�evolving traditions’: a signal that the holidays might look a bit different this year. In the US, retail giant Walmart has brought together the cast from Mean Girls to reprise their roles to showcase the business’ Black Friday deals: bringing star power and storytelling together in an otherwise simple ad about discounts.  Salvos Stores, meanwhile, showcases the social, ethical and sustainable impacts of buying preloved presents during the most consumerist time of the year. The end-of-year holidays are incredibly important to the retail sector, often bringing in the majority of a business’ revenue. However with consumers feeling the pinch from rising inflation around the world, how are ads changing to capture spending this Christmas? “Vying for attention” According to advertising agency The General Store’s chief creative officer Marcus Tesoriero, creating holiday ads is not an easy task.  “You need to think about the rest of the market, as well as how you’ll stand out from the competition: and not just the competition in your particular segment, [because] everyone’s vying for attention,” Tesoreiro told Inside Retail.  The General Store has headed up Salvos Store’s holiday spot this year, as well as Rebel Sports’. According to Tesoriero, who has worked in the advertising space for over 20 years, Christmas ads are fast becoming thought of in a similar way to ads made for the Super Bowl – a phenomenon in its own right in the US.  “The Super Bowl has been the one time of the year where people pay attention to ads… and Christmas is becoming a similar thing,” he said.  “If you can write something great, it has a better chance of getting the brand’s message out there.”  Despite many consumers pulling back on discretionary spending, there is still an appetite to spend on their friends and family during Christmas.  “Christmas is the one time a year where, even if times are hard, people will spend the money that they’ve got left and try to have fun,” Tesoriero said.  “But there’ll be an element of buying cheaper things, or spending a little less, for sure.  “I also think Black Friday this year is likely to be the biggest ever because everyone is doing their Christmas shopping early.” Storytelling is king One large change that has enabled more inventive advertising over the past decade is the move away from short-form ads online. At one point, Tesoreiro said, YouTube was requiring ads be around six seconds in order to play before a video: now, ads can be closer to 30 or even 60 seconds.  This change has allowed brands to get deeper storytelling out of their advertising, and for more of the brand’s identity to be showcased: something that is becoming increasingly important to customers. “People want to find out more about the background of brands – especially long-standing and iconic ones – rather than just hear about what’s on sale,” Tesoreiro said. “Overall, you’ll see a lot of brands coming up with longer-form stuff to create an emotional message. There’s a lot of emotion in this time of year, and there are a lot of tropes in advertising, but you can play into that in different ways.”