Very.co.uk Is Looking for Any Excuse to Celebrate Christmas Early in Festive Campaign

Multi-category online retailer Very.co.uk today (October 1st) becomes the latest major store to launch its Christmas TV advert, targeting those who like to plan ahead for the festive period, with a series of “Very best excuses” to do everything we can only get away with at this time of year.

Christmas is the ultimate excuse to get away with almost anything - from decorating every single part of your house (even the dog!) to encouraging good behaviour from the kids because Santa is on his way.

Created by Grey London, the 30-second film - which debuts on ITV tonight at 9pm ahead of Grantchester - depicts the confused reaction of Halloween trick-or-treaters, when they arrive at a house fully decked out for Christmas. The inhabitants, who are wearing Christmas jumpers and excitingly trimming the tree while adorning their dog with antler accessories, jovially hand the perplexed young witches and vampires a mince pie each as their “treat”.

Launching 85 days before Christmas, the fun advert also features a choir of carol singers performing a version of “Holly Jolly Christmas”, with updated lyrics that tell how Christmas is the best excuse of the year to get away with so many things we wouldn’t ordinarily do – not only decking our house out in lights and wearing Christmas jumpers, but also getting our kids to help around the house in order to stay on Santa’s nice list and earn that coveted gift.

The advert shows twin boys enthusiastically washing dishes as they glance at a picture of a new console they’ve stuck to the fridge, while a third child stands next to the sofa with a tea towel over his arm, waiting on his parents who have put their feet up. Anything for those extra brownie points!

Carly O’Brien, chief marketing officer at The Very Group, commented: “At Very, our mantra is about enabling people to purchase what they need – be it treats or everyday items – that create joy “this Very moment”. After Christmas was pared back for many last year by last-minute lockdowns, we wanted to get into the spirit early and unashamedly embrace the season as soon as the leaves start to fall. As the ultimate Christmas enthusiasts and champions of now, we have focused on empowering and enabling our customers to say yes to all the excuses that make their Christmas so wonderful.”

Very’s data shows that Christmas-related search terms - both on-site and via external search engines - started earlier this year, with numbers starting to pick up from early August as families look to supercharge our “comeback” Christmas and rekindle the magic.

The 30-second advert kicks off a multi-media Christmas campaign running throughout the festive period that covers key consumer touch-points across ATL and OOH and invites us all to unashamedly embrace the excuses that are unique to the season and make Christmas so special.