spotify’s global executive creative director said,

Part of our creative process is to think about the cultural moments, tensions and oddities that defined 2018 and then see how music and podcasts helped people respond. That’s why this year we decided to focus on Playlist creation; it’s one of our features that allows people to get highly creative. The fact that users give the playlists such hilarious names or use them to comment on broader cultural trends, only makes the material richer.

Christmas Tree Visuals

VRBO

VRBO, a vacation rental site, used humor to tap into a need uniquely created by the pandemic. They showcased what working from home with the kids looked like, which may make your home a little “less presentable”. That could be a stressor with the upcoming holiday season, where family and friends would be visiting.

They launched this (we’d say, strategically) in early November, exactly to capture those who might be dreading hosting Thanksgiving and Holidays because of the clean-up required. Genius, right?

Macy’s

Did this one bring a tear to your eye? (It did for us!)

John Lewis & Partners

John Lewis is a UK brand of high-end department stores. In 2018,
Like the Macy’s ad we just shared above, they wanted to tell a story and aim to touch the hearts of the audience. It shows Sir Elton John’s singing his hit, “Your Song” at home, then you are taken throughout moments in his life, where he performs around the world in different settings. But the most crucial part is the ending scene, where it’s 4 year old him unwrapping his Christmas present from his grandmother, which is his first piano, which forever changed his life.

It’s heartfelt and reflective.

However, some argued that the advert was more of a promotion for Elton John’s biopic, Rocketman, which was released around the same time, and pointed out that John Lewis didn’t even sell pianos! After facing the feedback, funnily enough, John Lewis listed some pianos on their online store. This reminds us, marketers, not to get entirely carried away from storytelling and stay grounded with effectively communicating our brand offerings!

We hope you enjoyed our curated list of favorite holiday ads! Perhaps they even sparked some inspiration for your campaigns next year!

Be sure to check out “8 Digital Marketing Tips to Drive Holiday Sales in 2021” for more holiday advertising content.