MS7080: Advanced Topics in Advertising - ASDA Advertisement Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of ASDA's Christmas advertisement, focusing on its marketing strategies, particularly the use of video advertising to target consumers with emotional intelligence. The report examines how the ad portrays mothers and their role in making Christmas successful, ...Read More

Advance topic in advertising

Table of Contents.
ASDA ADVERTISEMENT............................................................................................................3
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

ASDA ADVERTISEMENT.
In regard to Asda Christmas mum ad, it is known that mothers as well as ASDA is playing a vital
role in making Christmas festival successful as well as memorable. In this context, it is also
found that Asda mum completes Christmas shopping in July and they saved around £170.
Mothers have shared their experience and said that they have to do a lot in order to make this
festival successful and they also mentioned ASDA behind the success of their hard work. It is
found that ASDA is the one that enables mothers in making this festival successful by providing
all shopping materials at affordable and cheapest price. It is shown in advertisement that mothers
buy loads of toys for only 10p. Mothers buy everything for just £30 from local branch and at this
price, they can make this festival memorable. They make their family able to sit and relax
on Christmas day and watch movie with their dear ones. In this advertisement, mum Kyra
Siobhan said that there is absolute bargain in Asda and around £200 worth of products, she
bought for only £30 from LOL toys to Mario figures. On one social networking platform, other
people or females have commented that I think it feels amazing being sorted for Xmas and I
want to see it. Another one commented that ASDA as well as mothers are doing great job in
making this festival so amazing and memorable. ASDA is doing a great job and great bargain.
ASDA’s this ad got number of complaints but there is no doubt as it received praises as well. For
the fact that mothers do everything for making Christmas memorable, all complaints were
ignored. So, on the basis of this, it can clearly be said that ASDA’s this ad has become very
popular and mothers are finding easier in completing a lot of tasks only because of the support of
ASDA. In this advertisement, it has been shown ways as how mothers single handedly carrying
out the preparation as they shown that mothers buy trees, writing cards, groceries decorate their
home, wrap presents and cook Christmas dinner with voice over. In this context, mothers shared
their feelings and thanked Asda as it is providing it all necessary resources and materials at
affordable price. Many people have said that this ad is sexist but all complaints were ignored
because of the fact that mothers play major role in making this festival successful.
This is the real story which shows how mums are prepares for Christmas by not much not
focus on idealistic and unattainable sceneries. Video advertisement is one of the best marketing
strategy in which video promotes product or services or provide information to audience. In this
strategy it helps for target the audience in order to create sales, tells story, create buzz and then

convey the necessary information in interesting and short manner which can reach to wider
audience (Li, Larimo and Leonidou, 2021). ASDA has using this strategy for marketing with
target audience with emotional intelligence also in this video company gets the benefit for
popularity by eye-catching video and relevant content. Also, it helps for providing the
information related to efforts put by women in the organization during Christmas and also there
are challenges faced in staging event.
This advertisement campaign help for representing first brand advertisement with the
hopes of humorous campaign and capture the hearts of mums. Behind success of every company
there are women who make it successful as well as ASDA behind women who make the event
more successful. There are different type of function are made in the event by attracting large
number of audience. This is peak time for company for getting chance of increasing sales then
Kate Stanners, executive creative partner at Saatchi & Saatchi analysed that this is creative
designed for acknowledge for how mum perform for success of event. Also, mums are played
important roles by not expecting much in returns. This is the opportunity for company for
making the successful event and ASDA focus on speed-up version of traditional Christmas carol'
silent night' which reflect the excitement of mums.
Then in the end of the advertisement it can bes said that there is British music in the
background by revealing the features as well as it help for targeting family in front of television
by representing the pinnacle of mum's work. This is good strategy followed by company which
showed mother doing all the work by just accurate for preparing the family Christmas (Morgan,
Whitler and Chari, 2019).
Earlier women are only doing household work but with the help of advertisement it has
been analysed that women can do everything that is why organization on hiring women as
workforce which helps for bringing financial interdependence. Then women are not focus on
shopping but also focus on make the shopping more successful for other. Further, there are
commercial shows that can be exhausted by struggle put by mum in order to present different
type of element such as decorating home, tree, writing cards, wrapping the gifts and then making
cooking the festive feast. Then with the help of advertisement it has been analysed that women
are still working on festival by making better occasion for other and this thing is analysed by
ASDA. Due to this ad there are large number of audience understand the effort of women then in
the back up women can carry the weight of running the home at occasion. This is appreciation

