John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners have teamed up with ITV for a special media takeover as part of their first joint Christmas campaign.
In what the brand says is a media first, a series of bespoke animations featuring Edgar, the enthusiastic dragon star of the ad, will appear on ITV throughout December.
They will show Edgar getting overexcited about big Christmas TV moments and taking over the credits and announcements of seasonal programmes such as I’m a Celebrity… Get Me out of Here!.
The campaign will run across TV, cinema, video-on-demand and catch-up services, alongside individual product spots. A behind-the-scenes film about the making of the spot will appear on the ITV Hub.
A special Snapchat lens will let users get an Edgar makeover and a bespoke dragon emoji will be available on Twitter until 25 December, with the hashtags #ExcitableEdgar and #CantFightThisFeeling.
Manning Gottlieb OMD handled media planning and buying for the campaign, which is the first joint Christmas effort from the two retailers ahead of the merger of their marketing departments.
Created by Adam & Eve/DDB, the story follows a girl called Ava and her best friend Edgar, who accidentally ruins a village’s festive celebrations because he can’t control his fire-breathing. But he gets a chance to redeem himself by putting the finishing touches on a Christmas pudding.
This article was originally published in Campaign.