Animation is quickly becoming one of the most significant trends and approaches in modern advertising. Beyond promoting a brand, it also provides entertainment. Consumers typically find it hard to take their eyes off the captivating visuals and motion.
Advantages of animated ads
Animation allows for the simple depiction of complex ideas and enables brands to reach a broad audience with content that can be easily shared across various platforms. Creative animated Christmas commercials tend to go viral on social media. However, they also offer many other advantages:
The magical charm of dreamlike worlds: Animated commercials provide immense creative freedom. They have the unique ability to convey the Christmas spirit more effectively, creating magical worlds filled with dreamy fantasies, enchanting scenery, or playful and whimsical stories. This makes the advertisement come to life in a wonderfully vivid way.
Animated ads are more cost-effective: Unlike the production of live-action ads, which involves an extensive crew ranging from producers, scriptwriters, actors, and cameramen to editors and numerous others, animated ads can be created by a smaller team.
Higher efficiency and adaptability: Animation provides greater creativity and flexibility in selecting shots, scripts, and content, enabling complex problems and stories to be communicated more effectively. Additionally, animated visuals can be easily modified, allowing material originally created for TV spots to be seamlessly adapted for social media advertising, outdoor advertising (OOH), or banner ads across various devices.
Fairy tale themes, playfulness, and lightness: Fairy tales and advertising are integral to human culture. Christmas, in particular, is the time when blending these two worlds becomes most effective. Fairy tales are a beloved genre, often associated with childhood, comfort, and fun. Moreover, their fundamental motifs are easily understandable to people from vastly different sociocultural backgrounds. This makes fairy tale elements especially suitable for communication campaigns by multinational companies, eliminating the need for extensive localisation efforts.
Animated ads are amazing sales tools
In 2013, John Lewis released a two-minute “non-branded” animated Christmas ad titled “The Bear and the Hare”, which tells the story of a rabbit waking up his friend, the bear, from hibernation to join the Christmas celebrations with the other animals in the forest. The campaign’s message was that a small gesture can be more valuable than an expensive gift. The Christmas campaign was a huge success, with John Lewis achieving massive reach, increased visibility, record sales, and setting a very high bar for all other Christmas ads. Let’s take a look at the video below to see how such an ad is made:
Video: John Lewis – Somewhere Only We Know
Animated ads top the list in the UK
According to a meta-analysis (2023), which examined nearly 200 Christmas ads from Europe and the United States over the past 4 years, surprisingly only 20% of all tested ads were animated, earning them the lowest ranking. On the other hand, the top spots were taken by emotional stories (48%) and humour (32%). Animated ads were most frequently seen in the British (35%) and American (29%) markets. The Netherlands (8%) and Sweden (11%) were on the opposite end of the scale with the lowest number of animated campaigns.
Let’s take a look at the most impressive Christmas animated ads, both from the Czech Republic and abroad.
Dedoles – Don’t blow off Christmas gifts (2022)
The Dedoles brand wanted to come up with something fun and unconventional, so they decided to combine animation with a rather original idea featuring a farting hamster. The spot’s creative concept was developed by Somebody&Somebody.
Video: Dedoles – Don’t blow off Christmas gifts
Erste Group – Believe in Christmas (2022)
In 2022, Erste launched a mysterious ad featuring a mysterious elf who decides to ruin Christmas for the residents of a small village. By shutting down electrical boxes and releasing car fuel tanks, he causes an energy crisis in the town. However, the residents are determined not to let their Christmas be ruined, so they come together to lift each other’s spirits and celebrate Christmas together. The campaign’s message is as follows: “In times of need, strong communities are the ones in which people help each other out. Coming closer together; that’s what Christmas is really about.”
Video: Erste – Believe in Christmas
Lidl – Enjoy the magic of Christmas! (2023)
Lidl’s Christmas campaign celebrates the importance and power of small gestures. Full of Christmas joy, it tells the story of a raccoon who does everything to make Christmas Eve special for a little boy. It reminds us that the greatest joy during the festive season doesn’t have to come from expensive gifts under the Christmas tree, but rather from subtle, kind acts.
Video: Lidl – Enjoy the magic of Christmas
Barbour – Shaun the Sheep x Baa-bour (2023)
In this year’s advertisement from Barbour, which aimed to highlight the importance of extending the lifespan of clothing, the beloved Shaun the Sheep once again takes centre stage. The animated story takes place on the snowy Mossy Bottom farm, where the animals come together to repair the farmer’s Barbour jacket for Christmas. However, things don’t quite go according to plan...
Video: Barbour – Shaun the Sheep x Baa-bour
Erste Group – Christmas Without Love? (2018)
The touching story of a little hedgehog who has a problem fitting in because of his spines resonates with most consumers. Let’s face it – we’ve all had moments like that. “Especially at Christmas time, a season of love, it’s good to believe not only in ourselves but also in the goodness of others. No matter how insurmountable an obstacle may seem: love will find a way. The little hedgehog and his friends remind us of this,” said Andreas Putz, Managing Director of Jung von Matt/DONAU, about the advertisement.
Video: Erste Group – Christmas Without Love
John Lewis – Trampoline (2016)
The ad tells the story of a mother and father who bought their daughter a trampoline for Christmas. When the snow begins to fall, foxes, a badger, a squirrel, and a hedgehog come to the trampoline and start jumping on it. The dog, Buster, watches them enviously from the window... Craig Inglis from John Lewis said about the advertisement: “You could say 2016 has certainly been quite a year. We hope our advert will make people smile. It really embraces a sense of fun and magic, reminding everyone what it feels to give the perfect gift at Christmas.”
Video: John Lewis – Trampoline
Aldi – Kevin the Carrot (2020)
The ad follows up on Aldi’s teaser in the style of the movie Top Gun, where Kevin the Carrot falls from an airplane and lands in the snow. Kevin then has to find his way back to his family for Christmas in the harsh winter. He gets help from a hedgehog and Santa Claus.
Video: Aldi – Christmas Launch Advert
Lohn Lewis – Snowman (2012)
The 2012 Christmas ad shows a snowman overcoming mountains, rivers, and snowstorms to reach the town and bring the perfect Christmas gift for Mrs. Snowman. The soundtrack features a cover version of the classic “The Power of Love” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Video: John Lewis – Snowman
Disney – The Gift
An animated commercial by Disney also revolves around a gift. It tells a short story about a little girl who feels a bit jealous. She senses that her world will soon change because a new sibling (the “gift”) is about to enter her life.
Video: Disney – The Gift
Animated Christmas ads have enormous potential.
Most sales are generated in the last four weeks of the year, so brands take advantage of this opportunity to build brand awareness and gain customer trust.
An animated advertisement is not just a dynamic visual or bright colours. What makes animation such an effective tool for Christmas advertising messages is the creative combination of movement, tempo, and emotions. Through animation, important product or service features can be highlighted in ways that are not possible to convey in a live-action commercial.
Animated ads are capable of reaching a wide audience, and this is especially true for Christmas ads. Animation is an element that resonates with people from various backgrounds. It captures the attention of everyone— from young children to senior citizens. We all encountered animation from an early age, so it feels familiar and close to us. Animation simply works. And marketers know this very well.
