Christmas Gifts – Celebrate the Joy of Giving | Clapboard Ad Archive

Discover the joy of giving from a good place

Description

Discover the joy of giving from a good place with National Trust this Christmas, inviting consumers to be like Robin and find meaningful gifts that truly make a difference. Launched in the United Kingdom in November 2024, this impactful film campaign taps into the finance sector by encouraging thoughtful spending that supports a greater cause. Featuring a beautifully curated seasonal range, the campaign highlights handmade Christmas decorations, delicious treats, and sustainably sourced homeware that embody the spirit of giving with purpose. Whether visiting a National Trust shop or browsing online, shoppers can discover something special for everyone on their list—from handcrafted garlands and luxury hampers to unique stocking fillers, cosy throws, hiking accessories, and bestselling National Trust books. Families are also catered for with an impressive selection of nature-themed books, educational toys, and family games, designed to foster a connection with the outdoors and engage children with the natural world. For those seeking flexibility, National Trust gift cards offer an ideal solution, redeemable across shops, cafés, memberships, holidays, and can even be purchased digitally for last-minute gifting. Every purchase made through this campaign supports the National Trust’s vital work in protecting natural habitats, enabling public access to nature, and conserving historically significant collections, reinforcing the brand’s mission to care for places so people and nature can thrive. By combining festive inspiration with sustainability and social impact, this campaign not only encourages shoppers to choose gifts that resonate with meaning but also strengthens emotional engagement with the National Trust’s purpose. It invites everyone to participate in making a difference, turning holiday shopping into an act of generosity that benefits both loved ones and the environment, truly capturing the essence of giving from a good place. The campaign drives traffic to both physical locations and the online shop at https://shop.nationaltrust.org.uk/, aligning with the brand’s ongoing commitment to inclusivity, conservation, and community involvement.

Credits

Client

National Trust

More like this

Making it Click - AVIVA | Clapboard Ad Archive

Aviva’s Making it Click returns for 2024 with a quietly ambitious narrative devised by adam&eveDDB, using the familiar warmth of family to reframe the complexities of consumer and business finance in the critical context of the festive season. Anchored in the market category of banking and insurance, the campaign unfolds in a bustling, generationally-run Italian restaurant, where the baton-passing from Gino to his daughter Gina provides an authentic throughline for exploring Aviva’s expanded offer across insurance, wealth management, and retirement. The drama spins around relatable financial quandaries—first the anxiety as a fallen branch shatters the family car, then the entrepreneurial leap as Gina reinvests for growth—each puzzle neatly resolved through Aviva’s intervention, their services presented not as remote products but as enabling presences in the fabric of everyday life. Visually, the campaign marks a decisive shift with the debut of Aviva’s refreshed brand expression: a brighter color palette, new typography, and the Aviva glow—an unmissable, soft yellow light emitting from Gina’s phone at the narrative’s inflection points—injecting both emotional resonance and new visual salience for the brand in crowded holiday clutter. Media planning and buying, driven by the Aviva team at Publicis Media, smartly targets shared, high-attention platforms, amplifying the campaign’s impact at traditional moments of family gathering when financial anxieties and hope for continuity are most acute. That strategy is even more pronounced in the 60-second cinema edit, where Aviva’s B2B credentials come to the fore as Gina swiftly deploys business insurance to repair a broken pizza oven—a functional yet emotionally-laden demonstration of continuity and resilience. This is storytelling with direct commercial intent, an approach that sits squarely in Clapboard’s FORMAT#5—Exemplary Story classification, where product and platform are not accessories to the narrative but the decisive element in its resolution. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. As financial brands continue their push into emotional territory, Making it Click demonstrates that a cohesive narrative, visual distinctiveness, and an unambiguous role for the product can cut through annualized category noise when delivered with insight and restrained humanity.

