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A little girl turns to Vodafone U.K.’s network to help her capture proof that Santa exists in the telecommunications company’s Christmas advert.
As the U.K. arm of the network continues to build its “Feel the Connection” brand platform, the multiplatform campaign from Ogilvy U.K. will be led by a 30-second TV ad that focuses on the importance of connection during the holiday season.
Released Nov 3. the 30-second ad features a girl called Lilly who sets a trap to capture pictures of Santa on her wireless camera, monitored by her toy Elf and her parent’s phone, which she checks regularly. Waking up on Christmas Day, she is in for a surprise when she checks to find out if her plan has worked.
It ends with the global Vodafone platform “Together we can” alongside #feeltheconnection.
This is a return to the traditional Christmas ad for the company, which chose not to release a campaign last year due to internal issues it faced due to the rising inflation in Britain.
Maria Koutsoudakis, head of brand, Vodafone U.K., told Adweek that it is the company’s intention to release a campaign for every Christmas.
“The objective of this campaign is to really show the power of our network as well as the power of connecting people, which is what matters most … and what matters most at Christmas is a kid’s belief in Santa and the magic that creates,” she explained.
“In today’s cultural climate, we have listened to the customer and understood their desire to have something optimistic and light-hearted during this festive season. As a brand, we know the important role our connectivity plays in family life and wanted to celebrate this through the eyes of a tech-savvy little girl who gives a whole new twist to the elf on the shelf.
“Our little elf gives us a creative vehicle to symbolize connectivity and allows us to stretch the idea and the positive, feel-good factor across all our touch points,” she continued. “This Christmas, we wanted to take the opportunity to remind U.K. families of the power of our reliable, award-winning network to connect them at moments that matter (like Christmas) and make them feel something positive. Using the Elfs from our “Elf & Seek” campaign last year, we wanted this campaign to feel like a truly universal story that appeals to families, set in a truly British insight. To connect strongest, this needs to feel like a story made for us in the U.K.”
Since the release of the brand platform in the summer of 2022, Vodafone has seen its non-user consideration growth as well as metrics around being a reliable network, through activations such as its sponsorship of tennis championships Wimbledon, which included a campaign fronted by British champion Emma Raducanu.
