Iceland Foods: Jungle Bells

Discount food retailer Iceland has continued to use celebrity Peter Andre to front its TV advertising.  The Christmas 2014 campaign features a range of desserts and is notable for having background music recorded by Andre himself.  He has recorded a whole album which is available exclusively in Iceland - and via iTunes.  There does not appear to be any charity tie-in with this album - something that Asda and John Lewis have set up with their Christmas music.

The ad was premiered on November 5, but to date its 16,000 viewings must be disappointing for a high profile campaign.  Andre's White Christmas album has yet to appear in the UK charts.  The campaign has perhaps been overshadowed by controversy on November 17 after the singer was reported to have poked fun at his sponsor on another TV show.  In what was described as an audience backlash, there were calls on social media for Andre to be sacked by Iceland.

Iceland actually is relatively insignificant on Twitter with just 18,000 followers (compared to Sainsbury's 300,000) and we have been hard put to find the resignation calls.  Iceland's social media pages are dedicated largely to their promotion of the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity.  In addition to the visuals on Facebook and Twitter, the company produces Celebrity themed merchandise in store, including a board game.  Almost the entire social media commentary is based around the TV show, although Iceland does incentivize its fans with prizes from time to time.



Imaginatively, it has themed displays instore where shoppers can photograph themselves in a Celebrity photomontage and share the resulting images online.  On Twitter the most commonly used hashtag is #ImACeleb.  For the moment, at least, Christmas has yet to arrive at Iceland.  No wonder the TV commercial is doing so badly on YouTube.

Peter Andre works reasonably hard for his sponsors.  On Twitter his 3.2 million fans dwarf Iceland's small following, and he is regularly linking his supporters to the supermarket's social media campaigns.

In summary: a lot of things waiting to happen. Including Christmas.  In the meantime, business as usual.

Primark, TK Maxx and Matalan

TK Maxx, Primark and Matalan are all large retailers, competing for the same sorts of business as Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, John Lewis, Littlewoods and the House of Fraser. For all of these stores, the Christmas season is the busiest time of year, so how have they set out their stalls on television this year?

 The TK Maxx advertisement was released on November 5.  It has a punchy backing track from Solomon Burke, 'Everybody needs somebody to love'.  However, there is no download tie-in to iTunes.  The ad has been seen just short of 12,000 times on YouTube. There are 6 companion pieces showing the 'ordinary' couples who feature in the original ad.  Viewings for these are numbered in the hundreds.

TK Maxx has a fairly small Twitter following of 25,000, who are treated to offers and promotions, with a few competitions thrown in.  The Twitter feed promotes the videos extensively.  However there is no recognisable TK Maxx hashtag being used. It is very much the same story on Facebook, where TKM has nearly 430,000 fans.




Primark's TV advertisement, launched on 20 October, has had a mere 5,600 viewings.  We know absolutely nothing about this ad.  However, the company has more Facebook fans than any other UK retailer (nearly 3.5 million) and is consistently growing its business.  Primark uses Facebook extensively and embeds movies on the FB pages.  Most postings are heavily 'liked' and commented on, and Primark seem not to have the problem with complaining customers using Facebook to sound off about poor service or faulty products.

Primark's Twitter pages have nowhere near the same audience, although they repeat much of the same material.  Their use of hashtags is generic: for example #Christmas, #Primark, #menswear.




Finally, Matalan's Christmas to Remember may be the one they want to forget, with just 900 views since its launch on November 13.  The explanation for these dismal figures may be the earlier release launch of another Matalan commercial, tied in with a fund-raising campaign based around Pixie Lott's music.  This is downloadable from iTunes, as happens with music from John Lewis's TV campaign and Asda's.  The charity advert, Alphabet Scarves, has a much more impressive 115,000 viewings.

Unsurprisingly, the charitable campaign features on Matalan's social media platforms.  The company has 183,000 'likes' on Facebook, a comparatively small figure for a national retailer.  Similarly, Matalan have kept the Alphabet Scarves campaign prominent on Twitter.  Here the hashtags #AlphabetScarf and #scarfie are working well for Matalan.

PC World and Halfords

As a retailer of electrical hardware, a firm like Currys PC World depends on the boost to demand that Christmas provides.  Similarly, the UK's largest bicycle retailer, Halfords, relies on Christmas sales - Halfords, in fact, launched their Christmas TV advertisement on 1 October this year.

Currys PC World brought out their advertisement on 21 October, still early even by retailer standards.  They also launched a companion, the-making-of-the-ad video on YoutTube at the same time, something tried by several other retailers this year.  The main advertisement features some slick graphics where consumer electronics and white goods in a warehouse appear to waltz to a catchy soundtrack.  Viewing figures, at just over 15,000 to date, must be disappointing.

On Twitter the company promoted the ad's theme as the hashtag #WeStartWithYou.  Indeed, this began promisingly around the lanch date, but didn't make it into November even.  Curry's PC World are one of the smaller retail presences on Twitter with just 54,000 followers.  They are far more comfortable on Facebook where they have nearly half a million fans.  Unfortunately, though, customers are invariably using these pages to complain about poor service and unreliable products.



Consumer electronics are all very well, but Halfords asks "does anything beat a bike?".  Their TV ad has gained over 185,000 views on YouTube  The Daily Telegraph was ambivalent about the ad but grudgingly admitted "It works".  The catchy soundtrack is by Cairobi: called Zoraide it is available to download, although Halfords has none of the charity tie-ins favoured by John Lewis or Asda for their Christmas music.

Halfords' presence on social media is far less obvious than for most similarly-sized retailers.  Their 27,000 Twitter fans are given a regular diet of competitions and offers.  Here Halfords uses the predictable hashtags #Christmas and #Xmas.  They have had more success with #nothingbeatsabike, and have been able to link this back to the TV advertisement on YouTube.  Halfords are the least active of any of our sample of major retailers on Facebook, with just 52,000 likes to show.  Their Facebook pages mostly reflect what they do on Twitter: competitions, offers and promotions.




