Christmas Ads – What can we learn about an effective teaser campaign?
In case you hadn’t noticed, December has well and truly arrived. It’s nigh on impossible to ignore the hundreds of Christmas adverts or the festive lights popping up on every high street from St Ives to Strathclyde. While the Christmas super fans are ready to spontaneously combust into a cloud of tinsel, the cynics are not-so-quietly tutting their way from home to work and home again. Bah Humbug, or as Creative Engagement like to say, “Boo Hiss!”
Whether a Christmas ad tugs on your heartstrings, makes you giggle or even roll your eyes, they are all in one way or another attempting to make you do one thing. Buy.
But, what if there was a lesser known agenda too? Christmas ads are after all getting you prepared for the festive season. They are, in a way,
advertising’s biggest teaser campaign.
Agencies working together as a force to bring Yuletide cheer to each and every one of us. With a side helping of profit(eroles).
When it comes to benefit communications, we are big advocates of a teaser campaign. An effective teaser campaign isn’t just about driving employees to their benefits site. It is also useful for expanding brand awareness and creating positive connotations about the benefits brand and company offering.
According to Kantar, a good Christmas ad should:
- Tell a good story in which the brand plays a key part;
- Trigger an emotional response, but not be too serious or sad;
- Provide an epic Christmas experience that draws people in.
We believe the same goes for a teaser campaign for a Darwin launch.
Here’s why:
Tell a good story
Launching a new platform that gives you quick and easy access to your benefits anywhere, at any time and from any device is good news. Many companies we launch on Darwin haven’t been on technology before or are using a system which is clunky and can’t be personalised. With a teaser campaign we’re letting employees know that this process is about to get better and look better.
Trigger an emotional response
People use their emotional brain to make decisions. Creating benefit communications that focus on real outcomes feels natural because taking up benefits can have such a positive effect on people’s lives – from making them feel protected to helping them save for a bright future or for a life goal.
Provide an epic experience
Employees might not have seen a great level of effort put into communications coming from their company before. Our classic combination of clever copy and awesome design gets people to sit up and listen.
We don’t just do launch campaigns… we like to be pretty epic all year round. Come and have a chat if you want to supercharge benefit communications for an annual window, wellness campaign or anything in between.
An antidote to unicorns
The engagement unicorn (that one item that will attract, inspire, educate and instruct employees all in one fell swoop) remains an elusive creature. The hunt continues…
Effective engagement takes a sustained effort but clients can be smart about how they deploy their resources. Our engagement blueprint is the best way to ensure success. The blueprint draws from business change, psychology, advertising and marketing best practice for an approach that captures hearts and minds.
Clear the path
Clear processes are engaging: make things hard work and you lose people at the first hurdle. Single Sign On is still an important route into Darwin but if you can give people a way to access the site from their personal devices, they can make more of the accessibility and responsive design. Consider the employee journey – don’t make life hard for them!
Use the right channels
Channels are the media we use to reach employees. When we say ‘right’, we mean right for the organisation and where they are on their engagement journey. The latest shiny deliverable may not be right for their employees (or a good use of a client’s money).
Make an emotional connection
People buy with their emotions (a fact the advertising industry embraces with enthusiasm) and clients are selling the value of their benefits to employees. Getting people’s engagement means connecting with them on an emotional level.
Give clear instruction
Benefit communications can get weighed down by technical terminology. People who are very familiar with their topic can assume knowledge their audience don’t have. The best communications cut through to express ideas in a simple and concrete way. Unclear wording tires us out and our attention tends to wander.
Be unexpected
Our brains are wired to notice difference. It follows that doing something different will get people’s attention. What constitutes different will depend on a client’s communications landscape and what’s usual for them. Companies with lots of bells and whistles going off all the time will need to work harder. Those with a more vanilla, corporate environment will find small changes get big results.
Embrace Continuous Engagement
People are forgetful. An evolutionary necessity to save energy but not helpful when you want employees to remember their great benefits package. If clients only communicate once a year, employees are unlikely to factor in benefits in decision-making, appreciate them or use them when they need them the most. Creating a drumbeat of communications throughout the year builds employee engagement.
Whether they spend a lot or a little, all of the organisations we work see results when they follow this approach. It does what it says on the tin and we’d love to spread the news to as many of our clients as possible!
Brand Guidelines – Gospel or guidance?
Brands sometimes need a little redecorating. This helps the brand stay fresh, keeps it interesting and most importantly, keeps audiences engaged in their platform. 2019 saw the Creative Engagement team embark on some of our most epic branding projects to date.
So what are brand guidelines?
This document can be used to help identify a company’s brand when creating new collateral. It is our first port of call when we meet a new client to get a grasp on how their internal, or external brand, is built. This then leads the way for cohesive branding when creating an identity for their benefits.
Existing Creative Engagement clients undergoing a company re-brand will provide the latest brand guidelines to make sure our work on their benefits brand is up to date. The document covers areas like colour palette, company fonts, key graphical elements and more.Not all brand guidelines are the same; they can be vague or precise and there are advantages and pitfalls of both styles.
When should we stick to the brand guidelines?
Our biggest success stories come from working with key stakeholders such as internal communications and branding teams. Working closely with internal teams helps us understand how flexible we can be. Our team work hard with the client to make sure the final brand achieves the goals set out in the initial brief.
If a client’s internal brand isn’t established it’s important to stick very closely to the brand guidelines. It can be easy for employees to get confused about where communications are coming from if everything coming out of the business looks completely different.
When can we push the brand guidelines?
