Flamingos Fly Again for Very This Christmas

Last year Very debuted an adorable Christmas ad, “Let’s Make It Sparkle”, in which the brand’s signature pink gift boxes were delivered by a fleet of flying flamingos, adding some Christmas cheer to a town of animated pigeons. Flamingos aren’t a traditional Christmas animal, but the online brand isn’t a traditional Christmas retailer, and its slightly more whimsical and quirky take on the Christmas ad proved very popular.

So popular, in fact, that Very have taken the unusual move of simply running the same ad all over again this year. Well, it used to be an unusual move. These days we’re seeing more brands take the approach that if you’ve got some top-drawer Christmas creative, you should make the most of it not strain for novelty every year. After all, Coca-Cola’s “Holidays Are Coming” has been airing in mostly unaltered form for almost three decades, and it’s one of the most-loved ads of all time.

So this year Very are joined by Cadbury and the National Lottery in reusing a previous Christmas ad. This isn’t a cost-saving decision for Very, either: it’s a purposeful decision that consistency pays. Jessica Myers, Chief Customer Officer at The Very Group, had this to say: ““Last Christmas not only did the launch of our ‘Let’s make it sparkle’ platform drive year on year improvements in ROI across gross demand and customer lifetime value, but data shows that exposure to the campaign drove a 22% increase in target customer consideration. Continuing to build out our brand is central to our business strategy and the research is clear – consistency is key when it comes to branding, which is why our fabulous flamingos have been prominent throughout this year’s marketing activity.

“With this in mind, when it came to thinking about this year’s Christmas campaign, it wasn’t a brave choice to re-run the creative, it was a smart choice. We’re a data rich business and while many businesses look to make new ads every year the data shows that creative consistency can have a considerable impact. Therefore, instead of developing something new, we worked with System1 and used data to inform our strategy to optimise our much-loved Christmas creative and make it work even harder for us this year.”

So how have real audiences reacted to meeting Very’s flamingos for a second time? They’re Very pleased. The ad scores an exceptional 5.4-Star Rating on our Test Your Ad platform, with Exceptional scores in short-term Spike Rating and also in Brand Fluency (speed and accuracy of recognition). That gives “Let’s Make It Sparkle” the rare ‘triple whammy’ accolade – exceptional performance across all three key Test Your Ad measures.

The reasons the ad works so well include its vivid animated characters and an effective melodic soundtrack – a cover of christmas classic “Merry Christmas Everybody”. But a big factor is that consistency factor, as System1’s recent Compound Creativity report shows. The report looks at how creative consistency, built over the long-term, is a driver of greater brand and greater business effects from advertising. One of its three “building blocks” of creative consistency is the Culture Of Consistency. One of the signs a brand has build a culture of consistency is that it does exactly what Very has done with this ad, and used data and past success to continue a successful campaign instead of casting about for something new. As Jessica Myers says, that’s not brave: it’s smart.

Get Into the Christmas Spirit With Our Christmas Advertising Playlist!