KEN BANKS’BLOG DECEMBER 2022
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Holiday Brands with Memorable Creative!
The holiday season is upon us and it’s amazing to me how the advertising at this time of year has changed significantly. Thanksgiving week newspapers used to bulge with the amount of inserts and ROP ads. Our mailboxes used to be stuffed with thick Christmas Catalogues. Broadcast spots used to be worth watching just for the great creative messaging. Online has certainly had its effect on all of this mass media. However, it still is a time for great creative messaging that hits our heart on the way to our wallets. Not so much anymore. Yet, there are still some marketers that take the time to capture the spirit of the season with spots that provide a positive perspective on the season. Here are just a few that I’ve noticed this year.
PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS. Always on my list, Publix started the season on target with this great Thanksgiving spot that reminds us that family is still the key to this holiday.
Click here to view this wonderful spot. https://youtu.be/4kAssyB09Bg
AMAZON. One of the reasons for the decline in the media advertising of former holidays. Amazon continues to hit the heartstrings with this special commercial of an unfortunate family situation.
Click on some Christmas joy. https://youtu.be/jQWLKhhWBTs
BMW. Christmas auto spots normally have Santa driving the latest model (in red) of their cars followed by low interest offer. BMW created this cute spot to present how I might get one for Christmas this year.
Click here for a surprise. https://youtu.be/gOxJovrDxzw
SOUTHEAST GUIDE DOGS. One of the best presents I ever gave my wife was little white puppy from the local shelter. Here’s an interesting take on a similar idea.
Click here for an animated spot with heart. https://youtu.be/6P1Jkvlhgrg
LOBBY HOBBY. Another regular contributor to my list of great Christmas spots. Lobby Hobby keeps it simple yet heartwarming,
Click here: https://youtu.be/kOME-jeiJOk
WEST JET AIRLINES. Every year WestJet does miracles for its passengers and communities. https://youtu.be/OSYhPIAIU9oLast year was no different when they helped Canadians get back to travel and seeing their families. Here’s a short video that is truly the spirit of Christmas. Click Here: https://youtu.be/OSYhPIAIU9o
BONUS CHRISTMAS STORY. Here’s an article that I got on Facebook recently that shows that we advertising professional have had an impact on the holiday season. I hadn’t heard this but it’s great to read.
Wow, I had no idea about the origin story of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer! If you aren’t familiar with it either, read below:
As the holiday season of 1938 came to Chicago, Bob May wasn’t feeling much comfort or joy. A 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward, May was exhausted and nearly broke. His wife, Evelyn, was bedridden, on the losing end of a two-year battle with cancer. This left Bob to look after their four-year old-daughter, Barbara.
One night, Barbara asked her father, “Why isn’t my mommy like everybody else’s mommy?” As he struggled to answer his daughter’s question, Bob remembered the pain of his own childhood. A small, sickly boy, he was constantly picked on and called names. But he wanted to give his daughter hope, and show her that being different was nothing to be ashamed of. More than that, he wanted her to know that he loved her and would always take care of her. So he began to spin a tale about a reindeer with a bright red nose who found a special place on Santa’s team. Barbara loved the story so much that she made her father tell it every night before bedtime. As he did, it grew more elaborate. Because he couldn’t afford to buy his daughter a gift for Christmas, Bob decided to turn the story into a homemade picture book.
In early December, Bob’s wife died. Though he was heartbroken, he kept working on the book for his daughter. A few days before Christmas, he reluctantly attended a company party at Montgomery Ward. His co-workers encouraged him to share the story he’d written. After he read it, there was a standing ovation. Everyone wanted copies of their own. Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book from their debt-ridden employee. Over the next six years, at Christmas, they gave away six million copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to shoppers. Every major publishing house in the country was making offers to obtain the book. In an incredible display of good will, the head of the department store returned all rights to Bob May. Four years later, Rudolph had made him into a millionaire.
Now remarried with a growing family, May felt blessed by his good fortune. But there was more to come. His brother-in-law, a successful songwriter named Johnny Marks, set the uplifting story to music. The song was pitched to artists from Bing Crosby on down. They all passed. Finally, Marks approached Gene Autry. The cowboy star had scored a holiday hit with “Here Comes Santa Claus” a few years before. Like the others, Autry wasn’t impressed with the song about the misfit reindeer. Marks begged him to give it a second listen. Autry played it for his wife, Ina. She was so touched by the line “They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games” that she insisted her husband record the tune.
Within a few years, it had become the second best-selling Christmas song ever, right behind “White Christmas.” Since then, Rudolph has come to life in TV specials, cartoons, movies, toys, games, coloring books, greeting cards and even a Ringling Bros. circus act. The little red-nosed reindeer dreamed up by Bob May and immortalized in song by Johnny Marks has come to symbolize Christmas as much as Santa Claus, evergreen trees and presents. As the last line of the song says, “He’ll go down in history.”
Ken
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