A tough Christmas to land well!

In a Christmas full of separation and compromise the usual levels of excitement have been severely dented. It’s been a tough year for Christmas adverts to land well – in fact, with so little festive cheer, it’s almost a shock to see them appear on our screens!

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We’ve tested 20 major Christmas adverts, using our acclaimed FeelFactor framework, to give our view on which brands have won the battle of the ads for 2020 and the 5 main narratives of Christmas.

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Didn’t get to Food Matters Live this year? Fear not. Here’s our ten minutes read of the interesting bits we saw and heard.

Sustainability the queen of the show

Consumer demand for more sustainable food and drink options was a big driving force of developments. Momentum around vegan and plant-based options continues – with a massive one third of brands and innovations presented connecting to this trend. Along with an abundance of free-from alternatives, vegetarian options and plastic-free inventions. The UK has never watched what’s happening in the sustainability space as much as today, and as for most innovations it often starts with easy food swaps. Once you start realising the amount of meat you eat and the amount of plastic covering what you buy you can’t turn back. So you turn to easy solutions that make you feel good whilst doing good.

Realising the health benefits of raw ingredients

There’s now a vast number of brands injecting ingredients to give us all that ‘health boost’ we’re keen to feel without doing the hard work! Turmeric and apple cider vinegar were the stars of the show. Obviously apple cider vinegar can’t cure major disease, but there is a great desire to move away from over the counter medication to more natural solutions to cure small illnesses. With the growing lack of trust in pharmaceutical companies, consumers will undoubtedly turn to more raw ingredients from their kitchens for simple health hacks at home.

Consumers expect transparency in everything

More than just knowing whether the packaging is recyclable or not, consumers increasingly demand clarity on the whole supply chain. And smaller, more innovative brands are doing an excellent job at being transparent on their whole supply chain process than the super brands. So beware! Consumers won’t be fooled and are likely to have more and more demanding expectations in the future.

Immersion in more ‘human’ brand stories

Food hasn’t felt like sustenance for at least a decade. With the growing importance of food in our lifestyles, our health, and even our Instagram accounts, consumers will expect to connect with the food they buy on a deeper, more personal level. It’s about looking good and feeling good. We met a carpenter from Wales who, after suffering from arthritis for years, got convinced by the benefits of turmeric and decided to launch his own health drink to cure it using only using local ingredients. He made recipes for years in his own garage before he got the right balance between taste and health benefits. These are the sort of powerful stories consumers want to get immersed in.

Packaging can’t be left till last!

We know from working with many brands that when it comes to packaging, a good intention to improve often doesn’t result in radical enough change. Packaging is the shop window of your product. When done well, packaging has the power to grab consumers’ attention and disrupt their automatic shopping mode. But when left to the end of the innovation pipeline or with little end user input that’s when poor sales and even consumer backlash can happen. For example, Mr Kipling moved to more individually packaged cake bars recently, but in doing so doubled the amount of plastic on their packaging. The resulting backlash was strong! Brands should put just as much effort into thinking about how their packaging design connects to consumer motivations as they do for what’s inside.

See how to develop winning products and packaging

Real spend will come late, but we’ll start ‘celebrating’ early

The gloom and fatigue of uncertainty means everyone is ready for some merriment and distraction. Things which enable us to start early, without any guilt. Immersive activities with family and friends will be popular. We’ll seek out the Christmas-mood on Netflix as early as possible, and make a trip to the Cinema for festive movies and traditional films which take us back to cosy, family times like Downton, Dickens’ David Copperfield and Cats. There could also be room for a few affordable buys (advent calendars, festive clothing and Christmassy candles/home fragrance).

We’ll break free of traditional presents and gift time

Indulging in a special activity or celebration will be a popular gift, a friendship group deciding on a meal out, posh cocktails or a theatre evening. Consumers will reject restrictive and impersonal coupons/tickets/vouchers and simply organise the event themselves. Putting pressure on traditional, shoppable present spending but creating opportunity for new players to enter the gifting market. Opening huge potential for restaurants and bars – especially as we know that an immersive dining experience will increase spending (of course we’re having the second bottle of wine… and dessert!)

