When the festive period in the UK drives up to 20% of annual retail sales, the battle for standout is always fiercely fought.
During the months of summer, it feels incongruous to think of Christmas. But that’s exactly what happens in Marketing Departments across the land. When the festive period in the UK drives up to 20% of annual retail sales, the battle for standout is always fiercely fought.
There will always be a place for TV, digital and print advertising at Christmas; the fervently anticipated John Lewis ad, the Coca-Cola Holidays are Coming refrain, and an inbox full of festive deals will always be part of the marketing mix. But it’s the brands and retailers that deliver out-of-home activations that truly disrupt and entertain.
Part of the reason for the success of these activations is that many shoppers begin their Christmas retail safari without a clear shopper mission; their list consists of names, rather than items.
Shoppers are open to suggestion during the festive period, and this is where deploying large scale scenic elements into the shopper journey can be very effective. Moreover, this also serves those who don’t enjoy Christmas shopping as an activity but engage in the process as ‘a big day out’. The desire here is to be entertained, and this gives brands the opportunity not only to leverage Christmas, but to give themselves permission to create some of the magic associated with it.
These three festive projects from our archive demonstrate the power of disruptive advertising.
Traditional Christmas iconography is formulaic and allows retailers and brand owners to signal very clearly. The creation of very large-scale scenic activations in Porto Arabia in Qatar, 2009, is an example of this. In addition to adorning buildings with outsize ribbons, as well as creating a giant wreath and Christmas tree, we manufactured a series of thirty supersized presents crafted from timber and ply and then finished in a ‘wrapping paper’ print.
Closer to home we delivered an outdoor pop-up for fashion and beauty brand Chanel. This small but exquisitely executed immersive project located in Covent Garden, London, provided a space for shopper engagement, product sampling and instagrammable moments. Enchanting creative and location in a high-footfall environment ensured its success.
And most recently, we decorated the full length of Selfridges’ iconic Oxford Street store with a Disney themed scenic façade. Featuring hundreds of metres of LED, and a Disney Castle inspired scene that was animated with help from Tinkerbell, this installation was disruptive and engaging in equal measure. Likewise, it became a real hit with passersby as people posted images and video of the execution across social media channels.
The key to success in experiential marketing is early preparation, clear engagement with planning and licensing stakeholders, and of course, beautifully considered creative.
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