Christmas advertising has a new cast this week: a celebrity Santa, a travelling LEGO brick and a family of impeccably dressed ducks. The most useful question is not which film will win the internet. It is what happens after somebody watches. For ambitious fashion and beauty brands, that is where a clever seasonal campaign becomes a commercial experience.
Between 5 and 6 November 2026, M&S, the LEGO Group and TK Maxx launched new holiday campaigns. Their storytelling styles are wildly different, but each offers a lesson in connecting creative identity with products, formats and customer decisions. None has yet proved that this year’s new film will deliver a specific sales uplift. We can examine the design of their campaigns without pretending we have access to their performance dashboards (Marks & Spencer, 2026; LEGO Group, 2026; Bottomley, 2026).
M&S united four departments around one human occasion
M&S announced The Home of Christmas on 5 November, launching it on Instagram and YouTube at 7am on Friday 6 November before a television debut later that morning. For the first time since 2017, Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty sit together inside one Christmas campaign. James Norton plays a Santa who goes undercover to experience the holiday for himself; Lucy Punch appears as Mrs Claus; Katherine Jenkins provides the soundtrack (Marks & Spencer, 2026; Searles, 2026).
The star casting draws attention. The underlying planning decision is more interesting. Real customers do not organise Christmas according to a retailer’s internal departments. Someone might need a party dress, a last-minute present, a candle and dinner ingredients during the same week. M&S tells one story about celebrating at home, then gives each category a place in it.
Its official campaign notes name specific featured products, including a £45 sequin dress, a £55 cashmere scarf and a £25 festive candle. Those are launch prices, not guarantees of current availability. The point is that the narrative can lead somewhere concrete. The advert is not merely festive atmosphere hovering above a disconnected catalogue (Marks & Spencer, 2026).
M&S also cites its own Customer Pulse research in which 81% of surveyed customers said they wanted a special Christmas with people they love. That is evidence about its customer sample, not a representative survey of the entire UK. The strategic principle is transferable: find the occasion your customer recognises, rather than designing separate campaigns around your organisational structure (Marks & Spencer, 2026).
The M&S lesson: sell the occasion, not the org chart
A skincare brand could connect a thoughtful gifting edit, a winter routine and a travel-sized set around a single seasonal ritual. A fashion label could use one story to bring together occasionwear, knitwear and accessories. Different items do not require identical copy; they need a convincing reason to belong together.
Audit the destination before filming. If an advert celebrates getting ready for a night out, where does the click lead? A generic homepage is rarely the natural next scene. A useful edit by occasion, size, budget or recipient makes the customer journey feel like part of the creative idea.
LEGO made one small brick the hero of several worlds
On 5 November, LEGO unveiled The LEGO Holiday Workshop, a 74-second film directed by Michael Gracey to Daft Punk’s One More Time. It follows a single 2×4 brick through fantastical departments before the brick becomes a gift. Characters from different worlds appear, but one everyday product behaviour, building, connects them (LEGO Group, 2026).
That is a remarkably disciplined creative choice. Rather than asking one entertainment franchise to represent its entire catalogue, LEGO puts an ordinary brick at the centre. The film turns the company’s core play proposition into a journey. A recognisable musical hook and familiar characters make the world inviting, but they do not replace the product idea.
The campaign extends beyond its main film. LEGO also announced seven shorter films focused on different product interests, a page for products featured in the ad, immersive flagship shop windows and interactive workshops, including a UK touring experience (LEGO Group, 2026; Guest, 2026). The formats serve different jobs: excitement, discovery, selection and participation.
LEGO’s own survey reported that 89% of sampled parents wished they spent more time playing together. Its methodology describes 11,001 parents of children aged 3–16 surveyed across eleven countries between 23 and 29 September. The result must not be casually presented as the opinion of 89% of British people, nor as proof that the campaign worked (LEGO Group, 2026).
The LEGO lesson: build one world with several useful doors
A hero film can create desire. A product demonstration can answer a question. A gift guide can help someone choose. A shop window can invite participation. Those assets do not need identical pacing or the same script to belong to the same campaign. The visual and strategic idea should survive the change of format.
Imagine a fragrance campaign set inside an imaginary luxury hotel. The hero film creates atmosphere; short product-led videos explain verified scent notes; a discovery-set page handles the risk of buying a scent unseen; emails group ideas by recipient; an in-store experience introduces texture and ritual. The concept stays coherent, but the information becomes more useful near purchase.
TK Maxx returned to the farm instead of inventing another universe
TK Maxx launched Festive Crossing on 5 November, revisiting its Festive Farm world first introduced in 2023. Wieden+Kennedy London’s latest chapter adds a fashionable duck family to familiar alpaca and goat characters. The continuing promise is Spoil All Your Loved Ones For Less. Online and video-on-demand activity began on 5 November; the television launch was scheduled for 16 November (Bottomley, 2026; Searles, 2026b).
This is a useful reminder that novelty and distinctiveness are different. A recognisable farmyard gives audiences a world they may already remember. New characters provide a fresh episode without asking viewers to learn a completely new seasonal identity. Creative teams often feel pressure to reinvent the brand every few months, even when its strongest assets have barely had time to become familiar.
The value proposition matters just as much as the ducks. TK Maxx has an ongoing off-price retail position, so giving generously without overspending is credible in context. The campaign packages a practical shopping reason as entertainment, rather than covering the screen in giant percentage signs (Clark, 2026).
This does not prove that Festive Crossing will outperform a different route. Brand recall, incremental sales and customer behaviour still require measurement. But it demonstrates a sensible principle: recognisable creative assets can accrue meaning when a brand sustains and develops them.