from the ASDA to role of mother and it is important for company in orders to reflect the actual
Christmas experience of majority of customers.
On the other hand, it has ben analysed that there are people who argued because there are
men or father who help family for making prep ration of Christmas., hosting family and then
making sure regarding children were entertained (Katsikeas, Leonidou and Zeriti, 2019). Also,
some of them are argued that children lost their mother in order to saw her busy. There are
significant number of families who complaint regarding more effort putting by women. In
addition to this for the other women it can be said that there are people who appreciate the effort
of women and how she has done successful advertisement for entertained people and showing
the importance of women in society.
Advertising has played an important part in the society as it has capacity to
communicate to the audience at large about products and services. Along with the
communication of the product and services promotion, it is also helpful in conveying important
message to the society which can help in shaping the future of people in the society (Haydock
and Smith, 2019). Many a times advertisements plays a crucial role in delivering an important
message which is underlying in the advertising. As companies understand their responsibility
towards the society, and they try to redeem themselves by giving important things to the society.
One such advertisement campaign was launched by the ASDA which is supermarket
chain in united kingdom. It was founded in 1949 and has a strong product portfolio with more
than 10000 products onboard. The majority of the supermarket customers are female with a
rough figure of 47%. which means, women are the dominant target market of the ASDA.
Therefore, ASDA understands its duty towards the women in the society (Nguyen and et.al.,
2020). The marketing team at ASDA analysed the need for raising voice or making efforts by
raising an advertisement campaign for the important stakeholders of the organization which is
women.
It has been evident that women are all-rounder when it comes to the responsibilities, be it,
money making, looking after kids, running a home, women are quite capable of doing it all at
once. Especially when the festive season is around the corner they are pretty much over worked
as they need to look after every aspect of the home. Here during the Christmas season ASDA ran
an advertisement campaign highlighting the role of women in the house and how over worked
yet strong they are.

Advertisemnts are often used by the organizations not only for the purpose of promoting
the products and services but also as a part of their responsibility towards the region they are
operating in. As there is a term corporate social responsibility, which makes company aware
about the re Sources they are getting from the society. And for this they need to add some value
to the society in return (Dawson, Findlay and Sparks, 2020). ASDA used the Christmas
advertisement campaign to convey a deep underlying message to the audience. Yet it faced
criticism from some groups of the society in terms of complaints, negativity and backlash.
The advertisement was a 60-second video played on televisions and big screens to reach
maximum audience. It showed how mother face challenges in preparing and hosting festivities
and events. It showed various struggles mum faced for managing a beautiful Christmas eve for
her family, starting from getting a perfect Christmas tree, untangling the Christmas tree
decorative lights, preparing food, fulfilling kid's wishes, inviting everyone, hosting the dinner
etc. even after being so tired by doing so many errands she is happy that her kids, husband and
family is spending gala time together (Ali, 2021). This advertisement was a way of ASDA
celebrating the women and their efforts for the family.
Advertisement was supposed to be a light-hearted way of ASDA saying that it stand
behind d mothers when mothers stand behind their families. It was trying to introduce the new
schemes and view of the organization. As women when Christmas is nearby are busy in buying
gifts, buying decoration, food, putting up the house together, fulfilling kid's wishes, sending
Christmas cards, hosting dinners etc. this makes them over worked and tired leaving them with
no time for themselves.
It was ASDA's first Christmas campaign, it intended to be a humorous advertise which
will win the hearts of many people. The ad said that it just does not happen by magic and behind
every beautiful Christmas eve there is mum” and for mum, there is ASDA behind mum. The
underlying message behind the advertisement was that how mothers always put their family,
kids, partner before themselves, and they expect nothing in return other than just contented
silence with a smile on Christmas eve (Al Falaq and Puspita, 2021). Mother was highlighted
gender of the advertisement campaign. ASDA decided to bring the realistic version of a normal
British household as they wanted to show the reality.
Yet there were some group of people, company faced backlash from. As the
advertisement was highlighting the role of female gender, many people felt it offensive and

wrongful for the male in the family. As a father also puts his child's and family's requirements
before himself and sometimes he has to spend time away which is also for the family as well.
Therefore, the underlying message of the advertisement went wrong for some people. Yet ASDA
did not intend to harm the sentiments of people.
ASDA stated that it appreciates how role of mother and father differs in the family, and
they wanted to put forward a realistic scenarios which is faced by majority of the customer
households. There were a total of 620 complaints filed against this advertisement campaign.
Some people also felt that the advertising was wrongfully perceived by the children who lost
their mother, as it depicts that nobody can take the role of a mother in the family.
Organisation totally denied all these claims and backlash it was not generalising or being
harmful, yet they were trying to portray an honest scenario. Advertisement was not meant be
encouraging the discriminatory behaviour or malpractices yet it was supposed to recognize the
efforts of the women. Marketing plays an important role in establishing the image of the
company. A right advertisement can build the image yet the wrongful advertisement has power
to destroy the image and customer base of the company (Cheah and et.al., 2019). ASDA's
campaign on Christmas actually brought many controversies which made the company really
look through what went wrong. For this incident the watch dog said that the advertisement was
just a marketing campaign and it was not at all sexist or inappropriate. As there is always going
to be someone who can not relate with the advertisement hence feeling offensive or otherwise
about the campaign.
ASDA is one of the effective brand which is leading the domestic as well as international
marketplace. The company provide the wide range of the product and services to the large
numbers of the customers in order to satisfy them in effective as well as efficient manner. The
aim of thee company is to increase the profitability and productivity of the company in domestic
as well as international marketplace. In context to that the organization launch the advertisement
on the occasion of the Christmas which is one of the largest festival. In the modern period the
large numbers of the people are depended on the technology and digitalization due to which it is
one of the effective way to attract the large numbers of the customer toward the brand. With the
assistance of the advertisement the individual person make the perception of buying the product
and obtaining the services of the association in an appropriate manner. The ASDA considers the
digital advertisement for developing the interest of the people and increasing the band awareness

