With Christmas 2022 set to look very different for millions of people up and down the UK, it’s the retailers who are reading the mood of the nation and reflecting it back in their messaging, who are set for success this year.
Follow in the footsteps of the UK’s festive giants this Christmas
by Amy Rountree’Tis the season of giving (back)
There’s no skirting around the subject. The cost of living crisis in the UK will affect millions this year, and it’s not something that retailers can ignore in a tide of merry marketing.
With this in mind, some retailers have focussed on family, community, and the joy of giving back in their Christmas messaging.
Instead of the hard sell, the UK’s top retailers have adapted their approach to ensure a connection with their customers, and the challenges they may be facing.
This year we’ve been served a heaping spoonful of nostalgia from Aldi; and some heartfelt good feelings, courtesy of John Lewis.
Let’s take a closer look at the Christmas adverts from Aldi and John Lewis, and how they went down with their customers, using the Maybe* Insight Builder.
What’s Kevin been up to this year?
Aldi’s chief Christmas character has been channelling his festive namesake, and spent a bit of time Home Alone, foiling Santa in his attempts to deliver gifts, and generally being a cheeky little carrot, until his family make it back home from Paris.
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Aldi have really made the most of Kevin’s exploits this year. The nation’s favourite little carrot has given Aldi’s creative team tons of inspiration, and their social channels are full of fun, festive content.
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Creating the narrative for Kevin outside of the Christmas advert himself has been a masterstroke. You can see from Aldi’s word cloud just how much they have made him the main focus of their content. The bigger the word, the more frequently it’s being used. The term ‘kevinthecarrot’ is simply enormous. He’s all over their social media.
Sentiment around Aldi reached a peak around the time they released their Christmas content - doing battle with all of Aldi’s usual content and engagement (such as customer queries and complaints). Again, it’s testament to how positively their festive content has been received.
Aldi’s #KevinTheCarrot campaign has even inspired other retailers to get involved. Asda have also been trying to find Kevin (to no avail, unfortunately).
But we remain hopeful.
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It’s the little things that matter
With an emphasis on family and feeling at home, John Lewis brought out ‘The Beginner’, an advert featuring a foster dad brushing up his skateboarding skills in a bid to make their new foster child feel welcome in their home, set to a cover of ‘All the Small Things’ by Blink-182. To produce the ad, John Lewis worked in partnership with Action for Children and Who Cares? Scotland.
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John Lewis have used their platform to highlight an important heartfelt issue. Via their social media, they have shared more about their partnership with their chosen charities to demonstrate how the festive fundraising will have an ongoing impact on children and young people experiencing the care system in the UK.
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John Lewis received an enormous peak in positive sentiment around the time they released their Christmas ad, more so than any other retailer. Highly anticipated, expectations for this year’s advert were high, and John Lewis knew it, but it looks as though they came up with the goods.
Pick your own winning tactics this Christmas
If you’re scheduling your Christmas content now, consider how you want your customers to feel – comforted, amused, diverted, or simply seen. Aldi and John Lewis have taken very different approaches this year, and that change in tone is evident across their respective social media channels.
How Maybe* can help you hit the right tone for your Christmas content
This year, with less money to spend and worries running high, understanding the current mood in the UK will be all-important for retailers.
Whether you want to cheer people up on social media, or inspire them to get involved with their community, you’ll need to know how your customers are feeling about you, and your business, and whether your content is hitting the mark this Christmas.
Use your Maybe* Dashboard to help you get started with understanding how you’re coming across to your audience.
The See how they feel about you graph on your Dashboard shows you how people feel about your social media content and your business from the comments and mentions on your posts. From your Dashboard, you can toggle between comments and mentions:
- Comments will show you how positive or negative any comments on your social media posts are.
- Mentions will show you whether your business is talked about positively or negatively wherever you are mentioned or tagged on social media.
Build on what you’ve learned by adding conversations to Maybe*, such as #Christmas, #Christmas2022 or #Christmas[your local area].
Adding conversations to Maybe* means you can monitor and engage with what’s being said by or about another business or individual, or about a hashtag.
Ready to give it a go?
- Head over to Maybe* to get started
- Remember Maybe* is always best used on a desktop
Need help to get more from social media?
Join us at 10am on Monday for our Social Media Surgeries where we’ll show you how to use the scheduling, engagement, listening, reporting, and loyalty tools in Maybe*, so you can use them to help you deliver better business results.
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