Fairytale of New York is already playing on the radio. And every supermarket entrance is lined with towers of giant tins of Quality Street. Indeed, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Christmas (marketing) is the most wonderful time of the year – for clichés!
As a nation, we love our Christmas traditions. And Christmas marketing is no exception. Wherever you look you’re bound to see businesses encouraging you to get prepped for ‘the festive season’. Ensure you have ‘all the trimmings’. Buy the perfect gifts to ‘fill their stockings’. And then pop them ‘under the tree’.
Yes, it’s that time of year when it’s ok to listen to the same songs on repeat. Every. Single. Day. Everywhere you go. And it’s clearly ok to embrace the same old tired clichés in your marketing collateral. So, we’ve scoured Christmas marketing examples from across the years (and the internet) to bring you our selection of the most overused Christmas marketing phrases of all time.
1. Deck the halls
Whether it’s with the traditional boughs of holly or something a little more glitzy, plenty of retailers will be keen to make sure you ‘deck the halls’. In the words of IWOOT “Get into the festive spirit and deck the halls with all kinds of magic”.
2. 12 days of…
The 12 days of Christmas. Along with Advent, this is a period of time just crying out to be turned into a series of social media posts. It might not be super-original but if you can come up with a good theme for your ‘12 days’ this has good Christmas marketing potential.
3. Yule (something)
Groan. Still, phrases like this get us nicely warmed up for the joy of laboured cracker joke puns!
4. The gift that keeps on giving
From subscriptions to magazines or monthly foodie treats, to charity donations in lieu of gifts, you’ll see plenty of references to the gift that keeps on giving over the Christmas period.
5. Christmas comes early
And sometimes it feels like earlier every year. But eBay has taken a stand against so-called ‘Christmas creep’ in its ad this year.
6. Last-minute gifts
There are two main camps of Christmas shoppers: those that already have everything wrapped and hidden away; and those to be found scurrying around the local shopping centre on Christmas Eve. Whichever you are, you’re sure to see plenty of ads for last-minute gifts as the big day approaches. Perhaps we should have a prize for the person spotting the earliest ‘last-minute’ gift ad?
7. Nothing says Christmas like
From a pair of socks to sprouts selling a product that’s synonymous with Christmas is great for marketing. This year M&S are hoping to work that magic on their jumpers in quite a different take on the Christmas ad.
8. Under the tree
Cliché or not, surely everyone’s at least a little bit excited about what might be under the tree for them. House of York used this as a fun Facebook campaign encouraging engagement by getting people to guess what was under their tree.
You can find the rest of our Christmas marketing clichés on our ‘Christmas Marketing Lingo Bingo’ card below.
Christmas Marketing with a Difference
Feeling a bit jaded with all those time-worn phrases? There are always a few brands who try to stand out by doing something a bit different.
This year TK Maxx has taken that tack with its Christmas 2019 ad. Starring their reinvented answer to Father Christmas, Titus Klaus Maxximillian (see what they did there?), on his mission to get us all to ‘gift different’.
Christmas Marketing #XmasLingoBingo
Over to you now.
Join in with #XmasLingoBingo and complete the bingo card below. Ping us any examples you spot on social media (just tweet @socialink_co with the hashtag #XmasLingoBingo).
Also, don’t forget to let us know if you spot any especially early ads for last-minute gifts!
Let the ‘festive fun’ begin! Because nothing says Christmas marketing like #XmasLingoBingo.
Get the most out of your digital marketing every Christmas. ‘Treat yourself’ to a free consultation call. After all, digital marketing is ‘the gift that keeps on giving’.
