The best two tech ads this holiday are from Apple and Google

Unsurprisingly, they promote smartphones -- iPhone 4S and Google Nexus.

Yeah, I know, this is a bit fluffy stuff, but I'm flu-stricken today and barely able to sit up to type. Besides, these are both really great ads that stand out for creativity and how well they demonstrate product benefits. Good marketing is often about great storytelling and, with smartphones like these, communicating a single benefit watchers will remember. You'll remember both these commercials, surely.

Apple TV spots are bland, as of late. There's no creative juice. They all look the same. But the Santa commercial is standout, and the kind of clever, memorable marketing Apple is known for. It's also timely. Santa's ride is Saturday, after all. He uses Siri to navigate across the globe. See, even Saint Nick is high tech. The ad is memorable in so many ways, with iconic Santa being first among them and Siri punchline at the end being another.

Thanks to Mike Elgan, who posted a link to Santa Siri at Google+ yesterday. I might have missed it otherwise. Elgan writes: "Cute ad. The truth is that old Saint Nick would probably be met with, 'I'm sorry, Chris. I can't access the network right now'". I include this so BetaNews commenter woe will have another reason to call me anti-Apple. :)

The other TV commercial is as good, but dramatically different. It's not holiday themed, either. Last week, Galaxy Nexus finally went on sale here in the United States. Google and Verizon are both running ads, but the search and information giant's Bohemian commercial is stand out.

With no technical mumbo jumbo, the commercial communicates clear benefits using Google+ Hangouts. I described Hangouts to my teenage daughter yesterrday, and she immediately asked: "Why would you video chat with nine friends at once? Here's the answer.

The Google ad uses an iconic song -- that and the girls singing it are memorable. Okay, "Wayne's World" is more so and part of the cultural lexicon.

By the way, I posted my Verizon Galaxy Nexus first-impressions review, yesterday.