Our verdict: two very well made advertisements, effectively using music but not getting the engagement of other retailers.  Maybe they peaked too early.  Christmas?  October?

House of Fraser & Harrods: a Tale of Two Retailers

Arguably the world's most famous department store, Harrods was at one time part of the House of Fraser group.  Now the two trade separately and compete for the same customers.

House of Fraser operates over 60 stores across the UK and Ireland, and has recently opened a store in Abu Dhabi.  They launched their TV advertisement on 14 November.  A second version was launched on 19 November, with the same theme. This was reported to be their first brand advertising on TV for over a decade, and part of a £4 million investment in branding. At the time of writing it had received a meager 17,000 viewings compared to the 17 million achieved by direct rival John Lewis. The second installment from HoF is currently scoring just over 4,000 hits.  One journalist wondered HoF had produced "the most boring Christmas advert of 2014".  However, digital measurement analyics reported that there had been a 610% jump in interest in House of Fraser as a result of the advertisement.



Curiously, House of Fraser does not appear even to have mentioned this major new piece of branding to its 300,000 Facebook fans.  It is highly proactive in providing quizzes, competitions and special offers, but no links through to YouTube apart from on the page's sidebar.  They have even put on a promotion that seems to borrow from Marks & Spencer's #TheTwoFairies idea of making gifts to random good causes.  The Facebook intiatives are largely replicated on Twitter, although the moderators there have attempted (repeatedly) to publicise the ads on YouTube.  There is no dedicated hashtag in use.

Harrods, by contrast, have produced a TV and cinema advertisement that is getting viewed and talked about.  Its animated film is striking and was described by the Daily Telegraph as "charming in a very understated way".  Harrods has far more followers on Twitter (432,000 of them) than any other UK retailer.  It has not followed John Lewis (Monty the Penguin) and Homebase (Harriet) in making its central character into a social media sensation, although it does frequently name tag its Peter Pumpernickel character.  Harrods's preferred hashtag is the predictable #HarrodsChristmas.



Harrods has announced a selfie-based competition in store featuring the mouse character.  No PP merchandise, though - a wasted opportunity perhaps, given that Monty the Penguin replicas sold out in John Lewis on day one, despite their £95 price tag.  Harrods are using Facebook and Instagram to publicise its Christmas campaign.  Once again, Harrods is immensely popular on these sites, with over 600,000 likes on Facebook.  They are constant communicators here, with most of the postings engaging effectively with Harrods fans, who 'like' the posts in their hundreds and comment frequently.  But despite their social media skills and the eye-catching quality of the advertisement, 37,000 viewings on YouTube is a disappointing return.  Particularly when contrasted with John Lewis's 17 million hits.

Do-it-yourself @Christmas

The two major home improvement (DIY) retailers have positioned themselves to get a slice of the festive spending.  B&Q launched their Christmas advertisement on 7 November, and Homebase followed on 19 November.

B&Q's movie seems there to show that the firm not only sells trees, lights and decorations, but a range of toys also.  The ad itself is pretty unremarkable: what is more interesting is their campaign to get digital engagement via something called The Big Switch On.  The company is encouraging customers to decorate their trees and to film the moment when the lights are lit.

These bits of film are then uploaded to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, using the hashtag #ChrismasUnleashed.  B&Q have a long running campaign using the term unleashed.
B&Q then add the location of these uploads to a UK map.  This mirrors the Waitrose campaign to get customers singing; in both cases the companies promise that the best results will appear in later TV advertising.



At the time of writing (25 November) this imaginative idea hasn't exactly gone viral.  The map shows a few dots around London and one in the Bournemouth area.  But it is early days and the plan seems to be to make December 6 be the big switch on day.  B&Q's 46,000 Twitter followers seem muted.  In fact the #ChrismasUnleashed hashtag seems to be being used by other retailers and as a generic term by the Twitterati.  Both here and on Facebook (B&Q has over 125,000 likes) the moderators are dilligently promoting the Big Switch On: however, on Facebook at least these posts are often being hijacked by disgruntled customers complaining about poor service or faulty products.  The Christmas TV ad has to date performed miserably on YouTube with just 12,000 viewings.

Homebase launched their TV ad less than a week ago (19 November) but are already showing viewing figures ten times those recorded by their competitor.  Homebase have created their own cute canine character, Homebase Harriet, with a dedicated social media presence on Twitter. In doing this they are following John Lewis's lead creating a virtual identity for Monty the Penguin.  Harriet has her own TV commercial which has gained an impressive 140,000 viewings in less than a week. To date Harriet has failed to get anything like the social media traction shown by Monty, with just 71 followers to Monty's 33,000.



In summary, two similar brands, both promising to transform fairly mundane TV advertising campaigns with promising sounding social media strategies.

Sainsbury's: a Fading Christmas Star?

It all started so well.  Sainsbury's launched their 2014 Christmas TV advertisement online on 12 November, and then premiered it on ITV the following day.  As we were first commenting on it, the ad was getting 150,000 hits an hour on YouTube.  At the time of writing (23 November) it has been seen 11.6 million times, an average of a million views per day.  Not as impressive as John Lewis's 17 million viewings, but streets ahead of all other supermarkets.  Even the companion film, the making of our Christmas ad has been seen over 300,000 times.

The Sainsbury's advertisement: image from the Metro

Sainsbury's announced the ad on their Facebook page on 12 November.  The reaction was immediate, with the post clocking up nearly 8,400 'likes' to date, 888 'shares' and 631 comments from fans. Once again, though, comparisons with John Lewis put these figures into perspective:  Monty the Penguin had nearly 150,000 'likes' on Facebook, 156,000 'shares' and nearly 13,000 comments.

So, what is the problem with this campaign?  As we noted at the launch, choosing the subject of war for an advertisement was always going to be risky. In the initial few days the critical reaction, in the mainstream press at least, was favourable, but there was little of the viral link sharing that we had seen around the John Lewis campaign.

