Woolly jumpers star as M&S launches Christmas campaign

Marks and Spencer’s has revealed it’s 2019 Christmas campaign – and woolly jumpers could be the key to its success this holiday season.

The festive ad features a cast of dancers rolling shoulders to House of Pain’s 1992 hit Jump Around while sporting 50 different jumpers from M&S’s clothing range. From cashmere to cable knits to textured chenille, the product-focused ad is intended to drum up sales of the jumpers which are expected to hit about six billion this Christmas.

The jumpers featured in the video cost between £20 and £150 and a striped bone-print knit for dogs is available for just £19.50.

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As the UK’s biggest seller of knitwear, the retailer is hoping jumper sales will go towards making up for a disappointing drop in profits during the first half of the year.

The company’s latest sales report shows pre-tax profits were down 17% to £176.5m, and total sales were down 2.1% to £4.86bn in this first six months of 2019.

The company is in the middle of an “overhaul”, which include plans to close 110 stores in an attempt to return to sustainable profit growth.

The Christmas campaign ad was directed by British director Jake Nava, whose resume includes Beyone’s Single Ladies music video. The video spawned a dance craze, with thousands of people around the world posting their own attempts at nailing the choreography to YouTube. The retailer is hoping its Christmas ad will spark a similar trend with customers sharing their shoulder rolling videos on social media.

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Meanwhile, the M&S 2019 food campaign is similarly product-focused. The ad features real M&S customers eating its Christmas range at a Christmas market held by the retailer earlier this year. Paddy McGuinness and Emma Willis star.

Andy Hill, head of M&S Food's creative, content and comms, told The Drum: "We do know our market share doubles at Christmas time. It's a really important time of year for us. The one thing we found out last year is that when we put specific products on the TV, is those products do really well.”