Marks & Spencer launches Christmas campaign
Marks & Spencer has unveiled details of two Christmas advertising campaigns called The Art of Christmas and Adventures in Christmas.
In a move away from the Christmas ad epic, the M&S 2015 campaign is a series of seven shorter ads that synchronize with different milestones in the festive calendar such as the party season and Christmas morning.
Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, executive director of marketing and international at M&S, said: “Customers tell us they experience Christmas as a series of mini-moments and emotions, and each moment matters in building that bigger sense of occasion. As a result, our approach is more box-set than blockbuster epic; as we wanted to capture that feeling of anticipation and create an upbeat campaign that moves with the pace of the season and shows how M&S can help make each moment special.”
The 2015 Christmas campaign will be the retailer’s most digitally focused to date.
In a break with tradition, M&S did not debut its campaign on social or TV channels but instead emailed a preview of The Art of Christmas campaign to the two million members of its new Sparks membership club on Friday. It was then shown last night during the series finale of Downton Abbey on ITV1.
The campaign kicked off with an upbeat compilation film that took the audience through the full series of Christmas moments seen from the perspective of eight year old Neve.
It opened with The Art of Making an Entrance with models strutting their stuff in an array of glittering partywear then switched to The Art of the Night Before as parents put the finishing touches in place for Christmas Day. This was followed by The Art of Noise with children waking on Christmas morning and bouncing on oversized beds. The Art of Surprise then featured three beautifully wrapped giant presents spilling open while The Art of The Feast panned through a sumptuous banquet packed with festive food and chattering relatives.
Finally, the perennial Christmas image of Morecombe & Wise danced onto the screen as the family members settled into their supersized sofa for The Art of 40 Winks.
Catering for customers’ appetite for bite sized consumption of content, M&S will air 20” edits of The Art of Making an Entrance, The Art of Noise and The Art of Surprise in tune with consumers’ shifting priorities. For example, The Art of Making an Entrance will air in mid to late November as customers plan their outfits for parties.
Meanwhile, the Adventures in Christmas campaign is made up of four ads entitled Adventures in Surprises, Adventures in Stars, Adventures in Glitz and Adventures in the Big Day. Focusing entirely on food, the ads will run in stages from 15 November until 23 December.
Bousquet-Chavanne added: “Customers’ festive culinary experience is no longer focused on just the Christmas Day feast. Adventures in Christmas reflects our desire to inject more gourmet inspiration into the season’s calendar.”
Adventures in Surprises will preview to Sparks customers on 13 November before the campaign begins on TV on 15 November.
