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.