Campaign Proposition

The National Trust’s campaign "Discover the joy of giving from a good place" positions the brand as a facilitator of meaningful, responsible gifting that supports environmental and cultural preservation. It emphasizes the value of giving gifts that make a tangible difference—handmade, sustainably sourced products and experiences that contribute to the Trust’s broader mission of protecting nature and heritage. The promise centers on combining festive generosity with social and ecological impact, appealing to consumers seeking purposeful holiday shopping options. Strategically, the campaign leverages a lifestyle narrative anchored in the spirit of thoughtful, authentic giving during the Christmas season. It targets socially conscious consumers in the UK who prioritize sustainability and heritage in their purchasing decisions. The creative approach—invoking imagery of “Robin,” a symbol associated with nature and tradition—reinforces a connection to the outdoors, family, and community, deepening emotional resonance. The offering spans a diverse range of products, including handmade decorations, food, homeware, and children’s toys, ensuring broad appeal across demographics. In addition, the promotion of versatile gift cards expands accessibility and convenience, catering to last-minute shoppers while encouraging engagement with all facets of the National Trust, from retail to memberships and holidays. This integrated strategy is underpinned by the insight that modern consumers want their spending to have a positive social or environmental footprint, especially during gift-giving occasions. By linking every purchase to the Trust’s conservation efforts, the campaign creates a value proposition that transcends traditional commerce, positioning gifting as an act of contribution. This positions the National Trust not just as a heritage organization but as a relevant, values-driven brand in the finance-adjacent sector of ethical consumerism.

Creative Device

FORMAT#9 SYMBOLIZE THE BENEFIT — Uses symbols or exaggerated visuals to represent the product’s positive impact. This campaign fits FORMAT#9 because it centers around the motif “Be like Robin and discover the joy of giving from a good place.” The “Robin” reference is a symbolic device commonly associated with Christmas, warmth, and selfless giving. Rather than showcasing a literal demonstration or testimonial, the campaign invites audiences to embody the spirit of a robin, making their gift purchases meaningful and impactful. The benefits of shopping with the National Trust—supporting conservation, community, and heritage—are thus symbolically represented via this seasonal character, and the act of giving is elevated to an emotional, purposeful gesture, reinforcing the brand’s positive impact through evocative symbolism rather than direct exposition. ADVERTISING FORMATS EXPLAINED: https://www.clapboard.com/blog/branding-and-advertising/brand-strategy/12-advertising-creative-formats

Your Guide To The World Of Trading - Trading 212 | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Your Guide To The World Of Trading - Trading 212 | Clapboard Ad Archive

Trading 212’s Your Guide To The World Of Trading, created by ROBOlab in the United Kingdom for the banking and finance sector in 2020, elevates the communication of complex financial concepts through playful but meticulously constructed animation, reimagining the world of trading as a top-down miniature metropolis where individual blocks and buildings stand in for recognizable companies and market landmarks. Rather than rely on testimonial, problem-solution, or narrative-driven tropes, ROBOlab adopts what Clapboard’s taxonomy identifies as FORMAT#9 — Symbolize the Benefit — translating the brand’s promise of accessibility and insight directly into a visual metaphor: the trading ecosystem as a dynamic, discoverable world that rewards repeat exploration, much as the trading activity itself promises myriad opportunities for discovery. Each frame is packed with nuanced visual allusions, designed to entice both new and seasoned investors to revisit the spot and uncover a fresh detail, thus reinforcing platform familiarity and brand connection with every exposure. The challenge of instant corporate recognition is navigated with sharp design cues and color work, while movement between an isometric landscape and a flattened mobile UI cleverly echoes the journey Trading 212 offers from market complexity to user-friendly, mobile-first clarity. The effect is a seamless bridging of abstraction and interface, delivering a promise of empowerment and ease without reducing financial markets to oversimplified clichés. Strategically, the campaign distinguishes Trading 212 in the increasingly crowded fintech landscape, setting it apart from competitors like eToro, IG Group, or Plus500 by focusing not on the social or educational dimensions of trading, but on the unique proposition of transforming an intimidating marketplace into a place of playful exploration and transparency. ROBOlab’s approach serves both immediate engagement and long-term affinity, targeting the digitally fluent retail investor through inventive craft and an intuitive message architecture that resonates with the need for agency and clarity among modern traders. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. This work matters for the industry because it demonstrates how animated metaphor, when used with strategic intent and technical finesse, can elevate financial marketing beyond explanation to genuine user invitation.