in various marketplace to boost the sales of the company. In context to that the organization
come up with the unique idea for gathering the attention of the customer toward the brand. Asda
supermarket plan to launch the first ever Christmas advertising over the weekend. The motive of
delivering the advertisement is to get eyes of the mother and providing something that is realistic
not fictional based. In the advertisement the organization shows that the mum has different level
of struggle which real as they deliver huge efforts in the preparation of Christmas celebration or
the decoration. The advertised is delivered by the Saatchi and Saatchi to feature something about
the mum and highlight the emotions of the women and the efforts the individual lady make for
the memorable moments with the family.
According to the report of the digital analysation or x factor report the advertisement for
Christmas mum is launched on the various digital platforms that includes Facebook too as the
large numbers of the people engaged in spending their precious time on the digital media. The
advertisement delivers by the ASDA organization is of 90 second. With the assistance of the
advertisement the chief marketing officers of the organization which is named Stephen Smith at
the grocery store of ASDA. With the assistance of this advertising the chief marketing officer of
the company shown the importance of the messages in the campaign. During the analysation and
the time of the interview it is acknowledged that the objective of the chief marketing offices of
delivering this ad is to shade a light on something that is quite familiar and fun for the variety of
the people and creating the relation to the mum who hold the houses in effective as well as
efficient manner. The idea of the delivering the advertisement among the people by following
the market trend become the controversial as it promotes the women and only. The
advertisement shows that the woman are the only one who is responsible for the grand
celebration and bring the joy, happiness and magic in the celebration and decoration of the
Christmas. Apr from that it indicative that the woman are responsible for the up and downs in
the programs and function. For delivering et advertising in the different marketplace the
organization collect the data and information from the marketplace with the support of the primer
research and secondary research. For bringing the effectiveness in the advertisement collect and
considered all the small elements which includes cost of Christmas, collecting of the raw
material, decoration, preparation of the food, helping out the kids and maintaining the cleanliness
about thy the woman are worried highlight.

In context to that the organization conduct the short survey and market research in which the
thousands of the woman respond in context of the Christmas celebration. According to the
advertisement the Christmas celebration is not done by the magic it consists of lots of
responsibility on the solders of the women due to which the individual person feel stressed too.
The responsibility includes the buying the correct gifts for the people, feeding the food to the
people as per their taste and preferences, keeping all the people happier and developing good
positive vibes on one of the suggestion festival. According to the advertisement the experiences
of the celebration is grateful and it can not be described in the words as it is priceless. As per the
point of views of the chief marketing officer of the company the woman are able to deal with all
the roles and responsibility and keep the happing smile, happier face and feel like she
accomplished the goal of making the celebration more beautiful and memorable. The
advertisement is not fictional based it is real stories of the people or the woman's who deliver
huge efforts in Christmas celebration. Basically the advertisement is the real life experiences of
preparation and the Christmas celebration that inspire and encourage millions of the people for
creating the most memorable movement.

REFERENCES
Books and journals.
Katsikeas, C., Leonidou, L. and Zeriti, A., 2019. Revisiting international marketing strategy in
a digital era: Opportunities, challenges, and research directions. International Marketing
Review.
Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A. and Chari, S., 2019. Research in marketing strategy. Journal of
the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), pp.4-29.
Li, F., Larimo, J. and Leonidou, L.C., 2021. Social media marketing strategy: definition,
conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science, 49(1), pp.51-70.
Haydock, J. and Smith, T., 2019. No magic dust: The relationship between the national and local
assessments in Sainsbury’s/Asda. Journal of Competition Law & Economics. 15(4).
pp.538-558.
Nguyen, C. and et.al., 2020. When retailers and manufacturers advertise together; examining the
effect of co-operative advertising on ad reach and memorability. Journal of Retailing
and Consumer Services. 55. p.102080.
Dawson, J., Findlay, A. and Sparks, L., 2020. The retailing reader. Routledge.
Ali, B. J., 2021. Assessing (The impact) of advertisement on customer decision making:
Evidence from an educational institution. Ali, BJ (2021). Assessing (The impact) of
advertisement on customer decision making: Evidence from an educational institution.
Afak for Science Journal. 6(01). pp.267-280.
Al Falaq, J. S. and Puspita, D., 2021. Critical Discourse Analysis: Revealing Masculinity
Through L-Men Advertisement. Linguistics and Literature Journal. 2(1). pp.62-68.
Cheah, J. H. and et.al., 2019. The effect of selfie promotion and celebrity endorsed advertisement
on decision-making processes: A model comparison. Internet Research. 29(3). pp.552-
577.
Online references
Asda to launch first ever Xmas brand ad. 2022. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2012/11/11012-asda-to-launch-first-ever-xmas-brand-ad/>