How’s this for an opportunity: free motivational tips from people who get paid huge amounts of money to motivate people. I’m talking adverts here, people, in particular the Christmas advertising campaigns crucial to the retail sector. Of course the ads are designed to get you to spend money, but many of the principles apply to motivation in general.

In the UK, analysts TNS have announced their list of most motivational Christmas ads on television. Winner was the Boots “Christmas gifts” campaign which features “predominantly female colleagues opening their secret Santa gifts to the soundtrack ‘Here Come the Girls’”. Second place went to Tesco’s “Finest Christmas” with Morrisons “Fresh Christmas” coming third.

Of course you might normally hate watching adverts – I do. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re often carefully designed by experts in human behaviour and motivation. What can we learn from them?

Paul Baker of TNS says:

Christmas is a time which has a natural ‘feel good factor’ attached to it. Ads which draw on positive emotions tend to do very well in converting sales. What is common amongst all the top performing ads is their success in conveying a level of Christmas cheer which has a resonance with viewers across all demographics – generating high levels of both engagement and motivation.

Could you improve your own motivational toolset by studying and modelling some of these adverts? Maybe some adverts actually put you off certain shop. This is also useful information which might give you clues about what saps your motivation.

Companies are paying millions to design these ads and the results are there for you to study free of charge.

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