Here we are again, the Christmas marketing shift is in full swing and I have cherry-picked the campaigns that caught my eye over the last week. Join me as I take a jolly romp through the hits and misses.

Mars, The Bounty Hunter

Chocolate legends, Mars, have played another festive blinder with the Celebrations advent calendar. For the second year in a row it has provided the kind of story that the syndicated news media types love.

Last year, Mars cottoned on to the fact muggles weren’t impressed by the oft maligned Bounty chocolate bar appearing as the first chocolate in the calendar. This year, they leant into the drama and Bounty was not just the first day, but the first three days.

Reach PLC loved it. Most of its regional titles and also a smattering of the nationals, ran with the story. The localisation aspect was taken from punters moaning on social media about the issue. Thinking about how Google loves brand and noise this is a very savvy move by Mars. Faketroversey is always a big hit with the media, and pretty much guarantees attention.

Roll round to September 2025, when advent calendar searches fire up again, Mars will dominate the SERPS. My colleague suggested that next year it should keep the story going by whacking a Turkish Delight in days one to four. There would be riots on the streets. Great work by the Mars comms team.

Mince pie cost takes the biscuit

Sultanas get the first Bad PR of the week. Two years of poor harvests in the sultana hotspot of Turkey has resulted in mince pie costs shooting up in the UK.

No one fronted up in defence of evil tasting sultanas and the tough time they are having, so the trade mags piled into them. Tesco seems to be the hardest hit, with its luxury range of mince pies going up by 40%.

The supermarket giant, which reported £2.3bn in pre-tax profits this year, felt it had no option but to hike the pie price up by around £1. This is around 14% more than the majority of other retailers whose prices are also being monitored.

Cheaper supermarkets come out top

Raisin UK fired the starting pistol on the cheapest supermarket for a Christmas dinner story and dominated the media as a result. Affiliate site Which? will be gutted that Raisin UK got its story out ahead of them.

Great PR for Aldi and Lidl as both came first and second respectively. The biggest fall in the rankings from last year was, surprisingly, Asda. Maybe this is reflective of the ownership changes over there, and caps off a year where they faced criticism for changing their petrol pricing strategy, along with questions about how they were going to service their corporate debt levels.

I can’t help but feel that Asda via its industry respected comms team are going to come out fighting in 2025 to try and reclaim consumer love via kicking off an epic price war.

For now though, Good PR for Raisin UK and the discount supermarket brands.

Cashing in on physical money

Another big-ticket winner at Christmas that has had a tough week is cash. Link, the ATM provider, released research that revealed that 50% of muggles claim to have issues with paying by cash.

Car parks, cafes, restaurants, pubs and public transport topped the list of places where cash use was frowned upon or not allowed at all. A Treasury Select Committee is investigating this further because not allowing punters to use cash has a big effect on those with long-term poor health and those at risk of economic abuse.

In the peak month where the most money is sent via Christmas cards, it is a good reminder that cash plays a vital role in the UK economy.

Greenpeace on earth this Christmas

I don’t often find myself siding with hippies but after a recent incident during a PR activation I was part of in London, I am cheering on Greenpeace in its battle with Shell Oil.

The tree-huggers reached an out of court settlement with the black-gold machine over a stunt where they twice boarded one of its North Sea platforms. It was agreed that Greenpeace would make a £300k donation to the RNLI and also committed to not visit four other North Sea platforms owned by Shell Oil for the foreseeable.

Greenpeace said that it would not stop them from campaigning against Shell Oil in the future and heralded the out of court settlement as a PR victory for themselves.

Shell Oil had originally tried to sue Greenpeace for in the region of £1.7m in damages but no monies will now be passed over. Strong PR win for Greenpeace and Shell Oil will now be hoping that it draws a line under the whole thing.

Not a very festive ending I know, but having watched Landman I now understand how oil plays a vital role in everything from toy manufacturing and production through to fuel for Santa’s sleigh, so that is the connection. Thank you.