Borders - HSBC | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Borders - HSBC | Clapboard Ad Archive

HSBC’s Borders campaign, launched across the United Kingdom in 2021 and conceived by Wunderman Thompson, marks a symbolic evolution for the brand as it introduces its refreshed global purpose: Opening up a world of opportunity. Set within the fiercely competitive banking and finance sector, Borders advances HSBC's ambition to shift its positioning beyond transactional banking into the realm of social advocacy. Rather than deploying literal depictions of financial products or customer stories, the campaign leans into an evocative—at times almost poetic—use of the barriers motif, confronting viewers with the pervasive societal, economic, and psychological boundaries that impede access to progress. This conceptual angle aligns squarely with what Clapboard’s taxonomy designates as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, as every creative choice centers on visual analogies and subtle cues to draw attention to obstacles that too often remain hidden in the public’s peripheral vision. The narrative does not simply enumerate hardships or offer platitudes about hope; instead, it prompts a visceral sense of what it means to live separated from opportunities by invisible yet intractable lines. By defamiliarizing the concept of borders—rendering them as more than just geopolitical—HSBC asserts its role as a challenger of convention, aligning the brand with contemporary discussions around inclusion, opportunity, and the responsibilities of global institutions. In the context of the UK’s cultural and financial landscape, where peer banks like Barclays emphasize digital transformation, Lloyds leans on trust and accessibility, and NatWest foregrounds financial education, HSBC’s messaging strikes a distinctive note: it frames banking as a vehicle for wider societal possibility rather than a mere facilitator of transactions. The campaign’s adoption of film as its key medium not only amplifies its emotional resonance but also demonstrates an understanding of the agency’s craft, with Wunderman Thompson ensuring that each staged scenario deepens the campaign’s thematic intent rather than offering surface-level emotional triggers. This strategy speaks directly to a segment of the UK public attuned to issues of fairness, empowerment, and systemic change—an audience looking for brands that demonstrate not just corporate responsibility but cultural leadership. In the current era, where marketing noise is at an all-time high and authentic, values-driven storytelling is at a premium, Borders carves out a space for HSBC that feels both purpose-led and distinctly modern. Clapboard rates this 63/100. As UK banking brands jostle to express progressive values and customer focus, Borders is a barometer for how traditional financial institutions can credibly invoke symbolism and narrative to claim a meaningful stake in conversations around access, possibility, and social mobility.

The bank you want to recommend to yourself - BoursoBank | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

The bank you want to recommend to yourself - BoursoBank | Clapboard Ad Archive

BoursoBank’s 2024 campaign The bank you want to recommend to yourself, crafted by Buzzman, marks a significant leap in the bank’s long-running strategy of leveraging customer advocacy within France’s fiercely competitive banking sector. Capitalizing on its status as a 16-year consecutive price leader and seven years of consumer recommendation storytelling, BoursoBank and Buzzman unravel a time-travel adventure across TV, digital, and social—not just to reinforce the brand’s core proposition of value and trust, but to reframe the very mechanism of advocacy through the concept of self-recommendation. At the heart of the campaign, two young protagonists race through epochs—from prehistoric worlds to the chaos of the French Revolution, landing momentarily in imagined futures—all in pursuit of urging their former selves to join BoursoBank and thus rewrite their own financial destinies for the better. The audacious storyline, set to the high-energy pulse of Fatboy Slim’s The Rockafeller, transforms what could have been a simple cost comparison message into a vivid, cinematic metaphor for regret, hindsight, and the universal wish to have made smarter choices earlier. Such narrative ambition situates the campaign squarely in what Clapboard’s taxonomy defines as FORMAT#6—Benefit Causes Story—where the storytelling energy and the wild, kinetic structure are justified solely through the drive to access the bank’s key benefit sooner: its enduring affordability and trusted reputation. The omnichannel rollout further maximizes impact, launching with a 60-second film on premium French networks like TF1 and M6, then blanketing the key touchpoints with cutdowns tailored for high-frequency rotation and digital-native recall—six, ten, and twenty-second versions built for swift social sharing. This approach sustains reaching an audience that is highly attuned to peer validation, digital convenience, and the quantifiable savings BoursoBank guarantees, directly challenging both new-century digital challengers and legacy institutions. The benefit at the heart of the narrative animates every twist: there would be no frantic dash through history, no impulse to cross decades, if BoursoBank’s offer weren’t so compelling that one might wish to alter their own past just to seize it sooner. The campaign earns 71/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. For a sector often limited by rational messaging, BoursoBank’s imaginative leap signals that emotional storytelling driven by product truth can inspire both advocacy and cultural distinction even within regulated, credibility-dependent categories.