The TK Maxx lesson: keep what customers can recognise
A beauty label might consistently use a signature colour, silhouette, editorial framing or character. A fashion brand may develop a returning seasonal story or a distinctive way of shooting fabric and movement. Ask someone to identify your advert without the logo. If they cannot, perhaps your next creative investment should strengthen a repeatable identity rather than unveil another unrelated moodboard.
A beautiful advert is not a complete campaign
Big retailers have extensive distribution and physical stores. Smaller brands cannot reproduce their budgets, but they can borrow their discipline. The useful connection runs from awareness through consideration to purchase, service and repeat experience. Every touchpoint should add information rather than contradict or simply repeat the preceding one.
Consider a premium skincare gift set. The first film communicates feeling and ritual. A second asset clearly shows what is included. A landing page explains the genuine product, ingredients, recipient, delivery deadline and returns terms. An email answers a realistic gifting concern. Customer service knows what the advertising promised. That is one creative idea across several distinct jobs.
The opposite is costly: a film shows packaging not included in the price; an advert promotes a shade that is unavailable; a promised delivery time is not reflected at checkout; a clinical-sounding beauty claim lacks substantiation. Impressive creative work does not repair misleading product information. It can amplify the problem.
The seven-point campaign map for smaller brands
First, choose one commercial objective before choosing a visual technique. Qualified enquiries, profitable first orders, repeat purchases and long-term recognition are different aims. Decide which result matters most and which early indicators would be genuinely useful.
Second, understand the occasion. A winter wedding, a first flat, a post-work shower or a fragrance gift for a difficult-to-buy-for friend is easier to build a meaningful creative idea around than an abstract instruction to be luxury or innovative.
Third, write the organising idea in one sentence. It should connect a customer truth, a recognisable brand position and a product or service you can honestly deliver. If the campaign only makes sense after the logo appears, it might be a lovely visual treatment rather than a strong brand idea.
Fourth, assign jobs to channels. Use film for intrigue, social for participation and product proof, search to answer specific intent, email for relevance and landing pages to support a decision. A campaign with five identical edits may offer less value than three properly differentiated pieces of work.
Fifth, verify the unglamorous facts early: stock, pricing, sizes, shades, delivery, claims, music rights, talent permissions and product accuracy. For cosmetics and wellness, avoid unsupported efficacy language. Legal and regulatory review belongs upstream of final production.
Sixth, produce a manageable creative family. One excellent film, three purposeful short edits, an accurate product explainer, a connected landing page and useful email sequences can be a stronger starting point than dozens of disconnected deliverables.
Seventh, test the complete mobile journey. Click the actual advert. Try to select the product and finish checkout. Review accessibility, loading speed, navigation and how much searching a customer must do before understanding the offer.
Measure beyond the applause
Views describe consumption of media, not necessarily additional demand. Clicks describe visits, not necessarily profitable orders. Alongside reach and engagement, monitor product-page behaviour, qualified leads, brand-search patterns, checkout completion, returns and contribution after fulfilment and advertising costs.
Where feasible, use audience holdouts or lift tests to distinguish incremental effects from purchases that might have happened anyway. Smaller brands should be transparent about uncertainty. An improvement in sales after a campaign launch may be associated with the campaign without proving that the campaign alone caused it.
The objective is a creative and commercial system that deserves its budget, not a glossy report that confuses attention with achievement.
What fashion and beauty teams should ask next
Do we need a famous face or an expensive film?
No. The transferable lessons concern how an idea connects to products, formats and audiences. A well-designed digital experience and a distinctive, carefully executed campaign can achieve meaningful work without copying the spending scale of M&S or LEGO.
Should every channel repeat the same message?
No. The brand idea should be recognisable everywhere, but different moments need different information. Let creative intrigue where appropriate and let product pages answer the questions that create hesitation.
How do we decide whether to repeat a campaign platform?
Examine whether people identify the correct brand, remember the central idea and understand the product promise. Consider commercial results, not just creative opinions. Use those findings to evolve recognisable assets rather than discarding them automatically.
The final edit
M&S brings four departments into one customer occasion. LEGO sends one creative idea through several channels and product interests. TK Maxx makes an existing world feel fresh. None provides a blueprint to copy literally. Together they make a more useful case: the campaign does not end when the film fades to black.
An excellent brand campaign is a recognisable idea with a useful job at each point where a customer meets it. The film may be the opening scene. The website, product, service and ongoing relationship have to finish the story.
The Digital Dollhouse is a Knutsford-based digital marketing and creative technology agency. We help fashion, beauty and lifestyle businesses connect creative direction, advertising, growth marketing and digital experiences. Explore our portfolio or start a project.
References
Marks & Spencer (2026) 'M&S Launches The Home of Christmas, Uniting Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty in One Campaign', 5 November. Available at: M&S newsroom.
Searles, K. (2026) 'M&S recruits James Norton as an incognito Santa for Christmas 2026 campaign', Retail Gazette, 6 November. Available at: Retail Gazette.
LEGO Group (2026) 'The LEGO Group unveils 2026 Holiday AD', 5 November. Available at: LEGO newsroom.
Guest, H. (2026) 'The LEGO Group unveils magical Christmas ad', Retail Gazette, 5 November. Available at: Retail Gazette.
Bottomley, T. (2026) 'TK Maxx revisits Festive Farm with first Christmas ad in three years', TheIndustry.fashion, 5 November. Available at: TheIndustry.fashion.
Searles, K. (2026b) 'WATCH TK Maxx launches first new Christmas advert in three years', Retail Gazette, 5 November. Available at: Retail Gazette.
Clark, T. (2026) 'TK Maxx Christmas Advert 2026: A Duck Family Joins Festive Farm', 365 Retail, 5 November. Available at: 365 Retail.