Time was when Christmas ads made the news pages and business sections too, chiefly thanks to adam&eve and its series of seasonal epics for John Lewis. As such they boosted the reputation of UK adland and its leading lights generally, then…lockdown.
New Commercial Arts was formed in the depths by lockdown by adam&eveDDB’s James Murphy and David Golding, to great commercial success (it’s just been bought by WPP/Ogilvy) but not quite the canvas A&E enjoyed back in the day.
Post lockdown (four years ago) digital has stormed ahead but big budget TV extravaganzas – not just big Christmas ads – have become thinner on the ground as money and opportunities have dried. Would they ever, some people asked wistfully, return?
Sainsbury’s, with Omnicom sibling AMV BBDO, went head to head with A&E in the Christmas lists for a period. Judith Kerr’s Mog starred in a couple while one featured the unlikely setting of the supposed footballing truce between the British and Germans at Christmas 1914. All good and entertaining although a beady-eyed client may have thought the agency was having too much fun.
This year’s Sainsbury’s ad from NCA with Roald Dhal’s Big Friendly Giant has elements of the John Lewis emotional playbook plus (as is the way with the agency) a steely focus on product and a clear connection to its other ads with a star turn from a Sainsbury’s worker (if only we could see more of these estimable folk in-store.)
A win win for Sainsbury’s and the agency then. Will it persuade more clients to don the Ray-Bans, kidnap the director’s chair and go big?
The likes of System1 will doubtless be producing their Christmas scores soon (guides only admittedly.) Fingers crossed…
