When We Talk About Christmas Ads Being Emotional, What Are We Talking About?

It’s time of the year again, a one-month period where all the brands are fighting their spot to make a great ad to be part of the game, to remind our consumers that we’re the brand that you’d love to keep buying things from, and buy gifts for your friends and family from. It’s the best time of the year for brand building through emotional bonding with consumers, because it’s an emotional season: it’s the time of year for people to look forward to for family gatherings, for the holiday to rest after a whole year’s hard work, the discounts might be a small push for people to drop some money, but people are easier to be moved by something speaking to their hearts, something relatable, so product specs are not going to take you far.

Brands are investing lots of money and time to make emotional Christmas ads, it could easily get blended in to the vast ads with similar vibe, so when we talk about Christmas ads being emotional, what are we talking about?

Brand Consistency, a Christmas Tradition

John Lewis is one of the brands I look forward to seeing their Christmas ad the most. I wasn’t too impressed with last year’s ad, it was cute, but I love this year’s ad much more. It’s very touching, showing different emotions despite the short time of the ad, showing the bonding of sisterhood through the fights and the laughter growing up. There was a glance at sadness when they showed their mom might have passed away. It shows us flesh and blood like a real person, and John Lewis is there for you, and somewhere you know you can always find a piece of love.

John Lewis Christmas Ad 2024

On the contrary, Coca-Cola took a slightly different route this year, using AI to generate the ad, keeping the same theme and vibe of “ the holiday is coming,” with the iconic Santa Claus truck. The spirit is to share happiness in the holidays but I feel the AI-generated people are too fake, I don’t feel the authenticity of happiness among real humans. Though it’s keeping the consistency of the brand’s Christmas tradition, it received hatred on the internet.

Up the Game with Inclusivity

Showing a positive vibe can never go wrong in ads, but how to show happiness is an art. I’m still very impressed and in love with Amazon’s Christmas ads last year – Joy Ride.

We have been told a lot that we need to make the characters in our ads to be close to our real target audience, so that’s more relatable to them. Despite most of the amazon shoppers aren’t going to be elderly people shown in the ad, a lot of us strongly related to it, and find it very moving and adorable. It says we should pay attention to the people who are not in the center of the stage anymore, because despite that it doesn’t mean they’re not important to us or we can’t relate to their emotions. Though it was an ad in 2023, I still remember it being very cute and not the same as all the other ads. The three cute old ladies riding snow sleighs from the hill, “simple as that”, when we’re targeting the real TA, we might not have to show the exact person at the exact same age doing the exact same thing, it’s the message that it delivers. The friendship that they show, it’s retro, it’s fun, also, who says the elderly don’t know how to have fun? Who says they don’t want to have fun? The world is so big that we can’t just always live in cliché stereotypes.

This year, Amazon has shown their caring attention to the “nobodies”, they have done it again.

Speaking of being inclusive, this Ikea’s Christmas ad is adorable. How could you not smile at an ad when there are cute animals involved (remember how the Dulux dog made ad history)?!

Emotions are not only about happiness, it could be humor or even sadness.

When it comes to the topic of the making ads, it is usually advised to avoid negativity to prevent a bad impact on the brand. 

However Chevrolet really pulled it off and made masterpieces two years in a row with the touch of sadness. Last year, they released the ad A Holiday to Remember, it was my top 2 favorite Christmas ads 2023 (the other one was the previously mentioned Amazon’s Joy Ride).

A Holiday to Remember, really rolled out the idea perfectly with the casting, the music, the plot, it feels genuine, it’s sad but still hopeful, at least for one day, and it really says about how the car is built for generations (though there are a lot of car brand claim that too). Beautifully executed.

This year, they made it again! Same intention, with a little sad story to open that the dad/grandad passed away, really showing how the person is missed. The son would want to follow in his dad’s footsteps but went a different direction however the grandson has taken them instead, those things are really relatable to any one of us. Again, they used the same trick last year, memory, an old song to bring back the memories, it really works!

Another surprise was Tesco’s Christmas ad this year. It’s a bit magical, a bit sad, but hopeful. Though someone we love might have left us, but the Christmas tradition is something that they’d love us to have, and it’s how we remember them, and cherish the time we spend with the ones we love still in present, it does pull a few heart strings, (especially the music, which was an excellent choice).

Great Use of Humor is Mint!

Waitrose this year has made something fresh, they made two small episodes almost like a crime solving mystery with some British humor. It’s quite interesting and bold to make it as a Christmas ad.

Even a Thriller Could be Christmasy

Though I don’t understand a word of German, this concept really speaks to me, using the thriller style for a Christmas ad is bold, the message itself is very heart warming and relates to our current society.

When There’s Christmas, There’s Always Magic

“Magical Christmas” also seem to be a big trend this year, a few brands have made something fun and magical.

Even us at eufy, we planned ahead like all the other brands, and also thought of getting on the trend of magical Christmas,I’m very glad that we’re starting to do something different from previous years, little by little, we will build the brand to show care to the world.

Data shows our Christmas emotional visual approach this year has outperformed last year's product-focused visual's Click-Through Rate (CTR) by 2.77%.

*Date updated one week after the campaign launched.

Summary – 

Emotional ads don’t only mean having a touching story or simply showcasing products being used in different scenarios. It’s about stories that we as human beings feel related to. It feels genuine, with emotions like happiness, sadness, humor, horror, etc. It’s also about showing authentic details in everyday life; it’s cultural, even the music that’s been used to support the story and the character matters. We might not remember all the super duper cool specs of a specific product, but we do remember when the music starts, and what the story being told in an ad was.

Christmas period has always been a creative feast for me, I’m looking forward to see more creative work in the coming year, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Rock on 2025!