Advertising for the Holidays

It’s that time of the year where brands put their best deals for­ward with adver­tis­ing for the hol­i­days! Com­ing up with the cre­ative can be an over­whelm­ing task. So we’ve com­piled a list of inspi­ra­tional adver­tis­ing from dif­fer­ent indus­tries, to help your cre­ative juices flow. But before we dig in, let’s talk about the his­tor­i­cal con­nec­tion to the col­ors you find on hol­i­day advertisements.

Advertising for the Holidays

The History of Christmas Colors

Dur­ing the hol­i­days, brands will use col­ors red, green, white, gold and blue to their advan­tage. These col­ors were once part of a cul­tur­al aware­ness that linked to the sig­nif­i­cance of Christ­mas. Col­or in today’s soci­ety has become less sig­nif­i­cant than it once was and now clos­er to adver­tis­ing and sales. Before this shift occurred, these col­ors held a par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance to the mean­ing behind Christmas.

• Green links to Christ­mas trees and the mistle­toe. The use of Christ­mas trees can goes back to medieval times, where it was believed to sym­bol­ize the Gar­den of Eden.
• Red is close­ly asso­ci­at­ed to the holy berry and the blood of Jesus.
• Gold links to the presents giv­en to Jesus by the three wise men.
• Blue con­nects to roy­al­ty as the pig­ments to pro­duce the die were expensive.
• White con­nect­ed to the puri­ty of the spir­it and snow. But it’s also like­ly linked to the com­mu­nion wafers hung on trees, which hap­pened to be white.

Even though brands may not all con­nect to the his­toric mean­ing of Christ­mas, as a soci­ety we have adapt­ed these col­ors to sym­bol­ize the hol­i­day spir­it. While peo­ple may cel­e­brate dif­fer­ent­ly these hol­i­days, the spir­it of joy, love and giv­ing is still seen across adver­tis­ing. The brands list­ed below have suc­cess­ful­ly linked col­or to their adver­tis­ing this hol­i­day season.

Brands and Their Holiday Advertising 

The most well known brand for embrac­ing the hol­i­day spir­it is Coca Cola. While their adver­tis­ing has changed through­out the years, their focus is still on the expe­ri­ence of their product.

Star­bucks is known for their hol­i­day cups and the way they use their prod­ucts is incred­i­bly suc­cess­ful. Their hol­i­day adver­tis­ing doesn’t scream “buy me”. Fur­ther­more, it shows the expe­ri­ences peo­ple have with their cof­fee. As a result, you feel a warm, cozy vibe that’s clear­ly con­nect­ing to the com­fort of the holidays.

This beau­ti­ful styled image brings a sense of awe with col­or and cer­tain­ly gives you a lot of options with what they are sell­ing. And you see the full pic­ture, with­out need­ing to over­whelm the audi­ence with the objects.

Reebok is pret­ty clever about their adver­tis­ing as it wasn’t direct­ly say­ing get these for the hol­i­days, but you can clear­ly see the visu­al cues gear­ing up for the hol­i­day sea­son. The action shot clear­ly links to their fit­ness-cen­tered brand.

Blue, white and red clear­ly stand out in this can­did shot by Fos­sil. Since the back­ground has blue and white tones, you clear­ly feel the Christ­mas spir­it. This was actu­al­ly bril­liant because those two tones allowed the red bag to stand out and become a focal point.

Beyond The Photography

Before you add anoth­er piece of con­tent, get clear on your pur­pose. You can start with a sim­ple list, like con­tent buck­ets that reflect the type of con­tent that you can share relat­ed to your prod­ucts or services. 

Next, you want to define who you are try­ing to reach and how your prod­ucts or ser­vices will help them. We high­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing the time to do some Empa­thy Map­ping to define these ele­ments. This step is essen­tial as you can assess the impact val­ue for your audi­ence and know how to use lan­guage that speaks direct­ly to their needs. 

Visu­als are a key way to cap­ture your audi­ences atten­tion, but not all of it is pho­tog­ra­phy-dri­ven. What if you need to dri­ve that extra mile and have com­pelling copy in your ads? Our recent col­lab­o­ra­tion with Adobe Express (for­mer­ly Adobe Spark) and Twit­ter busi­ness is packed with tips and ad tem­plates you can use for your adver­tis­ing this hol­i­day sea­son. And if you are look­ing for Black Fri­day, Small Busi­ness Sat­ur­day or even Cyber Mon­day tem­plates, be sure to check out our lat­est col­lab­o­ra­tion with Adobe Express here.

Are there any oth­er brands that you feel are suc­cess­ful with their hol­i­day adver­tis­ing? We’d love to know.