No Time To Cry — Or Is It?
What is it with us and our passion for extremely emotional commercials just before Christmas?
You know that a commercial will or might have already gone viral when a family member shares it on WhatsApp adding a comment like: “You need to watch this.” Nothing works better than advertising that is distributed by the target group itself through causing plenty of conversation. To me, that is one of the most fascinating aspects of marketing — moving people, entertaining them, or even making them pause and reflect. And in times of incessant information overload, that’s easier said than done.
“I’m crying over some household commercial? Give the director an Oscar!!” — Wisnu W. (YouTube)
The Most Shared Christmas Ad Of 2015
But what is it specifically with these commercials that you typically come across on TV around Christmas? Their main KPI — as my colleague summed it up in a nutshell — seems to be tears wept. In 2015, for example, the German supermarket chain Edeka released its famous Christmas clip #heimkommen. The story featured a lonely pensioner who used a death notice to make his busy family come home for Christmas. To date the clip has been viewed over 68 million times! And the response has not only been strong from Germans alone. Currently, the most-liked comment (4.6K likes) underneath says: “I’m crying over some household commercial? Give the director an Oscar!!”
Apparently, Germans love to be brought to tears during the festive season. Sad commercials here have almost reached cult status by now. The two advertising agencies responsible for the TV-spots (Serviceplan and Jung von Matt) use a recipe that always contains the same ingredients: take a genuinely touching story, add some sad music in the background and release the whole thing a few weeks before Christmas.
But of course, neither of the two agencies invented this formula. In the UK, department store John Lewis has also used this sentimental approach before, releasing an emotional Christmas commercial (e.g. ‘The Long Wait’, 2011) year after year that touches the hearts of British people.
On the Pulse of COVID Times
This year, the prize for the most viral video went to — drum roll 🥁: PENNY — another German supermarket chain. Similar to the Edeka ad from six years ago, Penny’s ‘Weihnachtswunder’ (Christmas miracle) once again hit exactly the right nerve. Released on 11 November, within only a month it had reached almost 14 million views on YouTube.
The story’s main focus is the younger generation, which has often been overlooked during the Corona crisis. Public life standing still, curfews, and cancelled events have taken away part of what is perhaps the most beautiful and important time of their lives: youth. Penny’s spot addresses this issue while aiming to promote their online giveaway of 5000 experiences such as an Interrail trip through 33 countries.
What excites me most about these viral spots is that they are not only shared and discussed by so many people simultaneously, but also that people outside the marketing bubble — and this is quite unusual — suddenly express clear kudos to the creative minds behind an advertisement. In fact, in this case, even thanking them for creating the advertisement. One user under Penny’s campaign video writes: “Respect for this ad…very emotional…and I think everyone got the message. I tip my hat to this idea of advertising and congratulate you for it.”
We are craving commercials that don’t annoy us, but those that trigger us and engage us with our memories. It might be the time of the year. Or the courage to try something atypical once in a while. Whatever it is, I am already looking forward to bursting into tears during next year’s pre-Christmas campaign.
How about you?
