Best Christmas PR Stunts From The Recent Years
Christmas is the season of giving – and, ultimately, the season of buying! Every year, we are bombarded with promotional Christmas content, campaigns and ads from brands that are pushing their products and services for your friends’ and families’ stockings…
As we enter the final month of summer, brands and advertising agencies start to plan for the Christmas period. So, to help you stay ahead of the game, we’ve collated a varied selection of some brilliant Christmas brand activations that could inspire your own Christmas campaign…
1. Elves Behavin’ Badly: Tree Prank
In 2020, Elves Behavin Badly commissioned us to put together a creative and ‘naughty’ multi-faceted PR campaign that would capture the essence of that peculiar year and bring a smile to the face of all who endured 2020…
For the PR stunt, we conceptualised and designed a beautiful Christmas tree installation and turned it into a ‘sabotaged’ prank. For us to execute this ‘sabotaged’ tree prank, we built a mechanical structure, that resembled the shape of a huge 10m Christmas tree. It was made with a hinge function which allowed the tree to safely topple over at the top, as if it had snapped in half! The tree was fully branded with Elves Behavin’ Badly logos and products as well as being decorated head to toe in lights, baubles and even giant Christmas presents…
2. Tesco: Become More Christmas
Here at Sketch, we love a special-build OOH billboard activation and we think this Tesco one is worth singing about.
Tesco targeted the millions of London commuters, activating in Kings Cros Station with the aim to help people Become More Christmas
The billboard highlighted Tesco’s seasonal range and offers, but over the course of the 48 hour duration, the billboard began to develop and grow, along with people’s excitement for the big day! Eventually, the billboard featured giant baubles, stars, Christmas trees, and fairy lights all coming from the build and onto the concourse, spreading Christmas cheer to passers-by.
3. Cadbury Secret Santa Post Office
Cadbury were giving away free bars of their chocolate selection with a twist – chocolate lovers have to give them away by using Cadbury’s Secret Santa’s Post Office service.
The festive postal service toured across the country and popped up at high footfall places in busy cities. This year, Cadbury is promising people can spread the magic even further by donating one chocolate bar to a food bank in the Trussell Trust network for each bar sent to a loved one. This super clever stunt has been a huge success for years now and it’s popularity doesn’t seem to go anywhere soon.
4. Royal Mail Singing Post Boxes
In 2018, Royal Mail launched four ‘singing post boxes’ with festive tunes and well wishes from Father Christmas coming out of them every time someone posted a letter through the letter box. The festive PR stunt had appeared at high footfall places in Belfast, London, Cardiff and Edinburgh over the holiday season cheering people up on their daily walks.
5. Amazon ‘Second Chance Store’
During the season of gifting, Amazon opened a pop-up store that gave shoppers the opportunity to buy returned and refurbished items at highly-discounted rates! A great way to help people save money on presents for their friends and family.
The store was opened, for a limited time, in Central London and stocked over 4,000 products for the public to buy. The key message from Amazon was to promote a more circular economy, encouraging people to buy second-hand, refurbished items and the funds raised from the Second Chance Store were used to support impoverished families in the UK, to ensure their children have the best possible start in life.
