The holiday season is a crucial time for retail and advertising, making it important to take the time to understand what worked and what didn’t. The ad strategies brands leverage for these short few months can make or break not only Q4, but the entire fiscal year. The approaches and channels having the most impact in 2024 will likely influence how advertisers tackle the 2025 season.
During every Q4, brands scramble to launch the best and brightest holiday campaigns. In 2024, holiday campaigns drove an estimated $271.58 billion in consumer spending. This is an almost 10% increase from 2023. The season of giving is also the season of spending, making it an ideal time for capturing audiences’ rapt attention.
The 2024 holiday shopping season is almost over, so it’s time to look at what strategies won over audiences and gather key takeaways for an even better 2025.
Personalize campaigns
Personalization reduces ad fatigue and builds strong customer engagement. Brands that truly understood their audience’s needs and desires created memorable and engaging holiday experiences for their customers.
Brands can effectively tailor messaging by leveraging demographic and behavioral profiles. Where are your customers from, where do they live, what do they buy, and where do they buy it? These are a few of the many questions to answer when building a personalized campaign strategy.
In addition to building stronger engagement and reducing ad fatigue, personalization fosters connection and builds brand loyalty – thus leading to its effectiveness during the 2024 holiday season. During a season of fervourous shopping and endless ads, personalization provides exhausted shoppers with relief.
Using CTV and OTT to reach customers where they are
CTV (connected TV) and OTT (over-the-top) advertising proved to be critical channels throughout 2024 and the holiday season was no different. These channels reach customers in highly engaged spaces. Streaming audiences choose when and where to consume their preferred content, meaning streaming ads reach tuned-in, active viewers.
These channels represent a new age for TV commercials. Not only do they let you access large inventories, but they also let you access audiences you can’t reach elsewhere. Brands looking to win the cord-cutting Gen Z and millennial generations need to leverage CTV and OTT, and they did this holiday season.
Digital out-of-home comes in clutch
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) had a strong holiday season and it’s not hard to see why. From large Times-Square billboards to signs at bus stations and malls, DOOH ads meet customers where they’re at with bright, attention-grabbing visuals.
Consumers encounter a lot of ads during the later months of the year, but with the right creatives, a DOOH campaign can do more than share your brand – it can set the scene, create a vibe, and become part of an experience.
Creatives are essential
In a season of endless advertising, a strong creative is a non-negotiable. Like most years, the ads that had the biggest impact this holiday season were those that told a story.
The most successful ads captured attention with strong visuals and held that attention with bold or interesting narratives. These ads were emotional, clever, and captured the spirit of the holidays.
The top three holiday ads for 2024
Every year, there are familiar faces among the endless lists of best holiday ads, 2024 is no different. While there were dozens of successful ad campaigns to choose from, these are our top three for this year.
The Gifting Hour – John Lewis
John Lewis consistently puts out the most heart-warming ads of the holiday season, and 2024 was no exception. The protagonist in this year’s ad, Sally, walks through eras of her life, remembering the important moments and relationships that affected her family over the years. While searching for the perfect present, she encounters memories of her sister throughout their lives, building a narrative that inspires viewers to think of their own loved ones, memories, and reasons they buy presents in the first place.
Midnight Opus – Amazon
Sometimes those behind the scenes are the ones most deserving of the spotlight. This warm and joy-filled ad follows the story of a theater janitor whose co-workers are inspired by his talent and decide to put on a show of their own – with him as their star. With its message of love, this ad captures the spirit of the holiday season.
Waldo Anthem – Etsy
Where is Waldo(or Wallie, as they say in the UK)? Well, this ad asks a different question: Who is Waldo? From stunning visuals to nostalgic characters, this piece is an immediate attention-getter. “Gifts that get you” shows a keen understanding of why people buy gifts and the importance of finding a gift that shows thoughtfulness. It is this through-line that so beautifully captures the holiday spirit – and its intended audience along with it.
Final thoughts
The holiday shopping season is the Olympics of advertising and there is no better time to pull out all the stops. This year it took clever ad placements, personalized experiences, and well-written stories to capture audiences’ hearts.
Engaging and heartfelt advertising has won over holiday shoppers for decades, and it turns out this strategy is more effective now than ever. Why? Because the holiday season is about giving, it is about family, and it is about joy. The strategies and ads that won this year took this to heart.
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