The best Christmas adverts of 2012

As our TV's fill up with festive offers and advertising events, we thought it'd be fitting to check out the best ones of 2012 to see if you they can inspire some Christmas marketing ideas for you.

John Lewis has gone for the emotional angle, telling the tale of a confused snowman that finds himself herding sheep, crossing a river and a motorway, all without melting, to buy his snow lady fried a hat and some gloves from good ol' John Lewis. If he was capable of all this, then we're confused as to why he didn't just order online? Anyway, it's a great advert from the retailer whose brand is so they haven't even included any of their products in the advert.  

Asda has focused its advert on mums and their role of doing absolutely everything over Christmas. Who's the shop that's providing mum with everything they need to pull this off? Well, Asda of course. Or so it suggests, but we're not sure Asda is actually that much help when it comes to being woken up at 6am by an overexcited child or fitting 15 people around a six person table.

The daddy of Christmas ads, Coca-Cola, have a winning formula for a festive advert and it's stuck to it again this year. The traditionalist's choice for 'best ad', shows the infamous Coca-Cola lorry rolling through a snow clad village with a picture of Santa himself chillin' with a coke at the back. If we could only get a quote from Rudolf, we're 100% sure that he'd confirm Santa's chosen tipple while being dragged across the globe by mutant reindeers is something stronger than a Coca-Cola. Until then the fat man in the red suit will keep milking the product placement gravy train. Which is something you could think about for your business. Santa sells. What could you put in his hands on flyers, adverts and your own shop window?

Boots' ad shows clips of people from different generations unwrapping presents filled with products from the shop. Quite boldy they have used Christmas as an opportunity to appeal to every age group rather than focus on one target audience. The tagline, give gifts that keep on giving, is some way off though. It shows a young girl blowing a hot hairdryer into an unsuspecting dogs face and a young boy getting creeped out by his dad giving his mum a sniff. Still, it's all in the festive spirit so it's fine, we think. 

We'd love to hear examples of small businesses using Christmas to market themsleves. Tweet @SmartaHQ to let us know!

