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Words by: Sam Balagot and Nela Romulo
Art by: Andrea Abaya
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of joy that the holiday season brings. This time of the year simply wouldn’t be complete without our bright parols and decorations, food feasts and gift exchanges, and of course: our favorite holiday ads and campaigns. From awaiting the biggest holiday sales, to watching the most sentimental ads that always bring tears to our eyes–every year, we find ourselves enjoying the different holiday campaigns throughout this season. Holiday marketing is a must for every business; this year, it becomes an avenue for us to keep the spirit of giving alive by paying it forward.
Generally speaking, a part of marketing involves promoting a business’ products or services through formulating strategies and launching campaigns. We market our business to convince others to choose our brand. Because these choices are made from the heart, the best season to establish a connection with customers is throughout the holidays (Chierroti, 2018). Holiday marketing enables us to communicate with our audience through emphasizing shared values and important traditions by celebrating love, instilling hope, and spreading the holiday spirit in campaigns.
Year after year, companies find new and creative ways to market throughout the season. Some focus more on tradition–resonating with consumers through the use of bright colors and holiday icons plastered across packaging, merchandise, and more. Meanwhile, others opt to create campaigns that emphasize values their brand wishes to uphold. The most essential part of a seasonal campaign, however, is creating an experience that gives customers a sense of something that is only experienced this time of the year.
Especially during the Holidays, there’s just something that makes the Filipino heart more open, and companies are well aware of this. Because of this, many emotional marketing campaigns emerge. Looking at some of the biggest companies and their campaigns–Jollibee’s sentimental webisodes, Coca-Cola’s yearly festive campaigns, and even Disney’s recently released ads featuring Filipino traditions during the Holidays.
Although the Kwentong Jollibee webisodes first went viral in their 2017 Valentine’s Day series, Jollibee has extended their emotional and touching ads through the years to different holidays such as Christmas. One of the company’s main problems was their image, as the brand was no longer seen as “cool” among its younger audience (Dickinson, 2018). By creating touching videos surrounding real-life experiences that incorporate their products, they were able to connect with younger generations, while also increasing their ChickenJoy and Yumburger sales (The Manila Times, 2018). Needless to say, this kind of advertising has been very effective for Jollibee–as they have been able to generate a strong social media impact even in the years following the initial Kwentong Jollibee release.