Battle of the Christmas Ads: Marks & Spencer's 'Magic and Sparkle'

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When it comes to November, it's only a matter of time before the C word is on everyones lips and constantly pops up wherever we go - whether that be out and about or in the comfort of our own home; there is no escape, Christmas is officially on it's way! During the build up to the festive season, brands begin to pull out their big Christmas campaigns to showcase the best of what they have to offer this season whilst connecting emotionally with the audience to create a buzz around their campaigns and generate sales in the run up to Christmas.

The first of the Christmas adverts are already starting to filter through onto our screens and in store and there's lots of anticipation for what certain brands are going to do to stand out to us. I love advertisements at Christmas, I feel this is when brands really push the boat out with their marketing and create their best and most original campaigns - unsurprisingly really as this is the most lucrative time of year for most if not all businesses!

One of the most anticipated Christmas ads year on year has to be Marks & Spencer's. Big stars have featured in their clothing adverts for as long as I can remember; from the days of the supermodel M&S featuring the likes of Twiggy, Erin O'Conner, Lily Cole and Noemie Lenoir (The one who was ALWAYS in her undies) enjoying all Christmas has to offer in the latest collection of clothing to featuring the X Factor finalists that updated each week to include those still in the competition.

This year hasn't changed and now features the beautiful Rosie Huntington Whitely, Helena Bonham Carter and the gorgeous as ever David Gandy depicting different characters throughout the advert. Rosie and David are a wise choice as Rosie's not only models but designed her own underwear collection for M&S - which is their fastest selling of time and David is currently the face of M&S' premium Collezione range.



The advert, featuring Rosie as the lead role showcases her journey into a glamorous winter wonderland after chasing her beloved dog down the 'rabbit hole' and transforms her and those around her into an array of fairytale characters with an updated modern style. First Rosie lands right in the middle of an opulent Mad hatters tea party with Gandy as the Mad Hatter Himself.


Can we all just appreciate how gorgeous David Gandy look in this ad?!

Upon falling in love with a handbag, Rosie runs away and is transformed into Red riding hood where she then finds herself at Hansel and Gretel's gingerbread house , in what I predict will be THE new M&S coat that people will be lusting over, forget 'the' pink coat, this festive season is all about red. 


Whilst exploring the gingerbread house, a magic carpet takes Rosie on a star studded flight through the night's sky and transforms her into an Arabian princess - an Arabian princess in lingerie that is. She is soon joined by Gandy as her Aladdin and they take a tour through the sky together before they tumble back to earth.


Transformed again into Dorothy and the Scarecrow, Rosie and Gandy are joined by a very glamorous Tin Woman and Lion and journey along the yellow brick road to the Emerald City to see Helena Bonham Carter as the Wizard of Oz appear - as well as compliment Rosie on her ruby red shoes.


When Rosie clicks her heels together she is transported back to the real world and is reunited with her dog who has been found by the real life Helena, ending with the slogan 'Believe in Magic and Sparkle' and the hashtag #magicandsparkle. Although not linked directly to Christmas, the advert associates itself more with the magical time and emotions surrounding the festive period and connecting through peoples love of fairytales and being able to be transported into your own magical wonderland and being able to create your own at Christmas.

This is also the first year Marks and Spencer has stepped up it's social media campaign by choosing to launch its' advert via Youtube on Monday, two days before it aired on television today. Including a hashtag on the end of the advert also lets viewers engage with the advert and so M&S can get instant feedback from customers; the video itself has already reached over 126,000 views in 2 days and is bound to have had millions more views on the television tonight.

To carry on engaging with customers, Marks and Spencer have launched a campaign to name the dog featured in the advert either Magic or Sparkle, leaving it to social media followers to decide their favourite - creating more publicity for the brand in the process. There are also exclusive interviews and behind the scenes footage featured on their Youtube channel for people to find out more and to interact with the brand.

To be even more interactive, you can even shop the looks right on the M&S website of all the different characters featured within the advert, or you can choose to shop the different fairytales and find related products that fit in with the scenes to incorporate the other M&S departments such as food and home. This is making the user experience ever more friendly and making it easier to find the must have pieces featured within the different scenes and of course to buy the products, I mean who wouldn't want to look like Rosie?!


I think it's great that Marks and Spencer have decided to get involved with their customers and interact with them more via social media, I feel this is the right way to go and they have been a bit slow to follow competitors with this, but hopefully more interaction will help to increase their clothing sales and build a stronger brand following. 

Their clothing department has been completely transformed this season in the bid to increase slumping sales and I have seen countless bloggers raving about this latest offering. I for one love the looks featured in this ad campaign, it's a very glam and modern take on fairytales but also very wearable here in the real world! Maybe next year M&S will see a real improvement start to take hold when compared to recent years.

If you would like to see the advert for yourself you can watch it below!



This is just one of many major brand's Christmas campaign and I'm excited for more to come!
What do you think to Marks & Spencer's latest 'Magic and Sparkle' campaign?

Amie xx

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