You’re probably well into the process of developing holiday ad campaigns for your clients. (If not, good Lord, get it in gear.) Even so, it’s never too late to check your work to make sure you’re getting it right.
And unlike years past, Holiday 2020 is going to be challenging to get right, being indelibly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sick of hearing about it? Me, too, and like many people, I’m sick of talking about it, but it’s not avoidable. And in our industry, when we’re trying to reach our audiences where they live, when we’re supposed to understand them and connect with them, we can’t ignore the fact that “where they live” right now is in a pandemic.
You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) make all your ads heavy and COVID-centric. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) abandon traditions and change your brand because the world is different right now. You don’t have to (and, come on, shouldn’t) throw in the obligatory “The holidays are going to be different this year…” — like, oh, wow, thanks for mentioning it, I’d totally missed that. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) not have fun. You just can’t ignore that the world we’re communicating in is, well, different this year. A few things we need to keep in mind as we adjust to that:
Money is tight for a lot of people.
Chances are, you have some kind of product to sell, and in our current economy, you probably have an audience that wants to buy your product, and would otherwise buy your product, but can’t afford to buy your product. And it’s probably a sensitive point with them. It’s tough to push a product in that kind of environment, and “Maybe we’ll just do a branding ad this year” might feel like a bit of a cop-out.
How to work with it: If you can find a thoughtful way to push your product, go for it. But if not, “do a branding ad this year” seriously isn’t a cop-out. Rock some product placement, but keep it focused on your audience and how you, as a brand, are being attentive to their needs and feelings. Have a charity initiative? Go to town. This year, associate your brand not with commercialism (she says, fully recognizing the irony) but with people and connections and generosity. In a time when people have both emotional and situational needs, be a place they can go.
Togetherness is going to look very, very different.
Sorry to slam you with it, but I’ll never not give it to you straight up: This is not the year for traditional togetherness. Public health officials are telling us quite clearly that gathering outside of our respective pods is a danger to the entire community. Just as we’ve all been conscious about putting masks on people in our ads, and making a note whenever we use an image shot pre-pandemic, we need to depict safe behavior in our holiday ads. (Nope, not being paranoid, not making an overly big deal — this is important.)
And that means that yes, dinners and traditions and such are inevitably going to look different. Neighbors are going to be sharing hot chocolate and carols from their respective front porches. People will be joining each other for holiday meals via the same Zoom window they’ve been starting at during work meetings for the past nine months. That’s what life looks like now — and, unfortunately, what it’s supposed to look like right now — which means that’s how our depictions of life are going to look, too.
How to work with it: Work with it. If it fits the tone, be lighthearted about it — a collection of laptops and tablets lined up around the dinner table for the family to “share a meal.” A joke about how only cleaning one room of the house is the holiday equivalent of wearing PJ pants to a client meeting. If lightheartedness isn’t fitting, don’t try. And don’t try to ignore it or write around the fact that it’s happening. But do focus on the ways people are able to be together, and how they’re able to share love and closeness, and the aspects of the holiday that do manage to stay more-or-less the same even as so much else is very different.
A lot of families are going to be missing family members.
As of this writing (Tuesday, November 17, at 10:30 a.m.), more than 73,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized with COVID-19, and nearly 250,000 have died from it. (Yeah, I’m bringing out the ugly, painful statistics. Deal with it.) That’s a lot of families whose holidays will never look the same.
How to work with it: Just be respectful. Don’t dwell on it, but be conscious of the fact that for some people, “togetherness is going to look very different” will be, on its own, very different. “Someday, we’ll be together again” is a beautiful, hopeful sentiment, and you don’t have to avoid it, but when you’re using it, be conscious of the fact that it’s not going to be exactly that way for a lot of people.
All the ads are going to look the same.
Generic COVID Ad has been a common joke since the beginning of the pandemic, but it’s likely to be even more so during the holiday season. If we’re honest with ourselves, holiday ads tend to get a little repetitive in a normal year anyway, and it’s even harder to present something unique within the constraints presented by the pandemic.
How to work with it: Either bust your ass to come up with something creative or just accept that your ad probably isn’t going to be cutting through the holiday messaging clutter this year. If you think a “We care about you” message over the strains of a beloved Christmas carol played on a slightly-out-of-tune piano is going to be a game-changer, it’s just… not. And honestly, that might have to be okay. It feels really weird to say, as a creative who’s never not dedicated to giving my clients the best work possible (reasonable rates, inquire within), and definitely do your best, and definitely throw everything you have behind creating something special to make your client proud during this difficult time. But your choices this year are putting sanity-threatening amounts of work into coming up with something special, or not doing that. And if your Holiday 2020 ad isn’t Clio-worthy, then… okay.
Don’t @ me.
“Too soon” is a bigger deal than ever.
Humor in holiday ads is a grand tradition, and there’s no reason that doesn’t have to continue this year — within the boundaries of taste. This is not a time to push the comedy envelope. Loss, loneliness, financial struggle — these things are (sorry to be a buzzkill) not funny, and this year, trying to make them funny is almost certain to go wrong.
How to work with it: Avoid it. Don’t even try to walk the line. If there’s even a question, go with something else. It’s just not worth it this year. (EDEKA, that means OPA DOESN’T EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATE HIS FAMILY THIS YEAR.)
Hope, love, and joy are still a thing.
All of these things notwithstanding, hope, love, and joy all have a place in the world right now. There’s no getting around it — the 2020 coronavirus has been a tragedy. But this year hasn’t been only tragedy. It hasn’t been nothing but tragedy. And in the future — God only knows when, but eventually — the tragedy will be over. There has been happiness, and laughter, and generosity, and people finding a way to stay emotionally close, and the general faith in humanity that people will do what it takes to make this end. The ideal of the holidays (the ideal, anyway) has traditionally been about, like, love and caring and generosity and stuff, and being able to bring that in such a difficult time is something precious that, at the risk of wandering into self-importance, our industry is well positioned to do.
How to work with it: Bring hope, love, and joy. Bring laughter. Bring generosity. Of course, and as always, respect people and the world they live in, but also, try to make them happy. God knows we need it.
Announcing the 2020 Weepies
While I happen to be on the subject: As always, Holiday 2020 will see the return of the Weepie Awards — our annual celebration of holiday ads that make you cry happy, sentimental tears.
Are you already encountering emotional holiday ads? Do you have any old, reliably weepy favorites worthy of a Lifetime Achievement Award? Make your nomination in comments, on Facebook or Twitter, or via email (if you’re for some reason ashamed or whatever. But don’t be). And be sure to take a minute to admire past winners. Awards will be awarded in time for our celebrated creatives to brag about them at Christmas, because you know they’re going to be following this blog religiously until then.