It’s almost Christmas and that means the Christmas adverts have been playing on our screens for some time now. If you’re the sort of person who can’t wait to see the latest festive offerings from the high street’s biggest names, you’ll know that there are a few different formulas that they tend to follow. Claire Baldwin takes a look at the different categories of Christmas advert, and what makes them effective.

#1: The Tearjerker

Christmastime can bring about all sorts of strong emotions, and many brands choose to tug at the heartstrings to elicit an emotional reaction. If you’ve never cried at a Christmas advert, you might be made of stronger stuff than me!

While it seems strange to actively try to make your audience cry at your advert, it actually makes us feel good inside, and helps those big corporate brands to feel just a little more human, allowing the public to create a stronger emotional bond.

My pick for this year’s tearjerker is Apple. The three-minute ad starts with two sisters who seem more interested in their iPad than their family this Christmas, despite their obviously grieving grandfather. However, the advert takes a heartwarmingly bittersweet turn when the girls use their beloved iPad to create an emotional family scrapbook featuring their departed grandmother.

Apple gives those tears a helping hand with an almost Pavlovian response created by the music from the opening scenes of the Pixar movie ‘Up!’, which is just about the biggest tearjerker there is. Frankly, that feels a little bit like cheating!

#2: The Character

A cute character is practically a must in a Christmas advert. We bond with them, they make us smile, and our kids want the cuddly toys. Focusing your Christmas campaign around a memorable character is a great way to increase brand engagement, and offers huge possibilities for merchandise, social media, festive events and even apps.

2019 has been all about Aldi’s returning character, Kevin the Carrot. It might seem crazy that an anthropomorphised vegetable has stolen the spotlight, but that’s the power of cuteness. This year, Kevin has been joined by Russell Sprout and his gang of Leafy Blinders, in a nod to the hit TV show ‘Peaky Blinders’.

Furious that the carrots are set to steal the show at the Christmas dinner table, the gang of sprouts tries to teach him a lesson. Fortunately for Kevin, Tiny Tom, the tomato, rescues him, and his family of carrots is able to put on a show-stopping circus performance, accompanied by a Christmas-dinner-themed version of Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’.

The whole thing is preposterous yet charming, but if the huge demand for Aldi’s cuddly crudités is anything to go by, it’s been a roaring success.

#3: The Comforter

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without that warm and fuzzy feeling. Whatever your personal feelings about the online giant, it’s hard to deny that Amazon’s 2019 Christmas advert is full of joy and warmth.

Accompanied by various homespun renditions of Solomon Burke’s ‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Love’ that bring a smile to your face, the advert focuses on an Amazon delivery driver and the impact their parcels have at this most wonderful time of the year. Amazon’s recognisable smiley arrow logos turn into animated mouths as the parcels sing along with the catchy music, and it’s all smiles all round.

Another reason that this advert is so feelgood is due to the inclusivity of its ‘Love Actually’-style snapshots of family life during the Christmas season. From a female delivery driver and an elderly African-American couple to a racially inclusive school play and a same-sex airport reunion, Amazon has clearly made a conscious effort to bring a little Christmas joy to as many demographics as possible.

#4: The Song

A great song can really make a Christmas advert, and there have been countless examples of this over the years, with John Lewis’ annual quaint covers of well-loved songs.

A musical success story this year has been Walkers’ festive ad, featuring Mariah Carey and her classic Christmas hit ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. The advert is a pretty standard Walkers concept: the crisps are too good to share. This defiance of the spirit of giving comes even after Mariah has lavished her music video crew with gifts, because Walkers’ festive pigs in blanket flavour is just that irresistible.

The icing on the cake (or the holly on the Christmas pudding?) is that Mariah’s baubly belter has just hit the #1 spot on the US Billboard chart for the first time ever, 25 years after its release. This is testament to the enduring popularity of the track, and cements it as a great choice for a Christmas advert.

#5: The Complete Package

If there’s one company with a highly anticipated Christmas advert release, it’s John Lewis. With a string of wildly popular festive offerings under their belt, the reason that John Lewis’ Christmas adverts are so successful is because they tend to include all the key elements that we’ve looked at above, and this year’s ad is no different.

It focuses on a cute character, Excitable Edgar, a young dragon who is so excited about Christmas that he can’t control his fire. It makes use of another great song, with Bastille’s cover of REO Speedwagon’s classic ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ making us feel warm and fuzzy inside.

The advert’s story takes you on an emotional ride, as you feel both sad and sorry for Edgar, then excited and happy for him by the end when his fiery breath is put to good use. Depending on how vulnerable you’re feeling when you watch it, Edgar’s flames may even warm your heart enough to bring a tear to your eye.