BORN LICENSING’S BEST CHRISTMAS AD CAMPAIGNS
As the holiday season approaches, brands gear up for one of the most exciting times of the year
Christmas is a great time for brands to connect with consumers, and IP-driven advertising campaigns hold the power to resonate with broad audiences on a deeper emotional level, evoke nostalgia, and drive significant brand awareness.
Our latest success was Sainsbury’s 2024 Christmas campaign with the BFG. But over the years, we have had the pleasure to work on several impressive advertising campaign that featured iconic characters and IP. Intellectual property in advertising is always a strong choice, particularly during Christmas when brands need to reach a wide demographic: characters and IP have loyal, multi-generational fanbases that can help brands to extend their reach beyond their existing customers.
Take a look at some of the best Christmas campaigns we’ve worked on, and why they were so successful.
ASDA x Buddy the Elf
Asda and their creative agency Havas London wanted to do something really special for their 2022 Christmas campaign. It was important that they use a character that truly represented joy at Christmas.
Our reputation and strong relationship with Warner Bros. enabled us to secure a license for Elf for the first time in marketing. Timings were tight on this campaign due to the heavy post-production process needed to bring this campaign to life so having an existing relationship in place with Warner Bros. was crucial. After negotiating the commercial terms Born Licensing managed all other aspects of the licensing including the extensive creative approvals process and the release of assets so that Havas could focus on the rest of the production.
The campaign was named the nation's favourite ad of 2022 by ITV and System1. System1's Test Your Ad platform measured viewers' second-by-second emotional responses to 25,000 ads aired in the UK during 2022. The campaign is ‘one of the most emotionally effective Christmas ads’ System1 has ever tested.
Tesco x Love Actually
For Tesco’s 2022 Christmas campaign BBH London came up with a brilliant political-style broadcast concept from ‘The Christmas Party’ to address “Joy Shortage”. To reflect the mood of the nation and show that despite the tough current climate, Tesco wanted to show that festive merriment would still be high on the nation’s agenda.
BBH London came to us looking for a loved Christmas film to feature in their campaign. In line with the political-style broadcast theme, they wanted to reference a popular Christmas movie that would encourage debate.
Love Actually was one of the Christmas movies we suggested and as licensing agent for Universal Studios we managed the licensing process from start to finish without charging clearance fees.
The campaign scored exceptionally high by System1, with a Star Rating of 5.2, which predicts long-term market share growth based on the ad’s creative effectiveness, calculated by measuring emotional response to the ad.
Old Navy x Love Actually
Having launched a hugely successful Back To School campaign in August of 2020, Old Navy and their creative agency The Martin Agency were determined to follow up with an equally striking Christmas campaign. The summer campaign was a high-energy TV ad, full of vibrant colours and featuring Old Navy’s own take on Lizzo’s hit single, ‘Boys’. For the Christmas campaign, the key was to remain current by using popular culture references for wide appeal.
To address this, a clip from Love Actually was incorporated into the lyrics of RuPaul’s hit song for the TV ad (‘… Strike a pose and make the dog stay/Normalise conference calls in our PJs/Our 18th time watchin’ Love Actual-lay!’). The TV ad also features a clip from the movie: the now iconic scene of Hugh Grant, as Prime Minister, dancing at No 10 Downing Street.
The 30-second spot, ‘Jingle Jammies’, went live across US paid and free TV, cinema and online in October 2020, as part of Old Navy’s wider ‘Hey Sis, It’s Christmas’ campaign.
Marks & Spencer x Bridget Jones’s Diary
Marks and Spencer’s creative agency GREY London got in touch with Born Licensing to discuss one of the scenes from the script they had developed. In this scene, GREY London wanted to feature a well-known movie clip that the British public associate with watching at Christmas.
The final movie clip that was chosen was the opening sequence of Bridget Jones’s Diary, starring Renee Zellweger. The iconic scene features a pyjama-clad Bridget singing along to ‘All By Myself’ with a glass of wine. Being licensing agents for the Rights Holders of the Bridget Jones’s Diary franchise, Universal Studios, we were able to leverage an already-strong relationship to ensure a smooth contractual and approval process.
Launching 6 weeks before Christmas, while shoppers were in peak gift-buying mode, the 60-second core commercial featured on multiple TV channels in prime-time slots. The Bridget Jones moment was also extended to a dedicated 20-second spin-off clip, involving more singing along to ‘All By Myself’ to bring home the Christmas feeling even more.
Tesco x Wallace & Gromit
Tesco, one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, wanted to support their core Christmas advertising campaign with an additional 2-day campaign to run on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
BBH London decided on using an audio clip from Wallace & Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers. Aardman, the Rights Holders of Wallace & Gromit, were kept in the loop across all creative development. Born Licensing managed the entire approval process by communicating between all parties, including discussing scripts, storyboards, edits and final material.
Featuring audio from The Wrong Trousers, Tesco’s campaign launched on TV on Christmas Day, with a repeat appearance on Boxing Day. It also appeared online and social media.
Sainsbury’s x the BFG
Sainsbury’s and their creative agency New Commercial Arts wanted to go BIG for their 2024 Christmas campaign. It was important they use a character that encapsulates the festive magic of the season and dreamy feelings, whilst also appealing to the whole country.
As we are Roald Dahl Story Company’s licensing agents for advertising and marketing campaigns, we had the right relationship to secure the license. This was crucial in the process, as the project was post-production heavy and the schedule to achieve this had very tight deadlines. After negotiating the commercial terms, Born Licensing managed all other aspects of the licensing in collaboration with RDSC including the extensive creative approvals process during pre- and post-production.
Within 24 hours from the launch, the spot secured a positive response from consumers and the advertising press including London Evening Standard, The Drum, The Mirror, PR Week, Marketing Week, Campaign and many more. The ad is a triumph of effectiveness: it’s the first ever Sainsbury’s ad to score the maximum 5.9-Stars on the ‘Test Your Ad’ platform by System1 - an exceptional result!
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