First off, here’s a picture of Elton John at my wedding, practising for the John Lewis Xmas ad… (our first dance was ‘Your Song’).
Next, as wonderful as the storytelling is in Xmas TV ads every year, there’s a massive missed opportunity, that’s just so obvious.
Everyone works hard to link a feelgood Xmas/nostalgia/family-fuzzy feeling to their brand this time of year in the hope it will stick, and get shoppers to walk in store next time they are on the high street. But that means hoping that emotion sticks with someone for maybe a week – it’s a big ask, which is why the ads are so sentimental.
What if there was some kind of call to action that people could do immediately after watching the ad, that would turn the emotion into action in favour of that brand or retailer. Like, asking someone to get on their phone and go to the website to browse the Xmas range?Not so hard, surely, in a world of second screening and omni-channel? But massively overlooked as the agencies are making a TV ad, where the last line of text on the screen says ‘families welcome’ or ‘some gifts are invaluable’ or some such thing.
Well that’s all good, but it’s focusing on the art over the commercial reason that art exists. It’s a mistake in an omni-channel world.
Social psychologists measure how to get people to take action. Take the issue of getting people to turn up for dentist appointments. It’s a big problem. What most dentists do is at the end of an appointment, they suggest a date for your next appointment and then expect you to remember it and turn up on time in 6 months.
What the social psychologists did was test all the variations of that process to uncover which factors actually motivated people to take action – in this case, to actually show up.
The best result? Give people an appointment card and a pen and ask them to write down their appointment time. Asking someone to do something (and if they actually do it) leverages commitment, because people feel more comfortable when their actions are generally consistent.
What can we learn from this for Christmas TV ads? Ask people a small commitment. Because a small commitment is likely to lead to a bigger commitment.
So at the end of that TV ad, leverage the fact that people second screen and leveraging the fact that people research online before they buy in store, simply ask people to ‘Visit the website now to browse our range’ (notice the ‘now’ part).
If we combine people’s natural behaviours – looking at their phone during the ad break – with the warm fuzzy feeling which is linked to the brand, with a simple call to action to visit the e-commerce store, it would be much easier to to get your brand or retailer on the consideration set for Christmas.
One simple way you can use e-commerce to help you win Christmas…
Viv
Ps. Of course, it’s not the real Elton at our wedding. It’s Elton impersonator Paul Bacon, the man who Elton’s mum became friends with after Elton and his mum didn’t speak to each other for years (a point conveniently overlooked in the John Lewis TV ad, of course).
