As the month of Christmas campaigns unfolds, I wanted to put together a list to top holiday campaigns over the last few years — except I thought I would give it a little twist. Technology has certainly changed the way brands and their audiences are interacting and communicating. This has also left an impact on holiday campaigns.

Below I’ve featured some vintage Christmas campaigns and advertisements and highlighted some of their modern-day counterparts. I hope you enjoy!

These campaigns are not creations by or related to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. We just admire these campaigns and strategies.

Tiffany & Co.

1955:

2012:

Campbell’s Soup

1940s:

Cadillac

1955:

2014:

Coca-Cola:

1952:

2014:

Coca-Cola still uses the iconic Santa Claus drinking a Coke imagery in their advertisements. This year’s campaign even features holiday Coke bottles with a Christmas ribbon you can buy as gifts. You can see more of Coke’s holiday campaigns in the UK here.

JELL-O

1959:

Even back in 1959 JELL-O was known for spreading recipes and fun desserts and snacks. This 1959 Christmas advertisement gives us the recipe for “Jell-O Jingle Jells.”

2014:

Skip forward to 2014 and not much has changed. Sharing fun recipes is still a core part of JELL-O’s marketing programs, but the medium has evolved. JELL-O now uses a Pinterest board to share all their holiday recipes and inspirations.

Office Max

In 2006 Office Max launched the viral sensation, Elf Yourself. Users upload pictures of themselves and their friends and it places them into an animated video of elves dancing to Christmas songs. This year they’ve gone one step farther and launched a mobile app. Office Max made the videos shareable via email and social media, propelling the sensation across the web. This was an excellent campaign and shows the value social media and email can have in promoting a campaign.

Starbucks

We always love to feature a cool Starbucks campaign. This holiday season Starbucks in incorporating mobile payments and their mobile app into their “Starbucks for Life” giveaway.

Avon

1952:

This vintage Avon Christmas ad features Loretta Young.

2014:

This year Avon is running a number of Christmas promotions and campaigns. Below is a tweet from part of their “Ten Days of Deals” promotion going on right now. Avon also uses Pinterest boards to curate a holiday gift guide for shoppers.

1950:

2013:

Last year GE celebrated 3D printing by launching their #3DPrintMyGift campaign. They designed and printed custom holiday gifts for fans. To learn more about the campaign, you can see some of the gifts here.

Ford

1936:

2013: Dream Big Sales Event

Budweiser

1958:

2014:

#HolidayBuds Campaign:

This year Budweiser is also bringing back its classic packaging featuring a wooden crate with classic labels including the 1918, 1933, and 1976 label.

For more holiday inspiration, download our 2014 Email Marketing Holiday Calendar.

I originally wrote this post on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Blog.