Allow me to set the scene. It’s December 1^st; you’re in John Lewis ( because you saw THAT advert and are looking, increasingly desperately for the record department)); gifts are flying from the shelves; the lights are moderately overstimulating; people are running around faster than you can say ‘Jesus, Mary and the wee donk- ‘; and, just when you think you can’t take anymore, you hear those bells and BOOM – it’s Christmas.

The chimes, the sleigh bells, the slow fade-in, the breathy ‘I…’ sparks a festive feeling like no other. But this isn’t just music, it’s brand recall at its finest.

How is it that this intro instantly marks the beginning of the holiday season? Well, lucky for you, I’m here to answer that question.

Let’s start with the basics. At the core of this question lies an unmistakable audio signature. It’s unique, mildly irritating but never fails to get you in the Christmas spirit. In the same way the Netflix ‘ta-dum’ instantly signifies a night of TV heaven (or hell – depending on what you choose to binge on; Schitts Creek anyone?), the intro to All I Want for Christmas symbolises Christmas in less than five seconds. It represents the magic, the excitement, and the pure joy that the festive month brings to so many.

It’s the universal cue, whether you’re in the supermarket, scrolling on social media or listening to the radio on your commute to work. Aside from its distinctiveness, the song’s intro is emotionally coded to make you feel that warm, festive feeling, and it is exactly this feeling that every Christmas advert strives to capture.

You may be thinking, but Ella, how does it do such a thing?

Long story short, it comes down to the following. No one was born knowing what this intro means. No, we were trained. And it’s not just Mariah – there’s the piano playing us into Fairytale of New York and Noddy Holder yelling “IT’s CHRISTMASSSSSSS” – but let’s face it, nobody does it better than Mariah.

Ever since the song debuted in 1994, it returns each year with the same festive buzz, often reminding us of the Christmases gone by and the one just about to come.

If we are getting technical (and this is where my A-level psychology comes in handy, for once), we could call it Pavlovian Branding. To simplify, this is where conditioning over time creates an automatic reaction. If only it was this straightforward in my psychology exam…sigh.

You hear the bells, your brain releases a serotonin-filled emotional response and just like that, you’re feeling Christmassy. For PR pros and marketers, this is the holy grail. It delivers consistency, repeated exposure and has the consumers coming back for more. It’s better than Christmas pudding, though not as good as a glass of Baileys. It is glorious!

Think of it like this. It’s the same as smelling cinnamon and thinking of going on a candle sniffing rampage in TK Maxx or hearing a champagne cork popping and associating it with celebration and a rather painful hangover.

Ok, so how did one intro become a global marketing tool? The bottom line is, brands don’t just use the song because it is popular, they use it because it works. For example, can you really listen to Jess Glyne without thinking of Jet2 Holidays? The song is ultimately the audio version of decking the halls. Brands use it to open the door on a month of TV and digital advertisements aimed at encouraging holiday spending and creating an atmosphere of festive excitement.

The two prominent campaigns that spring to mind here are Walkers Crisps and Booking.com. Launching in 2019, Walkers Crisps produced a Christmas advert featuring Mariah singing the song. Off the back of this, they not only delivered a full ad campaign across television and social media, but they also designed a crisp packet built around her song to promote the festive-flavour crisps. Likewise, Booking.com created a “Mariah’s Ultimate Holiday Experience” in 2022, offering fans a trip experience curated by Mariah. Other smaller campaigns include McDonalds and the ‘Mariah Menu’ in 2021, and MAC Cosmetics launching an ‘All I Want’ festive lipstick.

Ah, but let’s not forget the world of memes. Mariah has fallen into this social media frenzy, with users creating memes of her thawing from ice, captioning such posts with ‘she is defrosting’, the minute Halloween is over. Other popular festive trends that often make a reappearance each year are the ‘it’s time’ Christmas countdowns, where the song’s intro plays in the background, and edits of the song are paired with the standard dysfunctional family holiday chaos.

For Mariah’s brand, this is pure earned media. It is entirely user generated, extremely viral (trust me, it is), and what’s even better, it is mostly led by younger audiences who weren’t even alive when the song first came out. You could say it functions like an annual PR campaign without a single press release in sight. This is a prime example of letting your community participate in your brand – if they can play with it, they sure can promote it.

In just a few notes, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas managed to create a cultural cue, an emotional trigger and a piece of branding that works. The intro doesn’t just announce a song; it announces a season. It proves that at the core of every effective campaign is one essential component; make people feel something, and they’ll remember you forever.