The holidays are an epic journey filled with crazy adventure, excitement, drama, ugly sweaters, occasional peril and the magic that comes from believing. For families, the joy of the journey is the best part. So we created an adventure story that mirrors the twists and turns of the season.

The Holiday Odyssey told the story of three kids, and one dog, who discovered a magical holiday world. As our narrative unfolded, the kids found themselves in a magical gingerbread city filled with the season’s hottest toys, crossed a Whipped Cream Sea on a Lego pirate ship, escaped a mysterious Cornucopia Cave, and outsmarted Stormtroopers, all to ultimately save Christmas.

To drive deals, we even created a gingerbread news team that forecasted daily deals during the week of Black Friday, all the way to Cyber Monday.

From the first of November to Christmas Day, we told our story through five connected films—each released to coincide with key cultural and seasonal moments, including Thanksgiving and the new Star Wars film.

Five additional films featured a Gingerbread News Team that forecasted daily deals the week of Black Friday.

An interactive storybook went even deeper to create a robust second-screen experience filled with playful animations and hidden interactions that families could enjoy on their desktops, mobiles and tablets.

We even pulled elements from our holiday world into a digital display campaign with 1,600 banners. YouTube mastheads, digital takeovers, and social posts also supported our narrative. Our campaign inspired Target’s nationwide in-store executions, as well as Target’s Wonderland—a pop-up shop and family friendly experience hosted in New York.

All together, this resulted in a truly integrated approach that brought our narrative to life across every guest touch point.

The campaign led to Target having its best holiday season ever. Holiday sales were up 2.4% (an all-time high), mobile sales more than doubled from the same time last year, and we saw 60 million additional trips to Target.com. Social mentions grew 42% and the campaign beat the competition this season to become #1 in brand differentiation and appeal. So for Target and all of our guests, this modern holiday adventure story had a very, very happy ending.