Christmas ads in the UK are a cultural event. Brands are hiring the best creative agencies to win over the hearts of millions of people across the country. No expense is spared! Celebrities are booked! Then boom, the adverts are out!
Every year, there’s some stiff competition but there can only be one winner, one advert towering over all of them!
As a creative agency ourselves it’s our yearly tradition here at VideoSmart to review Christmas ads and vote our favourite one: don’t expect this to be smooth sailing though, as we all like different styles, stories, and visions.
Before we reveal the result of the vote, let’s recap this year’s best Christmas ads:
Nicholas the Sweep
Sainsbury’s has been in the advert game for a long time and last year, they definitely won our hearts with their flamboyant The Big Night ad.
This year, they return to the quintessential British traditions with their Nicholas the Sweep storyline. The result?
An emotional story about a young boy, Nicholas, who is wrongly accused of stealing a clementine but doesn’t allow this setback to keep him from giving the gift of Christmas to others.
This heart-warming ad follows the origin story of Father Christmas which was met with multiple “Awwws” in the office when it first launched.
Excitable Edgar
John Lewis and Waitrose are big players in the Christmas ad game and the retail giants spare no expense when it comes to their Christmas advertising initiative. This year, part of their budget went to creating a GCI dragon and employing Dan Smith from Bastille to sing a rendition of ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling.’
It features a cute, little dragon, who burns everything around him whenever he gets overly excited.
If you’ve fallen in love with Excitable Edgar and want to buy the official merchandise, I have some bad news for you… the plush toy created following the advert is sold out online and in-store.
Silence the critics
The most surprising entry of the year has to be the IKEA Christmas Advert. Leave it to the furniture company to feature London rapper D Double E in their first-ever advert titled: Silence the Critics.
The ad, created by Mother agency in London features a singing Panda, a sassy T-Rex and a cheeky pair of rapping snails. They even released the tune on Spotify - can we make it this year’s Christmas number 1?
In all seriousness, the video fits the brand perfectly and encapsulates why we shop at IKEA: you can indeed have a brand new house by investing very little.
The ad was met with mixed responses in the office as to whether this can really be considered a ‘Christmas ad’ but being a huge IKEA fan myself, I found it very, very, very, very, very, very, very amusing.
The book of dreams
Argos has entered the Christmas ad game with a highly dynamic ad featuring a talented child drummer and her dad.
The premise is simple, a dad and daughter musical duo, competing in a musical battle in the middle of the night (I’m wondering what mum thinks of all of this?)
The ad also represents the re-branding of their product catalogue, cleverly titled: The Book of Dreams. How was the reception of the video in our office? It was lukewarm: enjoyable, but forgettable.
Must be Walkers
The commissioning powers at Walkers must have had a good year since they paid pop superstar Mariah Carey around £9 million to ‘ever-so-slightly’ bite a crisp!
Let’s see the evidence:
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
As our investigation concludes, it has been decided that Mariah Carey had not eaten one single crisp during the filming of this campaign.
But let’s not allow that to deter from the actual advert: a silly, behind the scene drama involving a pop superstar and a hungry set assistant who battle for the last bag of Walkers.
The winner? Mariah’s 5-octave voice.
Special mention: Be a kid this Christmas
The UK media has shown so much love to this low-to-no budget ad made by a family-owned hardware shop in Wales. The video titled Be a kid this Christmas follows a day in the life of the shop owner, aged two.
It captures something that’s sometimes lost on the other ads: the power of a good story! Sure, you can disguise the lack of it with expensive CGI, underground rappers and flashy cinematography but what truly wins an audience is the power of a well-told and emotional story! We tip our hats to the crew and applaud their creativity.
Unfortunately, we saw this video after the voting had closed and therefore, it didn't receive a nomination.
Who wins?!
I’ve enlisted the help of my colleagues at VideoSmart to vote the winner of this year’s Christmas Ad battle.
After much debate, heated arguments and a couple of cups of tea to calm the spirits, we have all agreed on this year’s Best Christmas ad winner! And….
...it’s a tie between John Lewis and Partner’s Excitable Edgar and Sainsbury’s Nicholas the Sweep!
So, there it is, our Christmas poll!
Let us know below which ad was your favourite and answer the debate: does Mariah actually eat a crisp in the Walkers ad or not?
Happy Holidays from the VideoSmart Team!
Roxy
