Which Brand Made The Most of Christmas and How?

The yuletide season has always been a busy moment for brands and their agencies, because it is usually accompanies with hyper-activity on the retail end of the market. Christmas can account for almost half of a retailer’s sales, therefore brands leaves nothing to chance to ensure that their Christmas campaign are as exciting as possible.

During the last Christmas season, as it is usually the case brands took to different media platforms with different campaigns; some only said a simple “thank you” or “Merry Christmas and happy New Year” message.

But a few other brands took it a lot further, by unveiling campaigns that absolutely stretched the borders of creativity and engaged directly with consumers. But perhaps two of the most exciting campaign during the Christmas season was Coca Cola’s “share the feeling” campaign and Heritage bank’s Man Campaign by Heritage bank.

Share a Feeling
The Christmas season has always been a huge campaign moment for Coca Cola worldwide. Every season the soft drink giant deliver a campaign that wows even their competition. This season Coca Cola Nigeria didn’t disappoint as they unveiled “Share a Feeling”, another exciting concept which built on the overwhelming success of its “share A Coke” campaign.

‘Share a feeling’ was not just an extension of the hugely popular share a coke, but it delivered a refreshing twist to the concept, carrying this through to the product itself, as well as tapping into the reach of social media. ”Beyond sharing a bottle of coke with friends and loved ones this season, you can now share your feelings with them as well,” the campaign promoters said.

The campaign included fun smileys that convey diverse emotions and messages on Coca-Cola and Coke Zero packs. The smileys included popular Nigerian phrases that connect with everyone across boundaries.

Coca-Cola also took it further by partnering with popular rapper/comedian Falzto to help deliver personalised Coke bottles with names and smileys to consumers’ doorsteps. Some notable influencers such as DJ Jimmy Jatt, Cobhams, Chi-Gurl, Dammy Krane, Audu Maikori, Liz Awoliyi, Kelechi Amadi-Obi took delivery of their own personalised Coke bottles.

And though Christmas is over, the feeling of the campaign is still very much present on social media where #shareacoke has continued to trend.

The Heritage Man
Another campaign that was equally exciting was the Heritage man campaign by Heritage bank. The campaign had a man dressed up and looking dapper in green going from place to place, handing out surprise package to people.

With the word “HERITAGE” clearly engraved on the license plate of the salon car, the heritage man stops at such places as shopping malls, restaurants, bus stops, cinemas, “bukas” and hospitals, to pay bills incurred on the spot by people he meets at random, and bids them Have a Nice Day.

On his first day out, he paid for a 60″ LCD TV for a particular woman at The Palms Shopping Mall in Lekki, and paid for Mongolian hair, beauty makeovers and weave-on fixes at Ikeja City Mall. He was at Shoprite in Surulere, Coldstone and Chicken Republic, paying bills and making out time to have his picture taken with dozens of delighted people.

On his second day out, he paid off bills for different ailments at the General Hospital, Ikeja, paid for lunch for about 150 staff of the Lagos State Government at the Alausa Secretariat Canteen and was eventually seen handing out airtime recharge cards to motorists stuck in traffic on the Third Mainland Bridge! He might just show up in your neighborhood.

It was a campaign that even trended on the social media and made instant impact with the consumers. The financial brand keyed into the general spirit of the season to deliver gifts to consumers and by so doing boosting its equity.

Perhaps the icing on the cake for Heritage bank was another surprise package for a lucky customer who won a huge cattle in the Heritage Bank Mobile Christmas give away powered by eTranzact.