After a 2021 Christmas full of uncertainty, travel restrictions, cancelled events and family get togethers, we needed 2022 to deliver for our core shopper: Maia. She's The Chief Christmas Officer, loves Christmas time with the family and wants to create lasting memories for her family. Due to financial constraints, growing time pressure and a growing sense of environmental responsibility Maia now wants it all. ‘Bargain’ for her now means getting great products that are competitively priced, with reliable quality, with easy and convenient access and built-in sustainability too. All wrapped up in irresistible inspiration.

The challenge in 2022 was to get Maia back instore after all the covid related uncertainty. Not just once, but across the entire Christmas shopping season, by putting the meaning back into ‘bargain’ and showing Maia The Warehouse can meet all her value needs.

We created a campaign around our character: Nigel the Nutcracker. While he was a very traditional Christmas decoration, his Christmas wish was more aligned with the times. We established his character and told his story in film and storybook. He had no plans to have a love affair with the beautiful angel on the top of the tree, he just wanted to enjoy the limelight, be free to express himself, and be adored. It was a modern twist on a classic love story. He then become the face of our Christmas campaign, representing a shift in attitudes, and more aligned to the principles of The Warehouse, where no one is judged, and anyone is welcome.

From clothing, to toys, TVs to toasters, The Warehouse is the go-to retail store for everything you need to live your life, at an affordable price. As such, our target audience was busy mums with kids. She runs the house, makes sure Christmas is an exciting time for her whole family, but is very aware that times are tough. So our job was to ensure we knew we could help her nail Christmas.

We used every touchpoint available to establish Nigel as the hero of Christmas, and The Warehouse the #1 Christmas destination. TV and digital had the media reach to tell Nigel’s story and build brand love. We expanded that with a shareable online storybook, and gave away hard copies. Digital, radio, and retail encouraged people in-store, where Nigel was there to greet them.

The campaign ran over 2 months prior to Christmas. We brought Nigel to life in 90 second films in cinema, 60, 30 and 15 second TVCs. Nigel introduced our price and product retail layer in TVC and online. An illustrated, narrated storybook was shared online, and also was given away as a bound physical book. Nigel replicas were given away on social, and along with his other toy friends, he starred in several TikToks. In a media first for New Zealand, we achieved a roadblock of digital OOH sites across the nation, ensuring everyone got to meet Nigel.

Grabbed 40% of market share

Increase of 2.5% sales on previous Christmas period ($7.5 million)

+5% foot traffic in-store

Nigel became the most loved and talked about Christmas icon in the country, and became the fresh new face of gender representation in New Zealand advertising.

He sparked much debate online with the overwhelming majority of people defending Nigel's character, and applauding The Warehouse's decision to tell his story.