November 20th Campaign highlights

Our top picks for inspiration, impact & insights

20 NOVEMBER 2025

While you’re keeping an eye on those Black Friday dashboards, give it a sec to reset your strategic radar. This week, we’re balancing brand risk with huge growth, redefining classic campaigns, and grabbing the insights you need to confidently stride into 2026. Ready to pivot?

Brands doing Christmas differently

Disney is back with a beautifully crafted Christmas short, Best Christmas Ever, created by Adam&EveDDB and directed by Taika Waititi. It tells the story of a young girl whose doodle comes to life but can’t speak, so she writes to Santa asking for help, not for herself, but for her friend. A simple but powerful reminder of Disney’s magic: emotion, imagination, and storytelling that lands without needing many words. Check out here

It’s a great example of how brands don’t need product pushes to resonate. Heartfelt storytelling can carry the message further than any CTA.

Christmas in animation

Loganair has launched a heartwarming animated Christmas ad, The Nest, created by Big Partnership, which follows a puffin family’s journey across the UK, from London and Edinburgh to Shetland, to come home for Christmas. With the tagline “Together is the greatest gift”, the campaign celebrates the airline’s Scottish roots and its role in keeping communities connected. Watch if on Prolific North’s article

I love how Loganair used animation to create a visually engaging story that travels across multiple destinations. Thoughtful production and cross-channel planning (TV, social, online) can make even a short festive spot feel cinematic and memorable.

Happy Christmassacre

PETA, working with GreyLondon, has launched a striking Christmas campaign called “Happy Christmassacre.” Directed by David Shane, it starts as a typical festive dinner but flips into a horror‑inspired scene highlighting the cruelty behind the meat industry. Using cinema, social, and OOH, it challenges people to choose compassion over tradition this holiday season. More details here

While Christmas is usually about big feasts and indulgence, this campaign reminds us that brands can use festive moments to spark reflection and purpose, not just celebration.

Tombola’s Escapist 'I’m A Celeb' Idents

Tombola’s latest sponsorship idents for I’m a Celebrity… (by Meanwhile) leverage relatable scenarios of everyday boredom or festive awkwardness. Instead of focusing on jungle bugs, the new creative positions the Tombola app as the perfect form of instant escapism for anyone who’d rather be anywhere else. Read more

Less 'Leap', more 'Keep'

Johnnie Walker has executed a masterful strategic pivot for its iconic 'Keep Walking' platform, moving the narrative from grand leaps to the power of perseverance and 'everyday keeps.' The refreshed creative centers on the quiet momentum of words like 'keep dreaming' and 'keep searching,' brilliantly reframing determination for a new generation of drinkers through relatable daily achievements. More about this campaign

A huge shout-out to the production partners, including De La Revolución and Prettybird, for bringing this globally relevant, cinematic vision to life!

Shifting the narrative: why agency beats crisis in charity marketing

For a powerful purpose-driven example, UNICEF UK launched its new brand platform 'Making Childhood Unstoppable' (with creative agency Neverland). The initiative shifts focus to amplify the resilience and agency of children globally, rather than solely on victimhood or crises. Launching around World Children's Day, the campaign features powerful, real stories of children showing resilience, which is being amplified across BVOD, VOD, and large-scale Digital OOH in major UK cities. Read detail here

Let’s talk insights, trends and key moments

Rethinking video beyond big platforms
In The Media Leader, GumGum’s Head of Sales UK highlights that advertisers shouldn’t rely only on “walled gardens” like Meta or Google, platforms that control both inventory and user data. Instead, the “open web” (all other websites and premium content outside these platforms) offers strong reach, better brand safety, and lower audience overlap.

Using a Mars case study, open web video delivered high completion and reach rates, while providing contextual relevance, trust, and transparency. It also enables smarter targeting based on context rather than just personal data. Read full story here

If most video ad budgets are funneled into walled gardens, what might marketers be missing on the open web? A timely prompt to rethink how we approach video.

Let’s talk insights, trends and key moments

Social Media tightrope walk & future-proofing strategy

I've been poring over some fresh industry data this week, and the results from the latest IAS/YouGov UK Industry Pulse Report are screaming one thing: We are all walking a tightrope on social media right now, and the tension is real!

Here’s the deal: That report confirms what we’ve been feeling on the ground—72% of UK digital media experts are prioritising social platforms for growth, fueled by social commerce and the influencer economy. That's where the audience (and the budget) is going!

However, the major takeaway for me is the dual strategy this demands. While 52% of professionals flag social as the most vulnerable environment for brand risk (hello, deepfakes!), we also need to maintain our forward vision. The smart money is already on future readiness: the report clearly shows marketers rapidly adopting verification and measurement solutions for emerging channels like CTV, Retail Media, and AI integration. Read the highlights here

From my POV, the conversation isn't just about protecting the current spend; it's about proactively building the foundation for tomorrow. Let's treat brand safety as the price of admission to those high-growth social channels, freeing up our strategic brainpower to master the next frontier. We need to be planning for both the current risk and the future opportunity right now.

Event Alert: Prolific North Tech Awards Night

Mark your calendars! The Prolific North Tech Awards are set for November 26th at The Edwardian Manchester. This is the night for Northern agencies, in-house teams, and individuals to celebrate the groundbreaking tech campaigns and ideas that are truly shaping the region’s digital future. More about it

Share Your Finds!

Seen a marketing campaign that caught your eye? Whether it’s a clever promotion, a bold activation, or just something that made you stop and think, we want to hear about it!

Send your newsworthy picks, insight or content to [email protected] or using the link below ⬇️