10 Global Christmas Marketing Campaign Trends Using Music – An Interesting Case Study for Nigerian Brands (Part 2)

Brands around the world have, over time, executed incredible Christmas campaigns with music choices that have contributed significantly to the campaign’s success. In this second part of our two-part series we look at some more iconic Christmas Ads. Catch the first part here if you missed it. 

 DSTV – Nigeria Christmas (2020)

We’ve established that it is important to consider your audience when constructing and selecting accompanying music for your Christmas campaign. Here, a Nigerian ad focuses on recreating what a typical Christmas will look like for its audience. While the music is not the most prominent thing about the campaign, it is a trending genre (afrobeat) designed to grab the attention of its Nigerian audience. 

If there’s one thing Nigerians can recall easily, it’s a good and catchy beat that makes you want to move your body a little.

Walkers Crisps – All Mariah Carey Wants This Christmas (2019)

Walker Crisps’ campaign shows that a  popular contemporary Christmas song can also be really great for your campaign. In the ad, Mariah Carey stars, briefly performs “All I Want For Christmas is You,” and displays a strong desire for Walker Crisps. It’s, of course, never a terrible idea to associate your product with the unofficial Christmas anthem crooner. 

Apple – Misunderstood (2013)

This Christmas tearjerker is well-recognised as one of the most emotional ads ever. It also won a Creative Arts Emmy the following year for Outstanding Commercial. Soundtracked with Cat Power’s version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the music plays a key part in telling the story of a kid who connects with his family through technology during the holidays after seeming distant.

The ad first premiered on the 19th of December, 2013, but a quick look at Google Trends for the term “Apple ad” in  December of 2013 shows that it was three days later, on the 22nd, that search results for the ad reached its peak. The product it was advertising, on the other hand – the iPhone 5s – peaked in search results on the 25th of December. Of course, that’s not all due to the ad campaign, but that definitely contributed a bit. 

M&S – Go Jumpers for Christmas (2019)

Marks & Spencer has long been challenged with dipping sales, so its 2019 Christmas clothing campaign focused on making jumpers “cool” to a younger generation. It uses House of Pain’s “Jump Around,” a smashing UK hit from 1992 (a key year for most of its target audience), as its soundtrack, relying on the track’s rhythm and wordplay to sell jumpers. Jumpers in womenswear and menswear saw a 6% and 7% increase in sales after the advertisement. 

Hershey’s – Christmas Bells (1989) 

This campaign is a lesson in the effectiveness of simplicity and a classic Christmas tune. Since 1989, the brand has run the same ad of animated Hershey’s Kisses fashioned as a choir and playing to the tune of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Before 2012, the ad was produced in stop-motion animation and then changed to CGI. The ad was so popular that when Hershey’s released a different version in 2020, it faced backlash for deviating. 

What Can Nigerian Brands Learn?

More often than not, music is key to the success of any advertising. Not only does it help your potential market recall your campaign (and product) better, but it also heavily contributes to the emotions evoked in your campaign viewers, ultimately converting viewers to customers.

So far, most Nigerian brands have yet to effectively capitalise on the power of music for festive season ads. Even when music is employed in campaigns, they are often original tracks with lyrics that detail the product or service, combining the task of informing and entertaining in one. It’s a template that’s getting stale, even for Nigerian marketing campaigns.

So, how can you do things differently this festive season while borrowing a page from the successful campaigns we’ve highlighted? Here are some things you can try:

1. Create bespoke tracks that solely entertain and strictly focus on improving your brand image.
2. Reimagine already existing popular music and create versions likely to evoke the emotions you want from your viewers.
3. Use already existing (probably popular) music your audience will find enjoyable.
4. Go with the classic Christmas tunes, or give them a contemporary twist. 

Choosing the right music for your campaign is just as important as any other aspect of the campaign. Therefore, it must be done properly, considering all existing and potential right-holders to ensure your campaign airs.

How to Use Music in Your Campaigns 

To keep things simple, the best way to successfully use music in your Christmas campaigns is to ensure you have the right to use it for that purpose. Original tracks may be the easiest to acquire rights to as long as everyone who works on the track’s production is duly compensated and agrees to let your brand own or use the track. 

Classic Christmas melodies may be in the public domain, depending on what year the version you intend to use was created. If they are, indeed, in the public domain, you would be able to use them freely. 

Using existing music or creating alternate versions of existing music may prove the most beneficial since it will probably be tracks your audience is already familiar with. Depending on the circumstances, you may need to seek licenses from record labels, performing artists, songwriters, producers, etc. It is often an intricate process that often requires existing relationships with people in the music business. And here’s where we come in.

At Afro Soundtrack, we can help make your Christmas campaign a reality by securing licensing rights to any song for you and having our team of composers and supervisors work on an original track, voice-over or instrumental for your campaign.

Written by Joshua Solomon