11/17/25: Marketing's Latest

Helena Malcom
4 days ago
2 min read

Starbucks’ animated holiday ads aim to reclaim cozy coffeehouse image

Starbucks’ 2025 winter holiday marketing campaign revolves around the journey behind the image of two characters who discover an emotional spark drawn onto holiday-themed coffee cups. Their ad follows these characters as they trudge through blizzards and ends by linking hands while being backed by “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers. This ad is titled “Drawn Together” and promotes the “cozy cafe” aspect of Starbucks during the wintertime season. Starbucks’ marketers hope that this campaign will combat recent challenges, including reduced spending resulting from economic pressures and potential strikes.

Marketers must wrestle with vanishing middle class in 2026: WARC

Due to recent economic downturns, marketers are facing challenges while attempting to plan their strategies for the upcoming 2026 year. As income growth slows, they find that the term “middle class” has become meaningless, due to fluctuation in typical milestones such as having children or retiring, which drives marketers to reassess their previous assumptions of when spending is triggered in one’s life. WARC argues that to assist marketers, brands should counter the increase in deterioration of customer experience related to online profit-maximizing strategies. They also suggest that marketers and brands move away from the use of AI in order to retain realistic results reflecting the activity within the market.

Home Depot’s heartfelt holiday ads showcase Christmas tree farmers

Home Depot released its holiday campaign titled “The Right Tree”, which revolves around the promotion of its live Christmas tree lots through a focus on real tree farmers and their farms. They developed a 30-second ad that follows a boy bundling up and going to a Home Depot tree lot, choosing his favorite Christmas tree for his family. They also released short-form videos on social media that tell the real story of their family-run tree farm partners, Sexton Farms, in order to draw emotion from their audience. Marketers hope that this campaign will continue the 4.9% year-for-year rise in sales.

-Helena Malcom