PRODUCTION
Eight tips for creating a stand-out Christmas ad (without a multimillion-pound budget)
18 October 2022 Author: Editorial Team
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We all know the big players in the Christmas ad game these days. The likes of John Lewis and Sainsbury’s part with a huge chunk of their budget each year to pull on public heartstrings (and hopefully their purse strings!)
That being said, you don’t need to have an eye-watering budget to make a successful Christmas ad. As the day gets ever closer, read on as we share eight tips for creating stand-out Christmas ads without a multimillion-pound budget.
1. Refresh and update content
You don’t necessarily need to start from scratch when planning your Christmas content. Think about the brand assets you already have available and work out if you can edit rather than reshoot.
Can you change the music, voice-over, or sound overall? Can you edit the special offer? How about the end frame or titles? With post-production, there are loads of ways you can strategically adapt what you already have to save yourself time and money.
2. Stay authentic
With so much competition for consumers’ attention (and money), it can be easy to try and shout the loudest, but you risk getting lost in the noise.
Before you plan any activation, sit back and work out the story your brand really wants to tell. Is it authentic to your offering?
Last year, we worked with Bloom & Wild to create a non-traditional Christmas ad. We had fun building a CGI fairy, with the campaign emphasising the importance of small gestures over giant acts.
3. Keep it simple
There’s no need to over-complicate! It may surprise you to learn that an animated TVC can be done in just 10 days. If you have a cracking idea, it can be easier than you think to bring it to life.
4. Think social
With many of the best-known brands tending to take the big TV spots, you could focus on social for a fraction of the price.
Create a high-quality Christmas ad made just for your social channels and invest in paid media to target your content to your target audience.
5. Do your research
For example, it’s likely alcohol may feature in a Christmas setting so make sure you’ve checked advertising regulations wherever you are in the world. You can always chat to us about this too!
If you do forget something along the way, don’t panic—we can still fix it for you in post-production. For example, we could make open bottles appear closed and turn empty glasses into full ones to make sure the content adheres to local advertising rules.
6. All about versioning
The holiday season translates! You could create different versions of your Christmas ads to make sure you’re relevant for each market. This could be a useful tool to break into new regions too.
7. Plan early
Of course, it’s such an important time of year that production houses can get booked up months in advance. We can still help and can scale up and down quickly to make sure you get your content out in time.
8. Enjoy yourself!
And last but not least, a personal tip from the POD team—enjoy the moment! After a difficult two years, we can finally hug and spend Christmas together again.
Let’s work together
With Christmas just two months away, time’s ticking but there’s still time to create high-quality festive content that gets you noticed. We can help you with all things post-production, with services including storyboarding, motion design, animation, and VFX all charged at £250 per day. Read more about how we can help you this Christmas!
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POD LDN offers a unique and flexible post production solution. This hybrid, on demand model has all the benefits and infrastructure of a post house but operates on a flat day rate like an in house resource or a freelancer.