“It’s Chrisssssssstmas!” Well – perhaps not quite just yet, according to frozen-food retailer Iceland.
Deliberately shunning the race to become one of the first supermarkets to drop their 2022 Christmas advert, Iceland has deliberately held back, highlighting the fact the 2022 World Cup is taking place before the festivities.
While John Lewis is highlighting the difficulties faced by children who have experience of the care system and Tesco addressed the UK’s financial crisis as it promised an ‘affordable, joyful’ festive season for all, Iceland decided to do something different.
Last week, in partnership with Manchester-based advertising agency Meanwhile…, Iceland launched a raft of teaser campaigns featuring Slade guitarist and the iconic voice of Christmas, Noddy Holder.
This year’s festive advert also features the booming voice of legendary actor Brian Blessed OBE, who puts an end to any premature festivities as he booms: “No, no, no! Not yet Noddy! Don’t you know the football’s on?!”
Of course, he then goes onto reveal a huge spread of frozen party food deals – perfect for both Christmas and the footy.
Marketing Beat sits down with Meanwhile… co-founder and chief commercial officer Tim Jones to discuss the new advert, trends to look out for in 2023 and whether the use of celebrities is the way forward.
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On Iceland’s Christmas campaign
“The whole idea of the continuing campaign is to never let Noddy say its Christmas before the World Cup is on,” Jones tells Marketing Beat.
According to Jones, the idea for the advert started as a bit of a joke between co-founder and former BBC creative James Cross and himself.
“Noddy Holder is synonymous with this time of year. Everyone sees him and they think of Christmas, but with the World Cup taking place at this time, it is once-in-a-generation type of event, which we wanted to capitalise on.”
Jones has also called out many retailers for “ignoring” the World Cup and focusing their attentions on Christmas instead. “I am not too sure if other brands have done their Christmas campaigns and are going to come out with World Cup campaigns, or they are just going to ignore the World Cup, hence our decision to go a little bit later with our campaign.”
Commenting on the advert, Caspar Nelson, marketing director of Iceland Foods says: “We’ve taken the unusual step of silencing the Christmas legend. With the World Cup kicking off on Sunday we need the nation to be putting their energy into supporting the England and Wales football teams.”
According to Jones, Iceland had a “modest budget” for this year’s campaign, although he won’t reveal how much the whole advert cost, describing the teaser campaigns as a “simple but unique production”.
“We’re in a period right now that it’s difficult for everyone, especially for brands, but I think it’s important for Iceland, that they they’re not frivolous with their money at a time like this,” he states. “It is not a massive production; it is literally just Noddy Holder in a white room wandering around for hours on end waiting for Christmas to start.”
On other Christmas ads
Like Sainsbury’s and Asda, Iceland used a well-known celebrity for its campaign, something which Jones believes is an “easy move, particularly around the Christmas period”.
“In our case the idea came first, it led the lead. It is just easy to use a big name, big song or a piece of cultural currency, but we wanted to do it in a way that was really unique to the idea.”
The former BBC creative explains that if Holder was not available, and the World Cup had not been taking place, the agency would not have been able to execute the campaign. With Asda and Iceland both using Christmas icons, and Asda widely named the “best festive ad of this year” it is no surprise Jones expects some comparison between the rivals.
“I love what they’ve done,” he says. “It’s not dissimilar to what we have done; taking an icon of Christmas and making it relevant to us. Ours is more of a Christmas campaign though – we have made a World Cup campaign with a Christmas icon.”
Commenting on the John Lewis advert, Jones believes the advert brings back the “old school John Lewis”.
“The narratives of the John Lewis advert have got bigger and more surreal over the years, it was time for them to take a break and break the cycle. It felt like a nice return. A simple story told well.”
“To many the John Lewis advert is synonymously Christmas“, Jones continues. “Maybe they thought that they could use their platform to deliver a bigger and more important message than Christmas – and in a year where more people are struggling it is no surprise John Lewis took it back-to-basics.”
Commenting on trends to look out for 2023, Jones adds that it is the “perfect time to to be to be bold and brave” when it comes to marketing.
According to the ex-BBC creative, marketers need to align themselves and their campaigns to what consumers are experiencing now, and in a bid to attract them, marketers “need to offer something back”.
“We have to be really clever with the money that we’re given to spend and make things that culturally impactful,” he adds. “We need to ask ourselves, with the money are we being effective? Is there any return of investment? and what are others making right now?
“We can’t just be pissing in the wind,” Jones concludes.