Part of the problem may have been popular confusion: people just did not know how to react.  Most agreed that it was an emotional film with an uplifting theme.  But Monty the Penguin was a compelling, emotional narrative with a happy ending.

Within a few days a muted counter-reaction started becoming evident in the press.  The Guardian's Ally Fogg denounced it as "a dangerous and disrespectful masterpiece".  Ellen Stweart in the Metro called it "distasteful at best and exploitative at worst".  Sainsbury's were accused of hypocrisy by the Independent, the Daily Mail and the Metro.  

The Guardian's tweet about Fogg's piece was retweeted 114 times and favourited 69 times.  Stewart's article scored just 15 retweets and 12 favourites.  So although the original Sainsbury's campaign was muted by comparison to John Lewis, the counter-reaction was fairly slow coming also.

More worrying, perhaps, was the fact that by November 16, just 3 days since the ad was first broadcast, the Advertising Standards Authority had received 240 complaints from viewers,  "most citing the cynical use of 'World War One themes/imagery to promote a supermarket' as 'upsetting' and 'disrespectful'" according to Adland.

Sainsbury's itself seemed to lose interest in the possibility of the campaign going viral.  Although it reminded its Facebook fans of the campaign on 18 November, there was comparatively little re-engagement, with a mere 136 likes, 3 shares and 18 comments.  However, their piece on the same platform on that day about the campaign-themed chocolate bars drew 4049 likes and 513 shares.  Another reference to the ad on 19 November, the last to date, scored a dismal 56 shares and 280 likes on Facebook.

Since the launch the official Facebook postings have used the hashtag  #ChristmasIsForSharing just once.  By contrast, a 21 November posting about range of turkeys in store had 93 shares and 3245 likes, 59 comments.  Almost all postings from Sainsbury's on Facebook since 18 November have been food related.

The Sainsbury's campaign appears to have engaged on an emotional level with audiences, but that engagement has not translated itself into any of the sustained interactions with the brand that John Lewis has demonstrated.  Most of us like the advertisement, we think it is worthwhile, but we don't know what to do with it.  By contrast Monty the Penguin makes millions of us laugh and cry: we identify with him, and by extension with John Lewis.  Most importantly we want to tell our friends and family.

The Upstarts: Lidl, Aldi and #LittleSurprises

For supermarkets the Christmas season represents a chance to boost sales and profits at a time when normal rules are suspended.  According to market researchers Kantar, all of the top 5 UK supermarkets (with the exception of Asda) are losing market share.  While gains have been made by Waitrose and small multiple stores, the biggest gainers are Lidl (up 18% in the latest quarter) and Aldi (27% higher in the same period).

Jools Holland in the 2014 Aldi advertisement
Picture from MarketingMagazine

Both these stores are well established challengers to Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.  Each of these have now rolled out impressive-sounding TV advertising campaigns for 2014.  It is important to remember, though, that the biggest spender in 2013 was Tesco, who actually lost sales during the festive period.

Lidl's campaign for the end of 2014 is part of a much larger one, based around the theme of 'Lidl surprises'.  The overall campaign (not just the Christmas part) is costing the company  £20 million (according to The Grocer) - this looks impressive except when set against Tesco's spend last year of £25 million.  Lidl, like other supermarkets this year, intend to get more value out of their advertising by linking it to social media and other channels.

The 'surprises' theme in the Lidl advertisement comes over in the reaction of the 'ordinary people' from Hertfordshire who are seen tucking into a Christmas meal prepared from Lidl groceries.  There is surprise at being served lobster at the start, and stollen for dessert. Most of all, the diners are surprised to discover the provenance of the food: they had believed that it was from Waitrose or Marks & Spencer (both named in the film).  This should come as no surprise as Lidl had named these as targets in the pre-publicity.

On social media Lidl has been promoting the campaign, and has succeeded in getting the advertisement seen nearly 300,000 times to date.  Of course this is a small figure alongside the 12 million views that Sainsbury's has achieved.  Lidl is far less active on Twitter than all its competitors with a mere 16,500 followers.  Here there seems to be a great deal of confusion, with the official Twitter feed using numerous hashtags including #LidlChristmas, #Lidler and #LidlSurprises.  The social media channels are very effective at getting over the 'surprising' new Christmas goodies in store.

Lidl has 750,000 Facebook fans, where is uses the same range of hashtags.  The campaign launch was somewhat overshadowed by Lidl introducing what was popularly believed to be a "ban" on the use of any language but English by staff in Lidl stores.  

Aldi, unlike most retailers in 2014, has opted to feature a celebrity: Jules Holland and his band appear at the end of commercial.  The theme of the advertisement, "everyone's coming to us" is a witty poke at the way Aldi is growing at the expense of established competitors.  The TV advertisement itself, launched on Novemer 5, is nowhere near as popular as Lidl's, gaining just 50,000 views to date, despite the celebrity endorsement.  However the company outscores its German rival on Facebook with over 800,000 fans.  It also has a far larger Twitter following.  Both high scores are probably attributable to the company's successful ways at 'incentivizing' its fans with competitions and offers.  There is just one mention of the TV campaign, though.

The success of Aldi and Lidl should not be overstated: much of it is attributable to locational effects - both firms are opening new stores steadily across the UK.  Their campaigns in broadcast media and online stress product quality over low prices.  But the market share figures speak for themselves: everyone is going to them.

Waitrose: in the Shadow of the Penguin

Heston Blumenthal: dropped from
the Christmas advertising in 2014

Waitrose is another retailer that decided not to use celebrities in its TV advertising in 2014.  At least this is how the supermarket announced the new campaign.  It is slightly misleading as celebrity chef Heston Blumental continues to work for Waitrose, but his focus is far more on cooking, with the results being posted to the firm's YouTube pages.

Waitrose is part of the John Lewis group of companies: the department store arm of the business has been making headlines with the runaway success of its 2014 campaign, featuring Monty the Penguin.  But Waitrose started its campaigning early, with the launch on October 15 of  'Donate Your Voice', where ordinary members of the public were encouraged to record their voices singing a Dolly Parton song, with the final result being a compilation of voices in a single released for charity.  This was an ambitious attempt to achieve three things: to build brand value, to gain points for Corporate and Social Responsbility (CSR) and to encourage digital engagement.

