Christmas Syncs
There are a few significant moments that mark the start of Christmas in the UK. The Coca-Cola advert first airing, mince pies being sold at your local Tesco’s, and the anticipated first watch of the John Lewis advert.
Since 2007, John Lewis has paved the way for Christmas adverts, with all major supermarkets now following suit to try and create the most emotive ad’ possible, turning adverts into major events. You even get YouTube videos of people filming their reactions to the ads, it truly has cemented itself as a ‘TV moment’.
Since it’s conception, the Christmas John Lewis ads’ have resulted in 4 songs reaching top 10 in the Official Singles Charts. Including Gabriella Aplin’s rendition of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood , ‘The Power of Love’- which, in 2012 was the first John Lewis ad to hit the number one spot, and Lily Allen, who picked up her 3rd#1 with her Keane cover of, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ in 2013. Landing a John Lewis ad has now become a guaranteed golden ticket. However it doesn’t give you access to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory unfortunately, but something just as magical for artists. Streams, and lots of them !
Being placed in an ad not only heightens an artists profile, but drives the streams and Shazam’s. Take for example the 2007 Cadbury’s ad of a Gorilla drumming along to Phil Collin’s, ‘In the Air Tonight’. The advert not only made it’s way around the internet as a viral sensation, but also landed Phil a re-entry into the charts placing him at #14 without the song being a re-release! A very modern day example of sync-fame from earlier this year is the fight to get a sync in Love Island. This year alone, Love Island broke 5 UK 24-hour Shazam records. First off with Lusaint who featured on the show on June 11th, receiving 23,000 Shazam’s in the UK that day, and finally ending with Joel Corry’s ‘Sorry’, which appeared on Love Island on 24th July, getting 41,000 Shazam’s that day and reaching #1 on the Shazam UK charts the very next day.
As we move swiftly into December, and the Christmas #1 no longer being overshadowed by X-Factor competition winners, will Bastille - who feature on this year’s John Lewis ad land the Christmas #1 ? Well, it’s currently sitting at #39, with Mariah Carrey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You at #34. We sure can be predictable can’t we ? !