Mostly they are about deals and hot items, while a few have tried to make the ads more in the spirit of the season.
The challenge is always to do something that is more about your brand than generic to the season.
This is why I think that the Boots campaign is one of the stronger ones, as it builds on the on-going campaign of "Here comes the Girls" and reinvents it to make it a "blockbuster" style spoofing a Bond film. It manages to be well branded and memorable as part of the established campaign, and showcases many products. It has stopping power. It is fun, entertaining and easy to watch many times
On the other hand, the M&S campaign for me falls short. It uses the X-Factor finalists from the UK show. I feel that it ends up being more about the X-factor show and generic shots of people at Christmas, and could be for any retailer in reality. I also suspect the X-factor contestants distract as they are voted out each week, and so the borrowed interest gets in the way of the message and brand! People may focus more on "oh remember them" than the brand....
John Lewis Christmas 2011
The John Lewis department store falls, in my view, into the trap of telling a lovely - but generic - story about Christmas. It has a nice twist and is very well observed - but it is not unique to the brand. It could be for any department store, mail order company or gift store. It is very well shot and the story telling is charming, but the branding is only at the end and is not weaved in using established branding elements (like the Boots ad) has.
The one thing that John Lewis does though, is they manage to create noise, PR and buzz around what they do with communication. And so they often achieve awareness and understanding through that than just the ad itself. Maybe that in itself is the trick
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