Brands raise the bar with this year’s Christmas TV ads

For many, Christmas adverts mark the start of the festive period, with Coca-Cola and John Lewis among those TV spots most eagerly anticipated in the run-up to the celebrations.

This festive season, brands are expected to spend a record £6.8 billion on advertising, however, TV advertising expenditure will actually be down by £1.4 billion as marketers focus their efforts on online, radio and cinema advertising.

Despite the drop in TV advertising spend, brands have still cooked up a feast for us enjoy while curled up on the sofa with a steaming mug of hot chocolate and a re-run of our favourite Christmas film.

We’ve pruned the pile of festive offerings and selected our top five ads of the season and crowned this year’s Christmas cracker.

The best Christmas ads of 2019

5 – John Lewis and Waitrose: Excitable Edgar

By far the most anticipated advert of the season, John Lewis has teamed up with Waitrose in the first campaign designed to bring the two brands closer together. And while, some say, the story of Excitable Edgar – a somewhat clumsy young dragon – hasn’t quite captured hearts in the same way as Buster the Boxer, the Man on the Moon or the journey of the snowman, he’s still done enough to make it into our top five.

Edgar’s story encapsulates both brands earlier styles, adopting the humour of Waitrose and the moving poignancy of John Lewis to take us on an emotional rollercoaster. It’s not just TV screens that you can catch a glimpse of Excitable Edgar, though. Find him on a Snapchat filter, check out his hashtag and emoji on Twitter and you can also buy an Edgar soft toy from stores. We think it’s fair to say John Lewis and Waitrose have pulled together a festive bundle for audiences of all ages to enjoy.

4 – Marks and Spencer: Go Jumpers for Christmas

Marks and Spencer (M&S) has produced a series of feel-good adverts to showcase its seasonal food and clothing offers, but we feel one stands head and shoulders above the others.

Deciding to buck the trend of emotionally-charged festive adverts, M&S has instead tried to make audiences jump for joy with a high-spirited spot promoting the brand’s Christmas jumper range.

Helmed by director Jake Nava, whose credits include Beyoncé’s Single Ladies music video, the advert features a squad of jumper-adorned individuals who are pulled together by their festive attire into a group routine featuring a distinctive shoulder roll the retailer hopes will take off over the season.

The result is an absolute triumph of festive feeling, despite featuring the song least likely to be associated with Christmas: House of Pain’s Jump Around.

3 – Argos: The Book of Dreams

Drawing on the nation’s nostalgia for the Argos catalogue, this year’s advert puts ‘The Book of Dreams’ centre stage, aiming to make viewers smile. A father notices his daughter has circled a drum kit in the catalogue, which in turn sees his kitchen transform into a music stage, complete with scenes of a kitchen-cupboard sound system and fridge-freezer dry ice.

Set to Simple Minds’ Don’t You (Forget About Me), the story culminates in the daughter joining her father for a full blown concert to show off some serious drumming skills.

This Christmas advert exudes happiness and has been launched alongside a digital campaign, which sees 40 years of Argos back catalogues available online. Top tip: they’re definitely worth a look!

2 – Ikea: Silence the Critics

Just missing out on our top spot is Ikea’s rather alternative seasonal offering in the form of its first ever Christmas advert.

‘Silence the Critics’ does away with the glitz and the glamour of more traditional Christmas TV adverts, as viewers hear grime artist D Double E acting as the voice of the aforementioned Critics. In this case, the critics in the advert are various objects and ornaments that come to life – including a china panda and plastic dinosaur – to taunt a young family about their home décor.

This advert manages plays on a feeling experienced by many homeowners who welcome guests into their home… that their décor, comprising a sagging sofa or grubby carpets, could do with a little more love.

And of course Ikea’s answer to this is to silence those inner critics and defy “home shame” by sprucing up your furnishings ready to welcome festive visitors.

And our top Christmas advert for 2019 is…

1 – Aldi: Kevin the Carrot

Securing our Christmas number one is Aldi’s festive showstopper with the return of the Kevin the Carrot.

Telling the tale of a battle between the Christmas trimmings, Aldi pitches hero Kevin the Carrot against villain Russell Sprout and his gang of Leafy Blinders (think Peaky Blinders) in what is by far the most memorable advert of the year.

In what appears to be a mash of many concepts, this Christmas accompaniment does well to keep you entertained while drawing on imagery from the Greatest Showman, Beauty and the Beast, all set to a suitably updated version of Robbie Williams’ Let Me Entertain You.

The creativity, imagination and conviction to pull off this story stuffed with cheesy puns is why Aldi makes the top of our list this Christmas.

At Freshwater, we are proud to work with clients to create bold advertising campaigns, using behavioural science to inform our work. Find out more here.