Christmas is not just for Christmas
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Oh, you wish it could be Christmas every day
Editor's review of the week
Who says marketing’s influence is limited in the boardroom?
The UK now celebrates Christmas for the best part of two months thanks to the success of marketing. Marketers won the argument long ago that Christmas is too important for a retailer’s sales for it not be talked about constantly as soon as Halloween ends.
Hence the particular UK preoccupation with the “John Lewis ad”. Did the new ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi do as well as Adam&EveDDB? Is using a venus flytrap too risky? Was it emotional enough? Which brand is “winning” Christmas?
For me, media provides the more urgent question: how many people are actually?seeing this stuff?
As I said in last week's Friday Review, this Christmas period is the most important one yet. We’ve since learned that retailers are set to spend a record ￡9.5bn, according to figures revealed by the Advertising Association on Wednesday. Advertisers have placed their bets, which comes as welcome news to the likes of Channel 4, Sky and ITV, which this week forecast an 8% fall in 2023 total ad revenue.
But how can you advertise effectively at Christmas if you are not a major retailer with a media budget to match? That's the question Ella Sagar aims to tackle in this week's feature:?How can smaller budgets cut through at Christmas?
"Clients recognise they have a need to spend, but it is imperative that they evidence the short-term effectiveness of that spend back to their business," media agency strategist Rik Moore says.
That should be seen as a red flag.
If the festive marketing period is two months —one-sixth of a whole year — that seems like quite a long time to be overly concerned with short-term effectiveness. The Christmas ad is maybe the only thing some consumers know about John Lewis. The impact of a thoughtful media plan and strong creative message lasts far longer than the festive period itself.?
In other words, Christmas is not just for Christmas. Noddy Holder got his wish after all.
Omar Oakes is editor-in-chief of?The Media Leader and leads on our TV coverage.
TOP 5 MOST READ
The Emperor's New Clothes of employee engagement
Ella's story of the week
My favourite piece this week has got to go to Nicky Kemp's latest column, which had me hooked just from reading the first few words of the headline: "Are agency leaders entering their supervillain era with return-to-office mandates?"
Colour me intrigued. I loved Nicky's setting the scene of an all-hands call where the big boss is stressing the importance of working at an in-office desk, when they are working from home themselves.
Return-to-office mandates, hybrid working, and flexible working, are very nuanced subjects, which Nicky explores.?
One of my favourite lines: "Dressing a one-size-fits-all office return policy as creative innovation is the Emperor’s New Clothes of employee engagement."
领英推荐
Read the full piece here and let us know your thoughts.
Ella Sagar reports on audio and out-of-home for?The Media Leader.
A shake-up in publishing measurement?
Jack's story of the week
Publishing measurement could be significantly changed in the near future, but few on the buy-side appear aware.
This week, I discussed how Newsworks and the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) are developing a new “enhanced measurement solution” that could have a big impact on the way publishing is measured.
However, according to the IPA research director Belinda Beeftink, it has thus far seldom been discussed by the buy-side.
Read the full story here.
Jack Benjamin reports on social media and publishing for?The Media Leader.
This week on The Media Leader Podcast
This Week in Media
By Jack Benjamin
7 years ago: 'The new age of irrationality'
In November 2016, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. The reaction within the media: a mix of shock, and, as Raymond Snoddy wrote for our predecessor Mediatel News, "an astonishing sense of déjà vu" after Brexit.
Snoddy examined how the media contributed to the rise in support for Trump in the leadup to the election. "Part of the answer must come from right-wing shock jock radio and television channels such as Fox News, though Fox was not completely uncritical," he wrote. "Future analysts will probably find at least one of the smoking guns in social media and Twitter and Facebook in particular."
He wasn't wrong. Social media was put under a microscope in the years following, including and especially after the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal was revealed in 2018. Facebook has since turned away from promoting news on its platform. Twitter, on the other hand instituted new policies around trust and safety, but these were binned upon Elon Musk's purchase of the platform last year.
Snoddy added: "It is difficult to imagine politics in the post-fact era ever being the same again."
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