Simplified Banking - BforBank | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Simplified Banking - BforBank | Clapboard Ad Archive

BforBank’s Simplified Banking campaign, created by Steve for the French online banking market in 2025, extends the brand’s assertive repositioning around the essential value of simplicity in finance, following its high-profile relaunch that saw a substantial brand awareness increase and a successfully broadened, younger customer base. Building on these gains and recognition such as the Silver Effie Award, Steve reframes banking stress in a trio of 20-second films that anchor BforBank’s promise to help consumers reclaim a more relaxed, frictionless relationship with their money. At the campaign’s center is the idea that earning money remains fundamentally difficult for most French consumers—an economic tension sensitively rendered through symbolic storytelling, as articulated in what Clapboard's taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem. Rather than depicting the obstacles of daily banking management as literal pain points or testimonials, the films employ clever analogies—such as the physically demanding world of a stunt performer—to dramatize the exhausting struggle of managing personal finances, making the familiar frustrations of saving and investing both instantly recognizable and surprisingly witty. This creative approach departs from the earnest rationalism that characterizes much of banking communications in France, instead inviting viewers to see themselves in these exaggerated scenarios, and ultimately aligning BforBank with a generation seeking clarity, transparency, and practical ease in their digital banking tools and service relationships. Steve’s media strategy, executed with Havas Media, ensures the campaign’s snappy, visually distinctive content is deployed across high-impact VOL placements, maximizing contextual relevance and reach among digitally oriented, convenience-driven demographics. Through clean, engaging visuals and a tone that balances relatability with aspiration, BforBank not only delivers on the promise of clearer tools and smarter support, but carves out a distinctive message amid a fiercely competitive financial services landscape defined by both legacy institutions and agile fintechs. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. As the broader banking sector in France contends with shifting consumer anxieties and expectations, Simplified Banking by Steve for BforBank signals a move toward the kind of empathetic, symbolic storytelling that can reset trust and relevance in digital finance.

Poupar no Banco CTT é um bom ponto de partida - Banco CTT | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Poupar no Banco CTT é um bom ponto de partida - Banco CTT | Clapboard Ad Archive

Launched in Portugal in 2024, the campaign Poupar no Banco CTT é um bom ponto de partida effectively underscores Banco CTT’s competitive savings solutions, positioning saving as a meaningful and empowering starting point for financial growth. Created by Havas Lisbon, this film campaign addresses a common consumer sentiment: the frustration that often accompanies saving, where efforts can feel stagnant despite good intentions. By reframing saving as a proactive journey rather than a mere act of setting aside money, the campaign seeks to engage disillusioned savers, inviting them to view their financial habits through a lens of optimism and potential. The choice of Vangelis's evocative music amplifies this narrative, creating an emotional resonance that aligns the act of saving with aspirations for a better future. This approach not only symbolizes the concept of a new beginning but also connects with viewers on a deeper level, suggesting that even modest savings can pave the way to significant financial security. With over 680,000 views, the campaign has garnered substantial visibility, aiming to raise awareness of Banco CTT's value proposition within a competitive finance market that includes major players like Millennium BCP and Caixa Geral de Depósitos. While engagement metrics such as likes remain modest, the campaign’s core message highlights the emotional benefits of saving, fostering a connection with the audience that transcends traditional banking communications. What Clapboard's taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#9—symbolize the benefit—positions the campaign as a creative endeavor that utilizes powerful music and a compelling narrative to convey the advantages of Banco CTT's offerings. Clapboard rates this 61/100 in Clapboard's global creative archive. This campaign exemplifies how financial institutions can inspire consumer confidence by shifting the narrative from saving as a chore to saving as a vital step toward achieving personal aspirations.