The results of Donate Your Voice were released as a short video on YouTube on 10 November.  This was shortly after the launch of a separate, dedicate TV advertisement from Waitrose, called The Gingerbread Stall.   The latter was broadcast, but has also clocked up over half a million viewings on Youtube to date.  The Voice piece, by contrast, has had 125,000 viewings.

It seems a pity that Donate Your Voice seems to have been overshadowed by both Monty the Penguin and by the Gingerbread advertisement.  The single, which had been talked up as a possible Christmas Number One has not got into the charts, while the John Lewis music (Tom Odell's Real Love) rose to number 7 in the middle of October before dropping back.  The proceeds from Real Love were earmarked for the World Wildlife Fund: three separate charities are due to benefit from the Donate Your Voice campaign.



The viewing figures comparison is misleading, as voices from the earlier campaign featured in mainstream TV commercial.  This encourages audiences to download the single.  Curiously, given the company's apparent mastery of social media, the Waitrose Facebook page does not appear to have promoted the advert at all - it linked to a 'behind-the-scenes' film about the ad, before continuing to talk about foods and recipes as normal.  Strange, as Waitrose has more than 200,000 fans on Facebook.  The lack of attention given to the advertisement was replicated on Twitter (Waitrose has 172,000 followers), where there was a token reference to the behind-the-scenes video and nothing else.  Since then more food, recipes and the celebrity chef.  No hashtag, no apparent effort to leverage the social media value of the Donate Your Voice campaign.  Business as usual.

John Lewis, by contrast, has gained maximum value from its TV commercial and built a mass of social media engagement around it.  Waitrose seem to have had some good ideas built around their core brand values of people and altruism, but hasn't followed through with them.  Their half million viewing on YouTube look impressive, excepdit when compared to the 17 million that Monty the Penguin has been able to achieve.

Littlewoods and the Repositioning of Myleene Klass

A few days ago we reported on the launch of Littlewoods's Christmas TV advertising, as well as the detailed on-the-ground campaign that was planned to back it up.  Core to the campaign was the figure of Myleene Klass.  While competitors such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis had in previous years invested heavily in celebrities for their Christmas campaigns, the trend in 2014 has been to save money and focus on developing the brand narrative.  Apart from Littlewoods, the only major retailers to use celebrities this year have been Morrisons (with Ant and Dec) and Iceland (with Peter Andre).

Myleene Klass's Twitter picture: a brand repositioning?

Using celebrities has always been popular with brands as they raise the profile and gain you popular recognition.  In the digital environment, too, the celebrity's fanbase on Twitter and FaceBook is usually far larger than the retailer's, and we can see Peter Andre in particular working this resource effectively for the benefit of his employer.

Littlewoods this week have seen a massive boost to their visibility through the involvement of Myleene Klass, but probably for the wrong reasons.  The controversy started on 17 November when she appeared in a TV debate with politician Ed Miliband, the leader of Britain's Labour party.  Klass energetically laid into Labour's plans for a so-called Mansion Tax.
 
Over the following days, much of the popular press focused on Milliband's discomfort - and so the controversy did not undermine the Littlewoods brand.  But Labour then produced a response almost tailor-made for the social media age: Milliband's PRs used the phrase "pure and simple" - a direct reference to the 2001 pop single from a made-for-TV band called Hear'Say, featuring a then unknown Myleene Klass.  The original tweet announcing this, at the time of writing, has been re-tweeted 900 times and has been favourited 444 times.

Almost immediately, online and in the mainstream media Myleene Klass became a target of derision.  The Daily Telegraph called her "a deadly force of nature":  Klass's rhetorical question in the original TV debate "have you seen what [£2 million] can get you? It’s like a garage" became a meme in itself, with social media users only too happy to provide answers.  As a result the Klass brand which was originally aligned with popular TV reality shows such as I'm a Celebrity came to be more associated with wealth and privilege.  The so called Mansion Tax that Klass was taking issue with would affect just 1% of the houses in Britain, with their millionnaire residents being unlikely ever to be Littlewoods customers.  Her intervention certainly generated publicity for Klass (and she was not slow to use it to promote a possible Hear'Say comeback).

Klass and Miliband in the original TV debate: picture Daily Mail

The publicity also meant that pre-arranged parta of the Littlewoods Christmas campaign got far more publicity than they might have done prior to the media storm.  Obligingly, the Daily Mail's "exclusive" on 19 November never even mentioned Mansion Tax.  While this may have been a damage limitation exercise by Klass and Littlewoods, it had little effect. On the same day an online petition was started to have Klass dropped as the face of Littlewoods citing her “deeply insensitive and ignorant comments”.  This then sparked a counter petition calling for the anti-Klass petition to be withdrawn.

Meme and counter meme: at the time of writing, there are 15 times more people wanting Littlewoods to drop Klass than there are digital voters wanting the 'drop Klass' campaign stopped.  Klass herself is being uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter.  As we noted with John Lewis's Monty the Penguin meme, the popular counter-blast does not necessarily harm the original.  It may be a different matter for Littlewoods.

Is this war? Morrisons and #MakeChristmasSpecial

Ant & Dec in the new advertisement.  Picture Daily Star

The last major UK retailer to reveal their Christmas advertising campaign is Morrisons.  This is launching tonight (14 November) during the commercial break in Coronation Street, which should expose the ad to around 7 million viewers.
 
Morrisons' 350,000 Facebook fans were given a preview last night, while the ad was launched on YouTube earlier today.  It was a slow start: at the time of writing the ad was getting about 50 hits an hour on the official page: in the same period last night, Sainsbury's were achieving 150,000 an hour.  Sainsbury's have a theme of war, and the press have been making it clear that competition on the high street is so severe that war is exactly what is being declared on TV and online.

