The beginning of November has signalled an abrupt end to Halloween and offered a warm welcome to Christmas and winter campaigns across the DIY industry. The latest of these come from catalogue retailer Argos, electrical retailer Currys PC World and supermarket retailer Asda.
ARGOS
UK retailer Argos launches its 2017 Christmas advertising campaign, breaking tonight with high profile spots during ITV’s Emmerdale and Channel 4’s Gogglebox.
The 60 second TV commercial will transport millions of viewers to a magical Argos distribution centre where a troupe of Argos elves are helping Santa to deliver hundreds of thousands of gifts across the country at record speed on bright red super-sleighs.
The advert celebrates Argos’s commitment to super speedy delivery, with online orders delivered in as little as four hours¹ through its market-leading nationwide Fast Track same-day delivery service.
In a Christmas advertising first, three children will also have the exciting opportunity to feature in the TV advert themselves. From Tuesday 7 November, parents can visit Argos’s Facebook and Twitter channels to submit an image of their child using the hashtag #ReadyForTakeOff. Three winners will be selected and will appear on national TV in the Argos advert for a whole day each on Friday 10, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 November.
What’s more, everyone will get a chance to see their child’s face in a personalised social media version of the advert which they can share with loved ones. Again, they simply need to upload their child’s photo on the Argos Facebook or Twitter sites and include the hashtag #ReadyForTakeOff.
The advert, created by CHI&Partners and directed by Gary Freedman, features a futuristic rocket-powered super-sleigh ready to take off on its mission across the country. The action shifts gear as one child’s long-awaited Christmas present, a Teksta voice-recognition robotic puppy, is found wandering the aisles by an elf. The quick-thinking elf scans it in at the elf station to reveal its intended recipient on-screen, Tom, aged nine, whose family’s gifts are departing from gate nine.
This leads to a blockbuster-style chase across the distribution centre in which the elf pulls out all the stops to ensure the robotic puppy makes it to Tom in time for Christmas.
Marketing Director at Argos Gary Kibble said: “We love this edge-of-your-seat, high-energy Christmas campaign, which aims to surprise and delight across all channels – showcasing Argos’s Fast Track delivery commitment to getting customers what they want, how and when they want it, faster than anyone else.
“Over the Christmas period our teams will deliver 1.7 million items to customers’ homes and process 27 million in-store transactions, and the go-getting elf in the story reflects our hard-working and dedicated colleagues who often go the extra mile to make Christmas happen for our customers."
Yan Elliott, Joint Executive Creative Director at CHI&Partners, said: “Argos is ‘Ready for Take-Off’ this Christmas, and we wanted a thrillingly fast-paced campaign that would really bring to life the lengths Argos will go to make Christmas special for families across the country, in the fastest way possible. We and AllTogetherNow are particularly proud to help make Argos the first UK retailer to personalise its Christmas advert across both TV and social media – and we can’t wait to see Argos fans everywhere become part of the action.”
View the Argos Christmas advert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNqm-sgz86Y
CURRYS PC WORLD
Currys PC World unveiled its latest Christmas advertising campaign yesterday, rolling out across TV, video on demand, social and online (YouTube) in the UK.
The new ATL creative showcases how the UK’s leading electrical retailer helps customers ‘get it right,’ at Christmas, with first-hand advice and recommendations from Currys PC World store colleagues.
For the third year running, humorous family scenarios are used bring to life the difficulties in choosing the right Christmas gifts, presenting Currys PC World as the solution to this problem – with the right gadgets and colleague expertise available to help.
The three instalments dramatise a real-life initiative by the retailer which allows store colleagues to try out Currys PC World products for themselves at home, so that they’re able to give truly first-hand advice to shoppers in store.
This year’s campaign features technology from three key brands including a proud Dad attempting to be ‘down with the kids’ while parading his new Bose® product range; a family putting the latest Apple products (and their Father) through their paces and a hilarious Mum-Dad double act declaring a ‘tech free’ Christmas to a bewildered audience, before proudly showing off the latest LG OLED 4K ready TV, in all its glory.
This marketing focus on a larger, more expensive, tech gift can be seen as a solution for the recent crackdown on consumer spend since Brexit, where a recent CBI trades survey of 106 firms, including 49 retailers, showed retail sales fell this month at their steepest rate since the recession.
While the ads centre around humour and several light-hearted moments, they also demonstrate that the retailer has an effective blend of the right services, right products and right prices, to help customers ‘get it right’ this Christmas.
The campaign will feature 40” hero TV executions alongside a suite of 10 sponsorship idents breaking over November and December, starting on air from Wednesday 1st November, and is supported by promotional activity throughout November and December.
The ads will appear during some high-profile television slots on ITV (Coronation Street, Doc Martin, Jonathan Ross, The X Factor and Sheridan) and Channel 4 (Ugly House to Lovely House, Celebrity First Dates and The Last Leg) across November, as well as commercial broadcasters including ITV, C4, C5 and Sky Multichannel.
The campaign is one element of a fully-integrated nationwide campaign, set to incorporate all areas of the business right down through to Currys PC World stores.
Head of Brand and Advertising at Dixons Carphone, Georgina Bramall said: “As market leaders, it’s our job to set an example and do everything we can to help customers ‘get it right’ at Christmas - so it makes complete sense that our own store colleagues test-out and get hands-on with the products for themselves. Being able to access expert advice from people who know and love technology is not just reassuring – it’s essential. Increasingly, this is what sets us apart from our competitors in the minds of our customers and our suppliers”
View one of the Currys PC World Christmas Advert's here: https://youtu.be/6u_NXcctJ6M
ASDA
And finally, this Sunday evening (5th November), Asda is set to unveil its offer for 2017 with a journey into the magical world of Asda’s very own Christmas workshop – the Imaginarium.
The 60 second ad will launch in the first ad break of X Factor on ITV on Sunday night and according to Asda’s Chief Customer Officer, Andy Murray, the idea came from seeing the reaction of Asda customers when they took part in tasting sessions of Asda’s Christmas range.
Murray explains: “Earlier in the year we held sessions with our customers to get feedback on our Christmas range. As we talked to them about Christmas we could see how much joy and happiness planning their Christmas brought them – we knew we wanted to reflect that in our ad. When we saw their reactions to our food – the way it surprised them and made them smile – as well as the incredible pride and attention to detail our product developers had put into creating it, the inspiration for the Imaginarium was born.”
The ad follows a young girl and her grandfather, who stumble across an intriguing and mysterious looking factory. As they sneak through the gates a magical world unfolds before their eyes and they discover Asda’s Christmas Imaginarium.
On their journey the pair discover the secrets behind Asda’s festive ranges. From a giant pop-up Christmas cookbook revealing two Asda chefs preparing a delicious Christmas dinner of roast turkey and Wagyu beef dripping roast potatoes, to an adult-only, futuristic gin room where truffles are being infused with gin by a giant ‘gin laser’ – the ad reinforces the imaginative ways Asda is working to provide the best Christmas ever for its customers.
Andy Murray, adds: “The care and attention that has gone into listening to our customers and creating our Christmas range this year is really impressive and the Imaginarium is the perfect showcase for the excitement and ethos behind our products. Whatever your age or budget, Christmas is the time of year when you’re open to a little bit of magic and wonderment and I’m really excited that we’ve been able to do our bit to provide that for our customers this year.
In addition to the 60 second ad, Asda will also air four 30 second adverts during the festive period, revealing more mysteries of the Asda Imaginarium and showcasing more of Asda’s food, George clothing and homeware.
View the Asda Christmas advert here: https://vimeo.com/241135386