We’re more than just another consultancy. We are founding partners of byTheNetwork, an award-winning, global network of 34 independent agencies; covering 34+ key markets worldwide.
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We’re more than just another consultancy. We are founding partners of byTheNetwork, an award-winning, global network of 34 independent agencies; covering 34+ key markets worldwide.
It’s the time of year where there’s a new Christmas ad every other week.
It’s an advertising Christmas tradition.
Find an iconic soundtrack. Put in all the feels you want from Christmas. You got to have kids in there. And then there’s the onslaught of commentaries from the industry about which brands nailed it.
What if we had a slightly different take on these beloved Christmas ads.
What if we looked back and asked ourselves, which ones are worth remembering.
So that’s what we’re doing for the next 12 days.
Unwrapping the most impactful Christmas ads over the last decade.
Whilst the most famous Christmas ads come out of the UK. John Lewis reigns supreme. In Australia, there’s a different ruler. Aldi.
Back in 2017, Aldi released “More the Merrier” with their agency BMF.
Firstly, this is a beautiful piece of advertising and craft. God damn.
We don’t get the snow and white Christmas cliches down under, so when brands celebrate Christmas here, there’s a genuine and joyful Australian spin that is unlike anywhere else in the world.
Back in 2017, Aldi Australia, which is famous for being a value brand, chose to turn an Australian tradition of backyard cricket into an epic Christmas story and make an Aldi all about generosity.
Believe it or not, Australians have more people around at Christmas than other places in the world. The more people you have around at Christmas, the more generous you are. And Aldi and their value positioning was the perfect brand to own that space.
Now, the fact they took that idea “hosting = generosity”, and turned it into a 40 year stand of backyard cricket is gorgeous. It’s uniquely Australian.
Did it work?
Aldi wasn’t just a value player anymore. People began to see them as a quality grocery market as well. And they sold more than they had the previous few years. Not bad.
There’s loads of reasons to love this Christmas ad. But at the end of the day, it’s a time of year when every brand, all around the world is trying to leverage the feels and shopping occasion of Christmas with the same old cliches.
Presents, Christmas morning, the joy of giving. But this didn’t do any of that. This was a 40 year game of backyard cricket in the Aussie summer. And that’s what Christmas is down here. Not bad for a discount German grocery brand.
→ Danish is one of the most awarded strategists in the world, having worked on some of the most iconic brands in the last decade including Virgin Atlantic, Coca Cola, and Volvo. Danish spent his career helping to make modern, connected strategy integral to world-class effective work. A co-founder of Untangld, and a founding partner of By The Network, Danish is also a regular judge at the Effies and WARC Global Effectiveness Awards and a contributor to popular industry rags.