To be a super-host we’ll need an inclusive offering

It’s not just the main event that needs to be delicious and beautiful, there needs to be something for everyone. Vegan and veggie options will up the ante on previous years making meat-eaters jealous and desperate to try – so will options for guests with special diets who require gluten/lactose/nut free. Plus, there will be extra pressure on the bar too – orange juice and lemonade won’t cut it  by non-drinkers, they’ll be expecting more choice and special options on no/low alcohol. Of course this means there could be many hosts buying as total novices, so visual short-cuts which cue ‘crowd-pleaser’ will win (awards, customer endorsements, show-stopper designs, familiar trends).

Definition of ‘perfect gift’ evolves – it’s personal, not personalised

We’ll start to see through name adornments, a token identity stamp. We’re looking for true personality, uniqueness, a story – something that feels chosen for you, not simply looks like it’s for you. A careful selection of favourite grocery items like breakfast cereal and chocolate spread will say I love you better than an embossed ‘A’ washbag. We’ll see a rise in ‘homemade’ gifts – which could mean crafting, or more likely a curation of the recipients most coveted low-cost products (mindfulness hamper, gaming night-in snacks, ingredients plus recipe for a new bake).

We’ll be conflicted between sustainability and tradition

While we’ll claim to be conscious angels the routine of rituals will mean a lot of mindless spending. We’ll preach that the world doesn’t need more plastic, but we won’t think twice about all the packaging surrounding our party food… until we’re clearing it up and feel pangs of disgust. We’ll nail the convenient switches – we predict Christmas cards to be a big casualty, no unnecessary paper and the effort save of finding all those addresses – win-win! We also predict a few big messages will cut through, we’ll seek out recyclable wrapping paper and forsake Christmas crackers. Simple, achievable and smothered in social pressure.

‘Gimmicks in disguise’ – we’ll cut back unnecessary frills for more wholesome unnecessary frills

Part sustainability driven, but mostly about being spending savvy, we’ll steer away from novelty extras and silly gifts. We’ll tell ourselves it’s all about being smart, but really they’ll be replaced with more immersive, authentic buys… gimmicks in disguise (Christmas bedding/cushions/throws, festive dining ranges, Christmas socks, pet accessories).

Desperate for social proof, we’ll all be drawn to shareable photo-opportunities

The tree might be decorated and the lights switched on, but the house isn’t truly ready for Christmas until the decorations are on Instagram. It’s not just the joy of soaking up the moment – we need a souvenir! With a focus on immersive festive moments and creating magic at home we’ll be desperate to share. Brands which create aspirational, shareable moments will enjoy the buzz of being talked about, and stick in our memories.

Join us for our Christmas predictions webinar

In just 20 minutes you’ll get to hear:

• Our big Christmas predictions and the consumer sentiment/trends driving them
• Who we think will be the winning and losing brands and categories
• Why you should be adapting to evolving sentiment and buying habits over the festive season and how our Christmas Unwrapped insights can help you win

Get our latest Christmas insight report

Quiet voices are being heard amongst the noise, brands like The Ordinary gain huge popularity and chatter by leading with simplicity. There’s something about it that feels so natural. You might think all winners at the moment are intuitive, almost magic, but it’s an illusion! Emerging brands mislead us, it looks natural, when really it’s anything but. They purposely employ tactics to use our cognitive biases against us.

The latest store opening of Neon Sheep got us thinking. The store itself has a lot of energy, lots of buzzing customers…. but look closer and you can see it’s a masterclass in consumer nudging. And it looks to be working! Customers seem to be looking past the extreme use of plastic – very much a feel first, act second environment.

