There’s only 25 days until Christmas! And as we get ready for our first Christmas down under, Australian advertisers have been working hard to capture the holiday spirit and the eyes of viewers with this year’s line-up of Christmas adverts.

In the realm of festive advertising, British retailer John Lewis has long been a trailblazer in the UK, changing the game forever with unforgettable creative campaigns. While Aussie advertisers can’t make use of snow-filled landscapes, ads are becoming increasingly creative and inventive without succumbing to clichés…who wants a white Christmas anyway?

From heart-warming narratives that have you reaching for the tissues, to ingenious marketing techniques that push the boundaries of creativity, let’s unwrap our favourite festive ads of 2023 that demand attention for the right reasons.

Australia Post has lived up to its name and delivered the best advert this year for the Liquid Brisbane office. The campaign follows a curious Santa Claus who takes on the role of an intern at Australia Post to see how the national post service manages the onslaught of packages and letters during the festive season.

Featuring postie Alex to showcase Australia Post’s services, the advert successfully gets across its key messages including Christmas delivery cut off points, secure lockers to avoid missed deliveries and its app to track presents in a fun and humorous way, all without the use of magic.

Discount supermarket ALDI has become a front runner in creative advertising and hasn’t fallen short with this year’s memorable, if downright weird, Christmas advert that gets our second spot. The much-anticipated ad has been underpinned by consumer research revealing that 7 in 10 Aussies (73%) look forward to festive sides just as much, if not more, than the main protein itself.

ALDI has turned this into the narrative by giving side dish ingredients their own voice, quite literally, with potato heads and carrots singing to a festive version of Dirty Dancing’s ‘The Time Of My Life’. The advert is authentic to the ALDI brand by being a little bit silly and down to earth, but successfully showcases its market niche for discounted quality, seasonal produce – a huge tick in today’s economic climate.

It can be tough for a brand to break through the retail noise in the market during the festive period, but Telstra has done so with panache and class. With an advert to rival John Lewis, the communications company’s ‘Hello Christmas’ tells the story of lost Dasher the reindeer who journeys through Australia after being separated from Santa.

Along his travels through the stunning landscape, he meets kangaroos and neighbourhood dogs, giving the story a distinctly Australian feel, before being discovered by a little girl who uses one of Telstra’s payphones to tell Santa where his trusted reindeer is. It’s a real feat of creativity and cinema to pull off such a heart-warming story in the space of 90 seconds.

Bringing the ad to life, Telstra has returned its Free Calls to Santa hotline where children can dial #HO HO HO (#46 46 46) from any payphone for an interactive experience to chat to Santa, a nice touch!

Myer has played on Christmas re-gifting and that awkward moment of receiving an item with little to no thought, to promote its department stores this Christmas. The advert’s main character is Wendell, a wombat-shaped soap who tells the story of being thoughtlessly re-gifted from Christmas to birthdays year after year and how to avoid being like him.

The campaign successfully enforces the point that Christmas is about more than gifting, it’s a time to connect and show love with a thoughtful and sentimental present (from one of their stores). A department store is a tough brief, with Westfield showing how it shouldn’t be done, but Myer has produced an entertaining and creative story with a simple message at its heart. The irony? Lavender scented Wendell’s would be sold out this year. They’ve missed a trick not bringing him to market!

In our opinion, supermarket chain Coles has created an advert that shows how it shouldn’t be done. The ad is a continuation of its previously successful ‘Great Lengths for Quality’ campaign launched earlier this year to showcase the lengths their farmers, growers and suppliers go to ensure a quality product.

It’s a great tagline with scope for a great advert, but sadly this fell short with a mismatch of ideas and concepts that leaves us with the view that, unfortunately, their team doesn’t go to great lengths for quality Christmas adverts!

While we’re not in the advertisement space, we know what makes a great PR campaign that resonates with targeted markets. For more information on our services head to our Brisbane page or shoot us a message at Brisbane@weareliquid.com