World Market turns the sounds of party prep into a classic holiday tune

In the U.S., as families are still decorating their front yards with pumpkins or impossible-to-find 12-foot-skeletons, it seems Christmas has already crashed the autumn celebrations with the debut of one retailer’s holiday campaign.

California-based specialty homegoods store World Market is already hanging up mistletoe, popping open champagne bottles, clinking glasses and making music in the process in its festive push from BarrettSF.

The campaign’s anthem spot depicts celebrations gone back-to-normal after COVID-era distancing. It cuts together myriad scenes of a family prepping for and reveling in the holidays as they shop for dinnerware and decor, chop vegetables, tinker at the piano keys and toast to good times, with loved ones crowded closely together around a dining table. The film’s sounds, all coming from various World Market products, seem random at first, but ultimately come together in a new version of the holiday classic “Sleigh Ride.”

BarrettSF worked with director Mike Mills of MJZ (“20th Century Women,” “Beginners”) as well as composer Roger Neill to craft the spot’s soundtrack from real World Market products, also carefully wrapping the storyline around it through the framework of one family’s holiday fete. 

“In creating something so interconnected and precise, the process was almost like reverse engineering a spot, so that was certainly new for us,” said Byron Wages, BarrettSF associate creative director, in a statement. Mike Mills “worked with us to make something deceptively complex appear incredibly simple.”

The main film begins running digitally and on social today nationally, while shorter product-focus spots will run on regional TV and online in the Los Angeles area.

The goal of the campaign is to build awareness while also driving World Market’s online and in-store traffic and sales in the fourth quarter. The company, which offers a range of internationally-sourced home goods, wines, food and beverages, has 243 stores across the U.S. Its audience is largely female-skewing, ranging from ages 25 to 49.

World Market is the latest retailer to jump early onto the Christmas bandwagon. At the beginning of October, U.K. retailer Very debuted the first holiday ad from the region.

If you enjoyed the music World Market made with its holiday goods, check out the tune Apple made with 45 years worth of its products.