Ad of the Day | Erste's Christmas ad: How "Silent Night" Lit a Spark that has Brightened the Whole World

Nov. 20, 2024

With its just-released Christmas spot, Erste Group invites you to experience up close the birth of the Christmas carol “Silent Night”– a simple song that still conveys a moving message of hope and togetherness two centuries after it was first performed.

The three-minute online video takes us to the small, snowy village of Oberndorf near Salzburg, Austria – a setting that was anything but cozy at Christmas time in 1818. After the Napoleonic Wars, people in the region suffered from great poverty and hunger. The village priest Joseph Mohr wanted to give people hope in these dark times and decided to recite a poem he had written on Christmas Eve. The music was composed on the very same day by the local music teacher Franz Xaver Gruber. Together, the two men sang “Silent Night” at Christmas mass, accompanied only by a guitar – something unimaginable in churches at that time. This simple gesture gave the small village’s inhabitants hope during the darkest time of the year.

Nina Pentek, Head of Group Brand Management & Communications at Erste Group said:

“Everyone can contribute to building a society full of hope. Even a small gesture can achieve something great – as the story of 'Silent Night' proves. She adds, "Every year, with our Christmas spots, we want to encourage people to believe in themselves. This year, we do so in telling a story in a particularly authentic way."

 

In the film, we travel to some of the major milestones “Silent Night” has achieved: A Tyrolean singing group performed it in 1822 before the Austrian Emperor Franz I. In 1906, “Silent Night” was played Reginald Fessenden on the violin during the very first broadcast of radio entertainment in America. In 1914, the song brought a brief, but powerful pause to the fighting during World War I. At the Western Front, German and English soldiers sang it together, bridging the enemy trenches. The song even reached space: in 1973, “Silent Night” was transmitted to the crew orbiting in the space station Skylab 4.

Accompanied by the gentle tones of the piece in various languages, Erste Group’s “Silent Night” spot shows the different moments in which this simple song brings hope. In the end, the encouraging story is supported by a forward-looking message: Your spark can light up the world #believeinyourself

A Chritmas success story from Austria

After Hedgehog Henry (2018), Bumblebee Hanna (2019), Composer Edgar (2020), Father-to-Be Father Jakub (2021), #believeinchristmas spot (2022), and Rodeo Rudolph (2023), “Silent Night” is already the seventh international Christmas advert by Erste Group. The benchmark for the new spot is high: Together, the previous six Christmas films have been viewed more than 300 million times and have received over 28 advertising industry awards.

As with the previous adverts, Jung von Matt DONAU is once again responsible for the creative execution, this time in collaboration with directors Daniel & Szymon.

Mike Nagy, Executive Creative Director and Partner at Jung von Matt DONAU said:

“Christmas has become the European Super Bowl of the advertising industry. In an environment where more and more brands are fighting for attention, we can only reach people with stories that manage to touch them. And what could be more suitable than the origin story of perhaps the most famous Christmas song?”

 

The current Christmas advert was developed in collaboration with the Silent Night Association, a charitable association that provided invaluable insights into the history of the song.