Comment by Patrick Avenell
Turn on the TV over weeks leading up to Christmas and you're bound to hear the cheersquad booming 'Go Harvey Go' and the chorusline asking you to 'Come in and see the Good, Good, Good Guys' and the diva declaring that 'Myer is my store' and 'There's no other store like David Jones'.
These TV ads have been tired for years. There is very little 'creative' about this creative and the overriding plan seems to be 'let's beat the viewer into submission' with an earworm and some limited-time-only deals on a loss leader and 30 months interest free.
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Over in the United Kingdom this week, department store John Lewis – think DJs but a million times better – launched its annual Christmas ad. Although it has been criticised by noted wet blanket Charlie Brooker, there is no doubt that this ad puts all the local offerings in the shade:
And this isn't a one-time-thing for John Lewis – last year's Christmas ad was just as good:
We've written in the past that Harvey Norman's marketing budget is not slight – $355 million for FY2012 – yet the company has rarely invested in anything more than the standard screaming of discounts-of-the-day at potential consumers. Harveys is far from alone – and the purpose of this article isn't to pick on them – but they are the most prominent.
Ads such as the two by John Lewis above can go viral, have news articles written about them and be featured as editorial on advertising TV shows like the Gruen franchise. Of course they cost a lot more money to develop, but the money you spend on additional production costs can be recouped by spending less on the media buy.
John Lewis' current Christmas ad has been viewed 2.2 million times on YouTube in just two weeks. Its 2011 commercial has 4.5 million views (and that's just on the official channel – there are rebroadcasts with huge viewerships as well). That's considerably more than any commercial on Australian TV will ever achieve in a single play – and uploading a video to YouTube costs absolutely nothing.