According to the popular press Morrisons are targeting Lidl and Aldi, and using the ad to stress the freshness of their food.  Evidently 2013 found Morrisons shoppers to be "promiscuous", splitting their shopping between the major supermarket and their cheaper German rivals. With like-for-like sales down 7.4% in the first 6 months of 2014, this turned out to be "disastrous" for Morrisions and the new campaign aims to win the wayward shoppers back into a monogamous relationship.

Marketing is the key to Morrisons' turnaround strategy, according to their brand and communications director; the plan is to "ramp up [the] Christmas marketing budget".  Last year Tesco did the same and actually saw a drop in sales of 2.4%.  Morrisons plans to be more clever with their spend: like others it has plans to leverage social media traffic.  This involves music, with the supermarket sponsoring Capital FM's Jingle Bell Ball, and a deal with boy band Union J.  Both of these initiatives are designed to give audiences content to share on social media. Union J have more than 1.5 million Twitter followers, mostly thought to be children or young teens.  The Jingle Bell Ball will associate Morrisons with major acts including Taylor Swift, Take That, OneRepublic and Ed Sheeran.

Morrisions are also behind the launch of a special recording of their Christmas song "It's beginning to look a lot like Chrismas" by Union J, which will be performed at special ''song booths' in some stores where customers will be able to record their own voices over the song and share these via social media.  Sounds like a terrible idea to us, but hey, there's a war on.



Some more point-of-sale promotion (rather than the virtual kind) will come via giant Christmas pudding shaped vans visiting 32 different stores, offering free food and money off vouchers.  This is similar to what online-only retailer Littlewoods is doing with pantomime themed promotions in city centres.

Morrisons are continuing to invest in celebrity endorsement, with the 2014 fronted by Ant and Dec as in previous years.  As we have noted in other posts, celebrities can be very useful in social media if they work for their money, as they generally have much larger fan bases than the retailers.  Morrisons have been attempting to kickstart the campaign via Twitter with the #MakeChristmasSpecial hashtag - a clumsy choice (too long and tricky to spell) which so far has gained no traction online.

In summary, a piece of advertising which will fail to engage with the chattering classes, but which clearly targets a particular audience - "Mums and kids".  Morrisons have thought through the issues and have something in place that may just people sharing its values.  The problem is that, at the time of writing at least, not even the mums and kids have bought into the campaign.

Sainsbury's declaration of war: #ChristmasIsForSharing

Commemorative WW1 chocolate: picture from The Guardian

What can we say about Sainsbury's 2014 Christmas TV commercial?

1. It has almost no product placement (like John Lewis);
2. At nearly 4 minutes, it is much longer than John Lewis);
3. It tugs at the emotional heartstrings (like John Lewis);
4. It "might not drive footfall directly, but it will build brand love and strengthen the consumer connection" (Marketing magazine), (just like John Lewis).

Or, as The Independent's headline put it, "Sainsbury's Christmas advert is like a 4-minute 'f*** you' to John Lewis and Monty the penguin".  At the time of writing the video on YouTube is being watched around 150,000 times every hour. In the 24 hours since the ad was screened 100,000 people have 'liked it' on Facebook.  There are 200 comments being posted about it on Twitter every hour.

The 2014 Sainsbury's Christmas advertisement replays the episode, almost 100 years ago, when enemies on the front line in World War I suspended hostilities on Christmas Day and joined in spontaneous acts of friendship with 'the enemy'.  It taps into growing public interest in the anniversary of the start of the war, and builds on a long-term 'Corporate Social Responsibility' (CSR) link that the company has with the Royal British Legion.

So is this all about John Lewis?  According to the press, yes.  Sainsbury's learned from John Lewis in 2013 that when you build brand, trust and emotional engagement, this translates into sales.  Sainsbury's shares the same sort of customer demographic as John Lewis, but has been losing market share throughout 2014.  The biggest spender on advertising in 2013 was Tesco, but their sales dropped over the crucial Christmas period.  Sainsbury's will engage with its audience: that's the plan, at least.

The small piece of product placement in the advertisement is a bar of chocolate.  It is available in stores for a modest £1.  The chocolate is made in Ypres, Belgium, the centre of some of the most bloody fighting in WW1.  All profits are being donated to the Royal British Legion which has historically looked after the interests of ex-servicemen.  The gesture looks generous alongside John Lewis's merchandising of Monty the Penguin.  Their £95 replica of Monty sold out in hours, but there was no associated charitable giving.

No doubt this stunning piece of film is going to win Sainsbury's and their creative team some advertising awards.  It is likely to win the hearts and minds of many who watch the advertisement.  The choice of war is a risky one: who wants to be reminded of its horrors?  But, as the press reminds us, supermarkets are engaged in their own battles and this campaign is one that Sainsbury's hope will go their way.

Postscript: in the hour that it has taken to write this post, Sainsburys's advertisement has been viewed nearly 200,000 times on YouTube.

Littlewoods: #CelebrityWishes

Image from Event Magazine

Celebrities feature in the 2014 TV commercial from Littlewoods.  The ad's theme is one of pantomime, as the characters appear to be acting out Aladdin on stage, complete with celebrities Myleene Klass and Christopher Biggins.

This creative execution is likely to be less controversial than their 2011 offering which received more than 450 complaints.  The ASA, the UK's advertising regulator, refused to investigate, and a lively debate started online about the merits of the campaign.  Most of the comments were negative to Littlewoods. Audience engagement, yes; a social media meme, perhaps not.

Many people watching the ads will be unaware that Littlewoods no longer has a presence on the High Street having started closing stores in 2004-5 and moved to online trading.  It is now in a highly competitive sector, up against slick online-only operations like Amazon as well as the online trading sites of other retailers.

The 2014 advertising, both on broadcast TV and online, links closely to the firm's shopping portals.  The ad itself is full of products and gift ideas.  Klass has a role as a fairy magically transforming gifts (something happening in this year's advertising from M&S which features two fairies). Klass's role in transforming wishes is part of the message to be developed on social media, themed around #LittlewoodsWishes (see below).  Biggins is there for comic relief.