The longer a brand has existed, the less impact that original branding will have. Human beings are creatures with short attention spans, but this doesn’t mean you need to throw an established brand in the bin. Coca Cola adverts couldn’t be more different from each other. From free spirits singing about ‘buying the world a Coke’ to lush 3D animated monsters living in a Coke machine, these adverts are recognisable because the advertisers know what to keep the same, and what it’s possible to push.
Thinking about creating new, innovative internal communications? That’s where we can help!
Our most successful campaigns have pushed brand guidelines to their absolute limit. Our trick is to deviate enough to create fresh elements that are interesting, while also keeping it familiar so that employees know these communications are coming from leadership teams.
Some of our big branding wins this year include Honeywell – whose makeover adopted their new in-house style, giving a sophisticated and visually striking new-look. Samsung – who had a complete overhaul of their look and feel, upgrading from safe photography to a highly bespoke illustrated brand. Estée Lauder’s new benefits brand fits as part of their already established internal branding. We also developed an exciting new brand for The Body Shop which humorously juxtaposes natural imagery with scenes of modern life.
Consulting Collaboration – Scheme Design
Scheme Design and Creative Engagement often complement one another and we believe that the two should always be linked. There’s little value in having a great scheme if you have no way of promoting it, or shouting about a scheme that isn’t relevant for employees. This means we lucky folk in Scheme Design get to work with the Creative Engagement team quite often to develop our propositions together and bring innovative ideas to our clients.
This year we worked with Kirstie to develop a way of introducing Creative Engagement to clients who are working with us as part of a wider benefits review. Kirstie created a short questionnaire for us to give to clients to assess their current communications strategy and approach. From this we can include high-level communication recommendations in our scheme design reports and encourage clients to reconsider their current communications and engagement strategy. We’ve already had a success story with this approach when we introduced this to Dyson.
How did we do it?
Scheme Design completed a full redesign of the Dyson’s benefit package with multiple recommendations for change. As part of this we included some ‘food for thought’ on their communications and branding. With no benefit brand in place and very limited communications, this was the perfect opportunity to involve Creative Engagement.
Dyson were making massive changes to their scheme, while moving everything onto Darwin for the first time – all positive changes that should be promoted! After seeing how behind the curve they were, based on the outcome of the short communication survey, Dyson were encouraged to think about how they tackle this. Dyson partnered with Creative Engagement to redesign their benefits brand (visual identity) and redesign the look and feel of Darwin.
What was the outcome?
The team introduced colour to the site and new pictograms to be used with the Matisse tiles, all of which were in line with the Dyson brand guidelines but looked fun and modern. Both Scheme Design and Creative Engagement worked with Dyson to ensure we captured all the fun ‘perks’ available to them as Dyson employees, and hosted these on Darwin as part of the benefits package.
Going into 2020, Dyson will have a new jazzy scheme and fresh brand they can be proud of – all hosted on Darwin of course!
The Buzz Banter
We could start with the old cliché “IT’S CHRIIISSSTTMAAASSS!”, but we won’t… we know how that won’t leave you until New Year’s Day! This time of year tends to deliver some memorable media, whether it’s a favourite film, a much-loathed festive song, or a great advert. This year, we have turned our attention to the wonderful world of festive promotions and the team have been dishing the dirt on their guilty pleasures, festive favourites, and annual annoyances! As is tradition, here’s your insight into the Creative Engagement team’s angelic advertising opinions: Seasons Greetings, one and all! Let’s dive straight in – Tell me your all-time favourite Christmas ad?
Kirstie: I know it got a lot of flack at the time but I did find Sainsbury’s 1914 ad (re-enacting the WW1 truce football match) moving.
Tetley: The one where the kid is waiting for Christmas and you think he’s just spoiled but then it turns out he’s excited about giving a gift not getting one- Aww!
Costanza: One I really like is the made by Allegro (Poland’s eBay). A sweet Polish grandad spends months teaching himself English for a special reason – no spoilers!
Ilze: Any ad that reminds us that no-one should be lonely at Christmas, but The Man on the Moon does it in a very sweet way.
I’m tearing up here guys! So we have discussed the ones you love, but which ad makes you want to switch channel?
Kirstie: Any perfume ads – such pretentious nonsense!
Laura: I hate those ads about saving schemes. They always seem to play them during the good Christmas telly. Pipe down and let me watch Gavin and Stacey!
So, which campaigns have inspired you to buy something?
Emma: I am quite a proud present buyer and really like to think outside the box when it comes to buying gifts for my loved ones, so I try not to buy into advertising too much.
Laura: I’m a sucker for Christmas ads! I’m likely to be inspired to shop somewhere if the ad makes me feel warm and fuzzy – I probably only visit John Lewis at this time of year. #AllTheFeels
We know some of the best Christmas ads have memorable characters, or ‘personas’ as we say in the industry! Do you have a favourite Christmas character?
Emma: Colin the carrot and the little animated peas from the Aldi advert. They are so funny!
Costanza: I have genuinely fallen in love with Edgar the Dragon. My heart melted. He is doing his best and only with the help of his friend, he wins over his clumsiness.
Laura: #BustertheBoxer from last year’s John Lewis offering. I laughed for ages when he was on the trampoline!
Ilze: The hare from John Lewis 2013 Christmas ad because it found a way to share Christmas morning with its friend.
Finally, what ad makes you think, “The festive season has started”?
Emma and Tetley: Obvs Coca-Cola, it’s on every year! Holidays are coming holidays are coming!
Costanza: In Italy, we have a speciality – il Panettone! I can affirm that the festive season starts when you keep watching hundreds of ads about this delicious dessert!
Thanks for reading!
Remember, if you have any thoughts…
Love, Creative Engagement 😉