Why Was the First Christmas Campaign of the Season So Early?

Christmas turning up in September isn’t unusual in adland – production schedules mean brands and agencies have festive scripts in the works, months before the first leaves fall. But on the streets of London, Norwich, and the Peak District this year, the sight of choirs, Santas and fairy lights 100 days before December 25th, wasn’t about shifting supermarket stock or kicking off the retail race. It was about shining a light on the shock and upheaval thousands of families face when a baby arrives far earlier than expected.

That’s the premise of Bliss’ ‘Premature Christmas’, created with TBWA\London. By bringing festive cheer to the UK months before anyone wanted it, the campaign mirrors the emotional jolt of a premature or sick birth – and calls for the support that helps families through neonatal care. LBB’s Alex Reeves sat down with Bliss’ director of fundraising and communications Rachel Hardman and TBWA\London’s group creative director Matt Swinburne to hear how the idea took shape and why Christmas came early this year.

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LBB> What was the creative brief and how did the ‘Premature Christmas’ idea emerge from it?

Matt> It wasn’t really a brief as such. My sister had a premature birth last year, and I got a front row seat to see how tough her experience was. So, it’s been a cause on my mind for a while.

I was talking to some of the creative teams at work. A creative team had this idea, came back to me with it, and we thought it was brilliant. We then had to find a partner, so we reached out to Rachel and the team at Bliss, and it all grew from there.
Rachel> Matt just said, “I’ve got a great idea, should we talk?” And I said, “absolutely”. We get a lot of people with great ideas. A lot of the time, it doesn’t come to anything, but this time it did, because it was a good idea.

LBB> Adland is used to planning Christmas months in advance – how did that industry reality influence your creative thinking here?

Matt> You’re right. Those briefs start early in the year. In the industry, Christmas is a big deal. It’s the Super Bowl of commercials here in the UK. We thought there was a playful angle – to be the first, raise a few eyebrows, and get people talking about it that way.

Rachel> 100 days until Christmas is a moment people recognise. Imagine thinking your baby will be born in about 100 days, but it comes 100 days early. The shock and disruption would be huge. If Christmas came 100 days early, that’s the same level of shock parents feel.

Matt> Exactly. I love the connection to Christmas because it’s a big life event people prepare for. 100 days is a classic countdown. But imagine having that time taken away when you’re about to become a parent – that really hits home how tough it is.

LBB> The idea of Christmas in September, when you first raise it, is an eye roll moment. No one’s ready for it to get colder, everyone’s mourning the summer at this point in the year, and they definitely don’t want to put tinsel up. How did that steer the idea? Did you lean into the fact that this would provide cut-through?

Matt> That was what we were counting on – to make it cut through and be more disruptive. People might be a bit confused, or roll their eyes. Every year it seems to get earlier in our minds.

We wanted to play on that, but it was important not to annoy people. The events we did were playful and fun, and we quickly revealed what the cause was. Even in promoting it, we revealed it was for Bliss. We weren’t trying to trick people too much. It was all in one hit: you got the “what the hell is going on, it’s Christmas” moment, and then you’ve got the fact it was for Bliss really quickly. That gave the emotional reveal and the reason why we did it.

LBB> How do you balance raising awareness in a joyful, festive way while communicating the fear and trauma many families experience in neonatal care?

Rachel> For Bliss, we were very clear that it couldn’t just be seen as a joke. It had to be very sensitive. That’s why the reveal was done at the same time as the stunts, so it became clear why we were doing it.

It was about awareness – mirroring the shock a parent feels if their baby comes too soon.

We gave a lot of consideration to our audience and how they would feel. 60,000 babies are born premature each year, and in addition 30,000 are born sick and needing neonatal care.

Potentially, we were alienating a third of our audience if we only talked about prematurity. Matt and the team made sure we could include sick babies as well, so no one felt alienated or missed out.

Matt> We had a really good creative hook – bringing Christmas prematurely. That opened the door to have a bigger conversation about Bliss and everything they do.

LBB> Can you talk us through the craft: from the Santa parade to the billboards and choir performances, what was most challenging to pull off logistically?

Matt> We had a really small team – myself, the Brave team, and a great producer. We just hustled. A thousand emails and phone calls later, we managed to secure a few things.

What was amazing is that once we started talking to people, so many had a connection to this issue. It’s so prevalent. It wasn’t hard to find people who felt strongly connected and wanted to help and donate their time.

