By Sofia Urbina
After perusing through endless articles displaying Christmas gift options for young women through native advertisements, I decided to take a mental break by scrolling through Instagram of all places. After viewing one or two posts, I came across a sponsored ad from Primark. Per my Google search history, the content features families at Christmastime wearing seasonal garb and exchanging gifts, all under retro filters and mussed-up hair for a nostalgic 1980s Christmas. The words “Whenever Christmas is for You” and “It’s Here” flash at the end. Indeed it is here, the month of Olympic-level branded content.
After social media apps became heavy players in the digital economy, coming across ads every minute or so while we are using these platforms is pretty common. We might come across native advertisements on YouTube right before the intended video begins or a brand’s own content on a screen in Picadilly Circus. The dissemination of these ads on social platforms allows for a wider audience to interact with their brand and hopefully support whatever is being advertised. Primark’s newest Christmas ad is an example of integrated content wherein the content is produced and distributed by the same company through their channels. Jonathan Hardy explains that branded content that is integrated without separation is the driving tool for modern-day marketing as web 2.0, soon to be 3.0, exists as a form of economy that millions of people interact with. To remain a competitive brand, companies must turn to social media platforms to disseminate new products and keep up to date with the ever-changing digital trends. For example, using keywords that are trending on Twitter or Tiktok “sounds” that are currently making the rounds on the app. It is in this way that brands cement themselves as social processes, not only expressing to consumers that they are with the times but also coming across as personable to their audiences. Forging a relationship with their consumers to seem attainable is vital for brands like Primark to keep in business.
In the Primark ad, the producers lean into nostalgia to elicit feelings of joy. It was a brilliant move as Gen Z has a tendency to borrow from fashion trends of decades past, the 80s being one of them. The caption of the post describes moments in the holiday season when we feel fully immersed in the Christmas spirit. Inadvertently to its consumers, Primark is using its Christmas jumpers as a marker for the holiday spirit. If the ad can communicate that we are finally in holiday mode then maybe the viewer will feel inspired to buy the jumpers or anything else Christmas related from the store. If this was even five years ago I would have felt disturbed that almost out of the blue I was presented with a clothing ad after searching on the internet for Christmas gifts. Nowadays though, I, along with others, are accustomed to being bombarded with user-generated content. The disaggregation of media and advertising makes the lives of marketing companies easy as all they need to do is follow consumer data instead of creating an audience to cater their ads to. This becomes a problem of privacy as digital users are constantly screened by third parties. The content of these ads can be problematic, especially on platforms like TikTok where regular people are often used to promote products to minors that are easily influenced by whatever is currently trending on the app. This, alongside brands like Primark, reinforces overconsumption that is hard to be released from when we are constantly fed unwanted advertisements.
Branded content as a tool for marketing has proven the most effective way to reach audiences far and wide without actually needing to be on their radar beforehand. As these ads continue to blur the lines between advertisement and normal content, it will become much harder to disseminate unbiased news and information going into Web 3.0. So, happy holidays!