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The TV campaign started on November 7, during the commerial break for Coronation Street, something which should have given Littlewoods around 7.5 million viewers.  At the time of writing the Youtube video had a respectable 350,000 viewings. A punchy soundtrack is delivered by Sam and the Womp's Bom Bom.  Littlewoods don't appear to have any plans to commercialize this in the way that Asda and John Lewis have done, where specially recorded tracks have been made available for download on iTunes and other platforms.  Myleene Klass is a talented classical musician in her own right, but her appearance here has more to do with her role as a 'brand ambassador' and fashion designer for the store.

The pantomime theme is not a random creative choice.  It highlights Littlewoods's deal with the Ambassador Theatre Group where Littlewoods are sponsoring pantomimes in 10 UK locations.  Tied into this is an ambitious 'Christmas Wishes Tour' which will travel to the cities involved (including Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow) with a themed combination of entertainment and retailing designed to put Littlewoods back into city centres.   The designers claim that  "This is a great example of experiential and digital out-of-home working hand-in-hand to drive customer engagement with the Littlewoods brand. The immersive nature of the activity, along with on-site technology and prizes, brings the brand to life and into consumer’s hands."

The tour will give Littlewoods the chance to develop a social media campaign around the hashtags #ChristmasWishes and #LittlewoodsWishes.  M&S is doing something similar with its #FollowTheFairies campaign.  Both campaigns are interesting examples of where retail brands are combining broadcast messages with online narratives linking into real-time, face-to-face engagement. Littlewoods is going further than most by using NFC technologies at their events to entice customers into their online stores via their smartphones.  We would expect to see Littlewoods using Klass and Biggins at these events.

Littlewoods have made brief reference to the new campaign on their Facebook pages, where they have approaching 200,000 fans.  Similarly, there has been a half-hearted promotion of #ChristmasWishes and #LittlewoodsWishes on Twitter where they have a more modest 39,000 followers. Myleene Klass is far more active in this medium, and tweets almost constantly to her 450,000 followers, including linking to her work for Littlewoods.  Christopher Biggins is quiet by comparison although this might change as #LittlewoodsWishes is ramped up.

Overall this is turning out to be an imaginative campaign with the various elements carefully thought through.  The mix of online and real-world, shopping and entertainment, should work well.  Currently, though, the focus is very much on engagement equaling transactions, and the social media elements have yet to get going.

Argos: Hip Hopping to #christmas

Argos's Christmas alien: SO last year.  Picture Marketing

Argos has produced something very different from the rest of the High Street this Christmas.  Get Set for Advent also marks a departure for Argos, which has traditionally based their Christmas ads around a family of aliens.

The new campaign is described by Marketing magazine: it is an up-tempo offering, based around a giant advent calendar containing gifts, BMX bikers, shiny reindeer, dancers, and other performers.  The dancing child at the top of the set is said to represent the fairy on the top of a Christmas tree - a mixed metaphor, perhaps, but never mind.

Overlaying the images is an atypical soundtrack: less brass band and more inner city hip-hop.  The music is by Run DMC, is called Christmas in Hollis, and is available for download from iTunes or the Android store.  Argos knows it is talking to the smart phone generation and Run DMC is the real thing, a band hailing from Queens, New York.  The ad "Will deliver energy and excitement into millions of living rooms to provide a modern twist to Christmas", according to their head of brand marketing.

This 21st century approach may be part of a wider campaign to modernise its image: the old catalogue in store is to be replaced by tablets and is targeting Amazon with a same-day delivery policy. Backing this up they have launched a Santa List app allowing children to make a digital wish list via their smartphone or tablet.

This foregrounding of the music matches what is being done by John Lewis and by Asda, both of whom feature new recordings which are available separately for sale.  But while these two make a point of having the proceeds donated to charities, Argos's is a profit-based transaction.  Christmas in the Hollis is an established number for the band and has been available without Argos's help since 2009.

The ad was premiered on TV on November 6, in a commercial break during Coronation Street.  25 years ago that would have given them an audience of 30 million; these days it is a more modest 7.5 million.  The ad was also posted to YouTube where it has gained 200,000 viewings in 5 days.  John Lewis's equivalent managed the same in its first couple of hours.

The 21st century impetus of the new advertising and app doesn't seem to have translated to social media.  Although Argos have 100,000 followers on Twitter the nearest they get to a hashtag is #christmas and #christmasad.  Hardly meme-generating.  Similarly their Facebook page links to the advert on YouTube and promotes the app, but doesn't try and develop an engaging narrative.

Curiously, Argos released a YouTube video simultaneously called Get Set for Emma Bunton, promoting the former Spice Girl's range of clothing and footwear.  This doesn't seem to have been promoted and at the time of writing was getting just 100 hits a day.

Overall the Advent campaign is surprising and refreshingly different.  But Argos seems to missing opportunities to engage with its fans, rather than merely selling them stuff.  While Argos and John Lewis have their artists and favoured charities promoting the social media campaign, there is nothing from Run DMC on Twitter.

Hip hip may be the face of the new Argos, but they need to try harder.

Boots: #SpecialBecause

Picture: the Daily Mail

The Christmas shopping season is as important to UK pharmacy Boots as to any other retailer on the high street.  What is unusual about their 2014 marketing campaign is that while most others bolt social media onto the TV advertising, Boots seems to have come up with the idea of a meme around giving first, and then designed other elements around it.

Boots are promoting #SpecialBecause, the pleasure of giving rather than the joy of receiving that features in many competing offerings.  Exceptions include Marks & Spencer whose social media campaign #FollowTheFairies is fed by a team travelling the UK performing random acts of kindness.  Boots is running something similar, "celebrating the little things that make big differences".

The advertisement tells the story of a family that makes the effort to make a mother feel special when she has had to work over Christmas day.  It features music by Alexi Murdoch, his Song for You subtly chiming with the whole theme of giving.  But while John Lewis and Asda have recorded special versions of their soundtracks and released them as singles, Boots uses Murdoch's recording unaltered.  In fact there is only a passing reference to it on YouTube.