Primed to fall in love

Intention or coincidence, I’m not sure…but many Neon Sheep have opened next to brands like Oliver Bonas, Paperchase and card stores, where we are already primed to seek uniqueness and little impulse buys. So we can’t help but be drawn inside.

Attention seeking disruption

Neon colours strike from a distance, a giant pink sheep welcomes customers in and a family of lambs graze on the ceiling grass. There are lots of memorable, fun elements which both disrupt and provide us with something new for the gram.

Irresistible at arms reach

The layout places nearly all product at touching distance. It feels fun, we feel compelled to pick things up. But we know, once we physically hold something, it increases our attachment to it and we’re far more likely to buy.

Prices that feel almost consequence free

Simple, low price points on design-led and desirable product is a recipe for temptation. Blanket price points also help accelerate your need to buy – £2 all their greetings cards, a category renowned for quickly tipping into a little too expensive. The magic of the single-price point is that suddenly the only choice is ‘which design?’.

Chiming with millennials desire to ‘shelfie’

As the generation who boomerang to parents homes or rent for what feels like forever – it’s hard to create hygge escapes at home. We rely on accessories, no-nails-needed decorations to lift our spaces and give them our own stamp. Neon Sheep is bursting with products to create an enviable shelfie.

See why balance is bingeworthy for consumers

Healthy lifestyle, digital usage, self-care, career, relationships – it’s all about balance. Everywhere we look there are articles and supposed inspiring quotes about achieving an equilibrium. In a world where we seek limitless possibilities, where everything moves just a little too fast and we can all have almost as much as we want, traditional balance is nearly impossible. Instead – on/off binging is our way to achieve harmony.

We see this most in our consumption of television. Rather than an hour of TV a day, we watch none all week then a lazy Sunday sees us guzzling an entire series in an afternoon. Binging is the only way to watch the latest series of Stranger Things. The days of watching one episode of a drama a week feel pre-historic. We make crazy choices. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said their biggest competitor is sleep.

It’s no longer just Netflix, we’ll binge on anything

For more and more of us social media is feast or famine – we end up on Facebook looking at a school friends posts from 2014 or find ourselves lost in an Instagram rabbit warren. Then suddenly, we take a stand – rule it out of our lives, make pledges to put our phone away, delete the app or even our accounts entirely. So much content consumption seems to be like this – YouTube, Podcasts, favourite bloggers or journalists, it’s all or nothing.

Over the years, our travel has become a much more obsessive affair too. Of course the birth of the gap year was one of our first tastes – an intense 3 months binging on new sights and cultures. But now, even with just one week of holiday, we seek to pack in as much adventure, exploration and wild experiences as possible, then ignore this side of ourselves and hide away behind coffee dates, Friday night drinks and of course Netflix, for the rest of the year.

We even binge calm! Yoga retreats, digital detoxes, self-care weekends. For a few short days they are all-encompassing, honeymoons to recuperate after burning the candle at both ends. True moments of serenity are few and far between and for most absent from our daily routines.

Immersion will help brands get a slice of the action

Immersion calls to us, most of us love the sense of escape – we’re drawn to engaging experiences, things that envelop our senses, and moments like this make us want to stay. Here are 3 things you should think about:

1. Showcase the allure – covetable experiences are all encompassing. Be single minded in the feeling you’re looking to elicit – be it empowerment, togetherness or simply something cosy and welcoming, make it powerful.
2. Create a whole new world – there’s a reason why Stranger Things and Game of Thrones are some of our favourite binges, they transport us to somewhere completely different. It doesn’t have to be make-believe, we see this same quality in Ted Talks where it’s easy to get lost in a loop of great tips. Brands can also achieve it with physical experiences, just look at Lush.
3. Make it easy – we’ll happily be swept along and won’t question it if it feels comfortable. So avoid anything that awakens us and invent new ways of keeping experiences seamless. What’s your equivalent to ‘the next episode will start in 7 seconds’ feature?

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