The festive branding trick most fundraisers ignore – and the one thing your donors already wish you’d repeat.

Christmas is starting ever earlier every year (which is another thing down to Covid). So this year I’m going full Father Christmas with some festive treats for you over the next few weeks. I’m kicking off today with a video where I’ve finally caved to my inner elf. 

That’s because dressing up as Santa and singing “Holidays Are Coming” sets up the bigger point behind the video on this post. Because that little red truck I’m waving around? It’s not a prop. It’s yet another fundraising masterclass - a tiny distillation of everything charities need to understand about ritual, consistency and emotional brand ownership in a die-cast vehicle. 

The video shows you how Coca-Cola use it. 

This article explains why it works – and why it matters for charity fundraising.

When you watch the video you’ll see that I show the System1 emotional trace of Coke’s recent Christmas ad. I highlight the single happiest moment in the entire piece of creative is a two-second shot of the truck rolling through the snow. Not families. Not presents being opened. Not Santa. Not the music.

It’s the truck. With Lights on. Trundling into town through the snow.

And here’s the key point – that happiness peak isn’t created by storytelling. It’s created by memory. People aren’t just reacting to what’s on screen right now. They’re reacting to 30 years of Christmases layered on top of that moment. That’s because with that red truck, Coca-Cola has created a Christmas ritual that has become entwined with the very spirit of the season. 

Each and every year that ad runs, it activates accumulated meaning. It’s why System1 report that Coke scores maximum effectiveness for their advetising without reinventing their campaign every year. Continuity doesn’t diminish impact – it compounds it.

The strategic lesson: ritual > novelty

This is where the link to charity fundraising becomes important. Many fundraisers seem to assume supporters want something new each Christmas - a fresh visual identity, a modernised pack, a new creative hook, a clever new twist. But supporters are not bored. They are. Professionals tire of their own assets long before audiences do. Coke never got bored of Santa, the jingles, the trucks or the predictable snowy road shot. And guess what? The audience never got bored either. Because ritual isn’t repetition for repetition’s sake – it supercharges emotional meaning. Your supporters don’t want your reinvention. They want your continuity.

The charity example (and why it matters)

In the video I talk about the charity I worked with years ago that included little old-fashioned Christmas stickers like these in their seasonal appeal. 

They are unashamably Retro. Kitsch. Charming in a “your nan’s address book” kind of way. But supporters LOVED them. The moment we tried to “improve” the formula – the moment we made the stickers more modern, cleaner, more design-led – income dropped. They didn’t want better stickers. They wanted THEIR stickers. The ones they’d built micro-rituals around. The ones that had become part of their Christmas. Every charity has the potential to create something like this – but not if you change it every year.

Your red truck is not just a creative device - it’s an incredibly valuable asset

Many organisations treat Christmas like an annual creative pitch: “What’s the idea this year?” But brands that want to own Christmas flip that thinking: “What’s the ritual we’re continuing this year?” That shift is everything. In the video, I feature the toy truck because it represents the kind of asset every charity needs – something recognisable, repeatable, emotionally anchored, anticipation-building, meaning-carrying. Once supporters recognise something as “yours”, your job stops being to impress them… and becomes to reassure them. 

That reassurance is where trust, warmth and giving behaviour live. Something that is incredibly important at Christmas – particularly in the current socio-economic environment.

What This Means for You in 2026

So if you want your next Christmas appeal to outperform, don’t ask, “What should we do that’s new?” Ask, “What should we repeat – and deepen – because supporters already love it?”

Ask, “What’s our red truck?”

Your red truck could be a specific design motif, a recurring phrase, a small gift in your pack, the specific work a donation might make possible – like buying a Christmas dinner, a tone or narrative frame, a nostalgic image used each year, or a micro-experience supporters expect. The key is not the item. The key is the ritual value it carries once repeated. And once you find that? Don’t change it. Don’t modernise it. Don’t get self-conscious. Let it build meaning. Let it become the thing supporters wait for. Let it become part of their Christmas.

Rosie Hanley, who runs the John Lewis advertising campaign, has said many times that the emotional lift of a John Lewis Christmas ad was never the main point. The sentiment, the music, the lump in the throat – they were simply the doorway. What she really wanted was to weave the brand into that peculiar psychological space December opens up, the moment when people pause and take stock of themselves, of their family, of what matters. By returning each year to the same emotional register, the same atmosphere, the same gentle, almost unmistakable cadence, those ads became more than short films. They became seasonal signals. A shorthand for Christmas. A cue that the emotional rhythm of the year had shifted.

A Red Truck strategy works the same way. When charities repeat something meaningful, it doesn’t dull its impact – it deepens it. A familiar motif becomes a touchstone. A recurring enclosure becomes a tradition. A small moment in the appeal becomes the thing that quietly tells supporters that we’ve reached that part of the year again. And while many organisations don’t get it and exhaust themselves trying to invent something dazzling and new every December, the real power lies in building something that gathers meaning simply through its return. That’s how a charity moves from asking to belonging – from being a seasonal interruption to becoming part of the season itself.

So, what might be your red truck?

Why not start sketching a few ideas for your Red Truck for 2026. And if you want a little help, drop me a line – I’d genuinely love to work with you. I’ve helped build fundraising rituals around Christmas, Easter, summer holidays, legacy journeys, even back to school appeals.

When you watch the video (if you haven’t yet), you’ll see it visualises the emotional science behind everything I’ve said here.

Because the best Christmas appeals don’t just ask.

They give meaning.

And it’s rituals that make meaning stick.

Heads up, subscribers… a small (but important) change is coming

WordPress and FeedBlitz have both become increasingly awkward to use — to the point where some of the emails I send you featuring new posts are being blocked simply because I use everyday fundraising terms. Not ideal for any of us.

So over the next few weeks, I’ll be transferring all subscribers over to my Substack feed.
If you’d prefer not to receive my fundraising joy via Substack, you’ll be able to unsubscribe when the transfer happens. No hard feelings, no drama.

But if you’re happy to stay with me, you don’t need to do a thing — the move will be completely seamless.
I’ll probably continue to post the most important pieces here, but the current subscription delivery system is expensive, clunky and increasingly unreliable, so I’ll be winding it down by Christmas.

I really hope you’ll stick with me. There’s plenty of good stuff still to come — and Substack will make it much easier for me to get it to you.

Thanks for reading (and for sticking with my festive chaos).