7 Songs a-Singing: Warner Music’s Christmas Syncs

 

            

Very few artists have as much Christmas appeal as Michael Bublé, he seems to go hand-in-hand with the season. Clearly ASDA feel the same way as not only did they use two Bublé songs (‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’) for this campaign, they also put the man himself front and centre of it as ASDA’s chief quality officer. It was brilliant to see such an ambitious, joyful and collaborative project come to life, and with over 1 million views since launch it’s clear that this is one of the standout campaigns of this festive season.

 

           

Warner Music has a brilliant Christmas catalogue, but I like it when brands opt to move away from a Christmas song and just go for a massive feelgood hit… because Warner Music has a lot of them as well! This is exactly what McDonalds did for their Christmas campaign this year when they decided to go with ‘Jump’ by Van Halen as the soundtrack. It’s a brilliant and immediately recognisable song that works perfectly with the spot, which is as fun and feelgood as the song itself.

 

            

Argos also decided to go with a massive well-known feelgood hit instead of a Christmas song for their 2023 festive campaign. ‘Le Freak (Dimitri From Paris Remix)’ by Chic soundtracks their brilliant ‘Dancer’ spot, which brings joy and a lot of dancing to UK homes this Christmas. There’s been a trend within sync over the last few years of brands, TV shows, films, trailer houses deciding to go down the route of classic songs being remixed or reworked in order to better fit their creative and it’s been brilliant to see. Warner Music has a lot of repertoire to offer in this space and although this remix wasn’t specifically created for this campaign, I feel the decision to go with Dimitri From Paris’s slightly speedier and punchier version of Chic’s classic ‘Le Freak’ is a great one for the creative.

             

This Morrisons Christmas campaign is a lot of fun! Soundtracked by Starship’s classic ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’, we see the Christmas meal prep taking place as a series of oven gloves sing along to the song. Who doesn’t love a singing oven glove? Possibly the most fun Christmas campaign of the year and once again they decided against a Christmas song, opting instead for a huge recognisable hit that works for sync during the festive period and throughout the year. 

            

Burger King decided to tap into Warner Music’s brilliant Christmas catalogue for their Christmas campaign this year… but with a twist. In an incredibly fun, ambitious and brilliantly executed campaign they went for Chris Rea’s all time classic, ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ but reworked the lyrics in order to guide you to their nearest outlet depending on where you are in the country. Their version of the song is called ‘Driving (thru the) Home (of the Whopper) For Christmas’ and features lyrics such as; “in Leicester, head East on Meridian Way, fifth exit around the leisure park” all sung by a Sat Nav. It’s a crazy idea/concept but executed and handled well and with a playful sense of humour from all involved.

This campaign is a great example of a massive brand using a massive song to perfect effect. ‘4 Minutes’ by Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake soundtracks the Marshalls 2023 Christmas campaign. I’ll admit it isn’t the first song I think of for the festive season but it’s a song that works so well with the creative when you see it. It’s always a pleasure to work with the Madonna catalogue and I hope this campaign puts the song in front of a whole new audience at a time when Madonna is touring the world.

            

The surprise runaway hit of the Christmas campaigns this year that no one saw coming is from Charlie’s Bar, a small family-run bar in the town of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. The team at Charlie’s Bar managed to create the most emotive and viral moment of the season, on a budget of just £700, by telling the powerful story of loneliness at Christmas, soundtracked by Birdy’s version of ‘People Help The People’. The campaign began on Charlie's Bar’s TikTok and quickly started gaining attention and momentum with John Lewis commenting “We’re not crying, you are, Merry Christmas”. To date it sits on 1.2million TikTok views, 100k Instagram likes, and ITV even gifted them primetime advertising space to air the spot off the back of the campaign’s huge organic online success. It’s great to see that sometimes huge budgets aren’t needed, all you need is a simple but powerful message soundtracked by a beautiful song and you can reach millions.