Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Argos’ Christmas 2017 TV advert makes its debut tonight (Friday, November 3) with high profile spots during ITV soap opera ‘Emmerdale’ and Channel 4 reality show ‘Gogglebox’.
The 60-second commercial will transport viewers to a magical Argos distribution centre where a troupe of Argos elves are helping Santa deliver gifts across the country at record speed on super-sleighs.
The advert, created by CHI&Partners features a futuristic rocket-powered sleigh ready to take off on its mission across the country. The action shifts gear as one child’s Christmas present – a Teksta voice-recognition robotic puppy – is found wandering the aisles by an elf. The quick-thinking elf scans it in at the ‘elf station’ to reveal its intended recipient on-screen, Tom, aged nine, whose family’s gifts are departing from gate nine.
This leads to a blockbuster-style chase across the distribution centre in which the elf pulls out all the stops to ensure the robotic puppy makes it to Tom in time for Christmas.
The retailer said the ‘Ready For Take-Off’ advert celebrates its commitment to delivery, with online orders delivered ‘in as little as four hours’ through its nationwide Fast Track same-day delivery service’. It forms part of a campaign spanning TV, digital, print and in-store and social media activity.
Argo marketing director Gary Kibble said: “We love this edge-of-your-seat, high-energy Christmas campaign, which aims to surprise and delight by showcasing our Fast Track delivery commitment to getting customers what they want, how and when they want it, faster than anyone else.
“Over the Christmas period our teams will deliver 1.7 million items to customers’ homes and process 27 million in-store transactions. The go-getting elf in the story reflects our hard-working and dedicated colleagues who often go the extra mile to make Christmas happen for our customers.”
Children also have the opportunity to feature in the TV advert. From Tuesday (November 7), parents can visit Argos’ Facebook and Twitter channels to submit an image of their child using the hashtag #ReadyForTakeOff. Three winners will be selected and will appear on national TV in the Argos advert for a whole day each on Friday (November 10), Saturday (November 11) and Sunday (November 12).
In addition, every parent will get a chance to see their child’s face in a personalised social media version of the advert, which they can share with loved ones. Again, they can visit Argos’ Facebook and Twitter channels to submit an image of their child using the hashtag #ReadyForTakeOff.
Yan Elliott, joint executive creative director of CHI&Partners, said: “We are proud to help make Argos the first UK retailer to personalise its Christmas advert across both TV and social media – and we can’t wait to see Argos fans everywhere become part of the action.”