On Twitter Boots encourages customers to engage with #SpecialBecause, but the idea seems to be taking time to catch on.  The advertisement was first screened on 7 November, like Tesco's new Christmas ad being premiered during the finale of Downton Abbey.  7-8 million viewers guaranteed.  YouTube has been less generous, delivering just 170,000 views in the 3 days since.  The official Boots Facebook page, with over 750,000 fans, have also been fairly coy about the campaign.

The decision to downplay the soundtrack seems like a missed opportunity.  John Lewis gained additional publicity when its Christmas number Real Love charted at number 21 in its first week.  Both they and Asda have had the charities which benefit from the royalties promoting the campaigns and helping generate the memes.  Boots's rivals are being seen to be supporting worthy causes: surely these are #SpecialBecause?

#TheBigSmile: not much to smile about

The UK's major supermarkets are having a tough time.  Prices are dropping, smaller competitors are growing and people shoppers are deserting the mega-stores for smaller convenience shops closer to home.   Last week Asda showed it was serious about regaining market share over the crucial Christmas period when it rolled out its new campaign.  As with most other retailers, the focus is the TV advertisement.

Asda are also joining the quest to develop a meme, to encourage their message to go viral. John Lewis has shown how this can work.  Asda's posted the ad to YouTube on November 6: at the time of writing it has had 13,000 viewings.  John Lewis put on that sort of number in the first hour.

The theme of the ad is smiling, something reinforced throughout with visuals and music.  They told Marketing that "It captures those personal touches and thoughtful gestures that put a smile on people’s faces at Christmas."  It premiered on ITV during Emmerdale on November 6, which would have given them around 5 million viewers.

In our view the creative masterstroke is the soundtrack.  Jahmene Douglas, a former X-Factor runner up has recorded a cover of a classic Louis Armstrong number 'When you're smiling'.  The lyrics chime perfectly with the visuals on screen.  To encourage the meme effect Asda has gone the same route as John Lewis by releasing the music as a digital download, with most of the proceeds being donated to charities Children in Need and Save the Children.  The charities, and Jahmene himself, are promoting the song, and by extension Asda's campaign.  But while John Lewis's number entered the charts at number 21, 'When you're smiling' has yet to make it.

Similarly the hashtage #thebigsmile hasn't really taken hold as yet.  There are just a few tweets a day, many of them linking to the music.  Surpisingly the Asda Facebook page, with 1.4 million fans, mentioned the campaign on launch day but has been silent since.

On present showing the Asda campaign isn't gaining any traction.  Not much to smile about.

What Happened to The Frog Chorus? #foundit

Retailer Debenhams 'premiered' it 2014 Christmas advertisement on 8 November, during the X Factor.  This guaranteed the ad 7-8 million viewers, although it had already been released on YouTube a week earlier.  At the time of writing the advert, called Found It, had been viewed nearly 350,000 times. By comparison with John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, this is a very muted response.

While some of the business press bubbled with enthusiasm about this "compelling customer proposition", others pointed out that the company's spend on making the TV ad has been slashed by two thirds.  As we noted in other postings, retailers this year aim to make more of their budgets by using a multi-channel approach: in Debenhams case there will be a lot of point-of-sale material in store, as well as the social media side.  They also promise 200 in store hot spots.

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The theme of the ad is gift giving - or to be more correct, finding the right gift.   Like John Lewis the focus is largely on small children and cuddly toys.  Debenhams, though,  have not attempted to produce branded merchandise in the way that John Lewis has successfully done with Monty the Penguin.

Debenhams is anxious to make its investment work harder, "A broad campaign which can play out across all media - paid and owned" (according to Marketing Week).

The choice of music is not explained: the ad uses a brass band recording of Paul McCartney's 1984 single Frog Chorus.  There are no voices until the final shots where we hear "We all stand together" being sung.  This choice has given the audiences the opportunity to ridicule the advertisement: online critics mock the fact that a song about frogs is the backing track to a film featuring reindeer and cuddly bears.  The Guardian ironically wondered if the plan was for Frog Chorus to be the Christmas number one: while Asda and John Lewis have released their soundtracks to iTunes and other digital music platforms, this doesn't seem to have happened at Debenhams.

Twitter is an important part of the campaign to create a hardworking meme: @debenhams has
incentivised the use of their hashtag by offering prizes, but to date the takeup seems to have been slow. The store is trying to leverage co-creation by encouraging shoppers to take selfies with their purchases, which can go onto Twitter or their own microsite.   Debenhams have been posting thumbnails of these online, although curiously the bulk of the pictures seem to have been posed, rather being true selfies.  The Debenhams Facebook page is also working hard for them, with over 300,000 fans.

All in all an imaginative broad campaign from Debenhams, but not something that looks likely to match what is being achieved by rivals John Lewis or M&S.

Every Little Helps: #MakeChristmas

In the run up to Christmas 2013, supermarket Tesco laid out £25 million for TV advertising, outspending all other UK retailers.  Tesco's sales actually fell by 2.4% over the period and the company was forced to issue a profit warning.

Still from the Tesco TV ad.  Source The Guardian

Fast-forward a year and retail sector are spending another £700 million on TV advertising.  Over the past few days we have written about the John Lewis campaign featuring Monty the Penguin, and Marks & Spencer's #FollowTheFairies.  The media research firm Nielsens suggests that overall TV spending will be down slightly this year, while most other experts believe that a larger proportion of marketing budgets will be spent linking these campaigns to social media.

At the time of writing, John Lewis's Monty advertisement had been viewed 10.5 million times on YouTube.  M&S, which had debuted a day later was on on 2.5 million.  #MontyThePenguin has remained 'trending' on Twitter since the launch on 6 November.  Both campaigns have a strong narrative element; like all the best marketing, they tell an engaging story.  They are strong visually and have powerful soundtracks - videos designed to engage with audiences, 'memes' to spread via FaceBook and other social media.