One family we spoke to hooked us up with a shopping mall in Norwich through a friend. They dressed their own house up in Christmas lights, and they own a pet store and a kids’ play centre. They also hooked us up with one of their clients. It snowballed once people joined the conversation.

Initially, though, it was a lot of cold-calling and emailing. The idea was to try and find a partner brand to help fund the events, but that was really hard. Most brands already have Christmas plans in place, with budgets allocated. We tried that avenue for a while and then gave up, realising we had to do it ourselves.

We found people to donate time and resources to make it happen. We ended up doing the whole thing for basically nothing, budget-wise.

LBB> How important was it to activate across so many different touchpoints – from radio to DOOH to live experiences – rather than keeping it in one channel?

Matt> It was a case of more is more. We wanted Christmas to come to life in as many places as possible across the country. It was important to make it feel like a national campaign, not just London-focused.

Christmas often lends itself to tacky, small pop-ups, like a choir here or a decoration there. We didn’t need to spend a lot of money to take over big spaces. We just tried to find a balance.

We had choirs, the Santa parade, decorating pubs and restaurants, Santa spots. We ticked the classic ways Christmas comes to life.

There was traditional media too. Ocean Outdoor donated out of home, and we had a radio partnership. That was probably one of my favourite things. Radio X played Christmas songs in amongst their regular playlist – Michael Bublé, Mariah. Then the DJ cut back in and said, you might be wondering what that was about. He told the full story and interviewed Anneliese from Bliss, who looks after the team that provides support to parents whose babies are in neonatal care.

The more we got, the better – telling the story of Christmas coming to life.

LBB> How are families with lived experience of neonatal care involved in shaping campaigns like this?

Rachel> Obviously Matt’s personal connection was key. Our CEO also noted that many people who took part in the stunts had been affected.

The best way we spread awareness is by giving those with lived experience a platform to tell their stories. People are usually keen to do that to help others.

In this campaign, we worked with a parent from the Bliss community who’d had two premature births and long stays in neonatal care. She helped shape the campaign and worked with Matt and his team as part of the awareness push. It was important to involve families who had actually experienced premature birth.

Matt> The hook gets people interested, but then we needed to turn quickly to the stories and emotion to make it compelling.

We filmed one parent at her house – she featured in the teaser film, telling her story about two births and how Bliss helped her. Interestingly, she’d never heard of Bliss until suddenly they were there at the hospital, handing her leaflets and helping her through.
We had a lot of influencers support the campaign. All of them had lived experience of premature births. That was really cool. The campaign gave them a chance to embrace the idea, wish everyone a Merry Christmas prematurely, and tell their stories. They shared heartbreaking stories on social media, which felt like a really successful part of it. Real people telling real stories, with followings that could drive the idea.

LBB> Nearly 60,000 babies are born prematurely each year in the UK and 30,000 need neonatal treatment for other reasons – what does greater public awareness actually unlock in terms of support for those families?

Rachel> Awareness is a big part of it, but awareness leads to fundraising. The need is real.

We hope the message resonates with the public, so they understand how a premature or sick birth is not something you prepare for. It comes as a shock and can turn your world upside down. By sharing this campaign, people might see how they could support Bliss – through fundraising or lobbying their MP for better neonatal care, there are all sorts of ways.

But to continue supporting families, funding research, and campaigning, we do need funds.

LBB> Beyond this campaign, what needs to happen for neonatal care to improve and for families to have better outcomes?

Rachel> A lot of it comes down to putting public pressure on policymakers to follow through on commitments. There’s still a lot of campaigning to be done and pressure needed.

90,000 babies are born needing neonatal care each year – which is one in seven. Most people don’t know who Bliss are until they need us. We’d love more people to know about us, because it affects so many families every year.

It’s important that every baby born too early or sick has the best possible chance not only to survive but to thrive. That’s the key.

LBB> What has the response been like?

Matt> We’re still working on PR coverage. Trump dominated the news last week, which didn’t help. We’re still pushing. Social support has been great, and in the moment, the stunts had a big impact. I was at the Santa parade with a bunch of others, and so many people were stopping us, taking photos, asking what it was about. We got lots of great coverage from that.

Bliss is calling on the nation to raise awareness and vital funds so that no family has to face this journey alone. To support, visit here.