Almost 25% of Americans believe Macy’s is the retailer that most embodies the spirit of Christmas (3x other retailers).

With 41% of shoppers more likely to purchase brands supporting a cause they care about and Macy’s Loyal Shoppers 25% more likely to favor brands involved with a charity, it was clear, “giving back” still resonated, especially at Christmas time.

A three minute hero film, “Wish Writer” was the creative backbone of evolving “Believe”. About a girl and her brother who discover a magic pen that grants their every wish, the siblings write good deeds and wishes for friends, family and neighbors, until the film invites the audience to “make someone’s wish come true,” by mailing their Santa letter at Macy’s to make a donation to Make-A-Wish.

The 2015 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had the largest audience in 26 years with 25.2 million viewers (12% increase YOY). Santa appeared at the end of the parade with “Believe” balloons before the program faded into the “Wish Writer” three-minute video.

A three-minute integration on Good Morning America and a custom vignette on Nickelodeon educated consumers on the Believe campaign and Make-A-Wish partnership.

YouTube’s Trueview pre-roll honed-in on audiences who chose to watch the full-length video and Facebook’s Newsfeed reached consumers who were willing to stop, watch and share videos.

Macy’s was one of the first advertisers to leverage the high-impact Instagram marquee. Macy’s owned the marquee the entire day before Thanksgiving to kickoff the holiday spirit and continued seeding videos throughout the holiday season.

All Macy’s hosted special mailboxes for children to mail letters to Santa. The Wish Writer stylus pen was promoted and sold in stores.

Macy’s Wish Writer put the spirit back into the holidays, evolved the 8 year old “Believe” campaign and, most importantly, donated $2 million to Make-A-Wish.

We saw significant lift in key brand metrics: ad recall (13.5%), favorability (16.3%), and brand interest (57.4%). Long-form viewers yielded the greatest lift in brand metrics. 82% lift in Macy’s search as a direct result of viewing the video, which is best-in-class and highest among all retailers (39% average).

Additionally:

• 33 million snackable content views across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

• 20 million views of the three-minute video

• 60% in-banner video completion rate (25% higher than average)

• 4 million influencer content impressions

• Instagram Marquee increased brand favorability +6 points and drove 2.5 million video views, 120,000 likes and 8,000 new followers in one day

• Strategic cost-per-view bidding beat YouTube retail benchmark by 40%

• Adweek’s most successful Holiday YouTube ad.