Last night (Sunday 9 November) it was Tesco's turn to launch its campaign.  They booked a slot during the finale of Downton Abbey, something calculated to get them in front of 8-9 million people.  As the press has been quick to point out, if any retailer needs a profit boost right now it is Tesco. The advertisement is called Lights On, and at the time of writing has had 200,000 viewings on YouTube - a good performance in 12 hours, most of which were night time.

The Tesco hashtag on Twitter, #MakeChristmas has seen very little adoption, most of it being around the time of Downton Abbey.  Tesco's creative people use language which suggests ideas very similar to those put out by M&S last week: "doing all sorts of unexpected things to help people have a brilliant Christmas".  It is difficult to know what they have in mind: @tesco stopped tweeting some time after Downton Abbey finished, picking up again at 8:30 this morning when almost all the twitter traffic was mundane queries and complaints.

The #MakeChristmas hashtag seems to be doing little to help.  Once again, almost nothing overnight and the few uses it was getting seem to be ironic or mildly critical.   Take this from @BoringOleFart: "It would be great if your stores could just donate that wee bit more to local foodbanks". Is the video "Behind the scenes of the Tesco Christmas campaign" going to go viral? We doubt it. 244 views in a day is not encouraging. A useful little lesson for marketing students, though.

Creating the meme: #thetwofairies

Here's a heartwarming seasonal story.  Someone sets up an anonymous Twitter account called The Two Fairies and uses it to shine little rays of sunshine into the lives of random strangers.
 Anonymous? Altruistic?  We doubt it.  This initiative is costing someone serious amounts of money.  That someone is reputed to be Marks & Spencer.  The agency behind the campaign is the highly successful London PR firm Unity.

It has the appearance of something spontaneous, but is actually being carefully orchestrated.  In today's cluttered media space, for a brand to stand out it has to do something extraordinary.  We believe that the marketing people behind @TheTwoFairies are rolling out a teaser campaign, prompting audiences to ask who is behind these amazing stunts.  Curiosity stimulated, there is a moral imperative to share the story, and in doing so it goes viral.  Result: everyone feels good about M&S in the run up to the largest retail festival of the year.

Regardless of whether or not M&S is behind this campaign, they need to do something.  Last year their high profile campaign "Believe in magic and sparkle" trailed John Lewis in the social media charts.  This year, as we have noted in an earlier post, John Lewis had had a blistering start to the season with 4 million views in the first 24 hours of their Monty the Penguin campaign.

At the time of writing @TheTwoFairies is losing the social media battle.  #montythepenguin is trending on Twitter, although it has been pipped to the post by Toy Story 4.  #Followthefairies has a presence, but only as a 'promoted' hashtag - in other words someone is now paying to try and get it noticed.

@TheTwoFairies was set up as a Twitter account on October 30.  Since then it has been delighting random people across the UK with gifts of flowers, food and other merchandise, as well as covering a Cornish primary school with snow.  The Daily Mirror and the regional press have been following the story.  It has also done well across social media.

But not well enough, if the organisers are having to pay for exposure with a sponsored hashtag?  These things are supposed to go viral.  Why aren't people bothered about who is behind these acts of seasonal kindness?  Once again the Mirror obligingly asks the questions for us, and concludes that Marks & Spencer is behind the campaign.

Behold!  So it turns out to be.  Earlier today (7 November) M&S called a press conference to admit to what they had denied to The Mirror.  The new campaign, Fly Me to the Moon, has a classic soundtrack from Julie London.

As the press coverage notes, today's announcement is all about trying to neutralize the #montythepenguin effect.   Are The Two Fairies a new meme?  Watch this space.

Monty the Penguin and Newton's Third Law

Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion (1687), crudely paraphrased, says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  In the virtual world of social media we can often see the same thing playing out.  We described this in an earlier post about Russell Brand and #parklife: the publicity surrounding Brand's new book Revolution sparked a popular counter reaction.

Picture: The Independent

Monty the Penguin is an advertising campaign for the retail group John Lewis.  Reputed to be costing £7 million, the eagerly awaited ad was launched yesterday (6 November) and instantly went viral on social media.  Monty has his own Twitter account, @montythepenguin, and within 24 hours had gained 14,000 followers.  The Facebook page was a little slower starting, but the Twitter hashtag #montythepenguin was already 'trending' by the next morning.  The video was available from various sites including John Lewis itself, but the YouTube version gained an astonishing 4 million viewings in a day.  More importantly, perhaps, there were nearly 500 comments posted during the same period.

The supporting website at John Lewis develops the narrative, encouraging audiences to buy the music via iTunes.  There is a range of interactive games to engage with, plus the all-important Monty merchandise,  42 items including clothing, toys and soft furnishings.

The mainstream media obligingly covered the campaign's launch in glowing terms.  One dissenting voice was bt.com which talked of "outrage" at the £95 price tag for the cuddly toy version of Monty.  This did nothing to stop the item selling out in the first day, making it already this year's must-have Christmas toy.  Anticipating this, eBay listings started to fill with "official" Monty merchandise as well as knock-offs.

So, where does Newton's Third Law come in?

Amazingly, within just a few hours of the launch of the official Monty advert, a parody appeared.  Redshirt Films, an independent production company in York, launched their take, titled #penguinmadness.  Meme and countermeme. Those of us who had failed to share in the euphoria of the original John Lewis launch could now join in the counter-attack.

From https://twitter.com/ConnieMTC

But whereas in the case of #parklife, the video mashups featuring Russell Brand started being produced when the meme was already well established (these films didn't exist but they should have), in the case of Monty the Penguin Redshirt Films kicked the whole thing off.  The countermeme spread through social media, of course, but was also picked up by the new mass media such as Huffington Post.  At the time of writing #penguinmadness is not yet trending, but the video has had 40,000 viewings and the idea has some traction.

Other reactions are starting to appear.  Take this example for Twitter's Connie Chamerlayne
(@ConnieMTC), for example.

The 'reaction' has started.  However it is not yet equal and opposite.