“It’s beginning to look a lot like…” Well, you know the rest of the song – is it still too early? 

It’s that time of year where consumers around the UK will be exposed to festive Christmas campaigns on their television screens. Traditionally, the beginning of November is when we begin to see various ads being broadcast to families around the country. 

However, it’s not just the television screens that advertisers will be looking to grab their target audiences; as numerous retailers have promised a digital push this Christmas. 

Marks and Spencer (M&S) recently unveiled their Christmas advert, featuring their popular character, Percy Pig, who was brought to life in the campaign. The advert is set to be seen on TV by almost half of UK adults by the end of premiere day – kicking off their big campaign. 

M&S’ Food Marketing Director, Sharry Cramond, believes social media will play a huge role in the success of the campaign; saying it will be “much bigger than anything” in 2021. The popularity of TikTok is sure to bring in a more younger, active audience into the fold.

“We want to be more relevant, more often, to more customers, and TikTok is bringing us to completely different audiences,” Cramond said. 

Boots UK have also launched their Christmas ad, starring Doctor Who star, Jenna Coleman. The message is clear: spreading joy this Christmas. Boots’ #BagsOfJoy campaign features Coleman unloading a number of bags with Boot’s best products – reminding the audience what Christmas feels like. 

Boot’s Chief Marketing Officer, Peter Markey, says: “After the challenges of the past 18 months, we felt it was more important than ever for Boots to bring joy to the nation by telling an uplifting, positive story at Christmas."

John Lewis is pitching their Christmas ad as “as one of its “most merchandised” to date. 

Their Christmas advert centers around a meeting between a schoolboy and a space traveller.

“This is one of our most merchandised ads, not in the traditional sense of where we take a character and turn it into a cuddly toy or slippers, but everything you see in the scenes is all John Lewis, as are all the clothes the cast are wearing aside from Skye’s outfit,” explains Christmas marketing lead, Holly Kicul.

“What we’ve done this year instead of creating new merch is we’ve heroed our existing Christmas assortment.”