The Roald Dahl Story Company’s Alice O’Brien and Born Licensing’s David Born on the origins and impact of The BFG Christmas ad

Alice, David, it’s great to catch up! We’re here to dive into Sainsbury’s Christmas ad featuring Roald Dahl’s BFG. The deal was negotiated and managed by Born Licensing – partnerships and licensing agent for the Roald Dahl Story Company. And you both worked with Sainsbury’s creative agency, NCA, on this new iteration of the BFG… Guys, take us back to the start – what made this an exciting opportunity?
Alice O’Brien, Head of Global Commercial Partnerships, the Roald Dahl Story Company: It was an amazingly exciting opportunity because it’s the biggest seasonal moment of the year. The other major pull for us was how authentic the narrative was – that drew us in. We’re always looking for opportunities to drive the awareness and relevance of our stories and characters, but it has to be in an authentic way because we know that this brings audience recognition, familiarity and nostalgia. And it was also a great opportunity to work with David again, because we crossed paths before when I was at Disney. It’s great to be working with him again.

David Born, CEO, Born Licensing & Born to License: I’m glad you mentioned authenticity Alice, because that’s one of the things that is crucially important for these kinds of campaigns. This is a big campaign that will get a lot of eyeballs – the last thing you want is for a character to be in an ad behaving in a way that they typically wouldn’t. Fans are sensitive and very protective of characters they love, so if you don’t get it right with a campaign of this magnitude, you’re going to hear about it.

But we’ve had such a great response to this. Everybody loves it – fans, the licensing community, the advertising community… It’s been incredible. It shows that all of the hard work that the Roald Dahl Story Company put in, that we put in and that the agency put in was worth it.

Alice: And it was about five months from when we got the story concept to developing the script, to then having the shoot. And then two months after the shoot for all the post-production… A lot was achieved in a very short space of time. We’re really proud of it.

Absolutely, it’s a terrific ad. Alice, what were some of the key story beats that needed to be right in order for this feel authentic?
Alice: It was really important that the BFG was true to the book when it comes to aspects like the way he interacted with Sophie, his character and his movement. Then there’s things like the correct use of Gobblefunk – which is the language of the BFG – and we had lots of conversations about his scale… Our Head of Brand, Lucy Appleby, was very involved with that, ensuring the creative was staying true to the book.

Of course. And it sounds like a strange thing to say about the BFG, but it’s easy to forget that he’s not the biggest giant!
Alice: Exactly! He’s 24 foot and although he’s a giant, he’s actually the smallest of all of the giants in the story. So that was something we needed to bear in mind. And then his relationship with Sophie was very important. One thing people remember from the story is that really lovely friendship they have, so it was important for us to get that right… And it’s Christmas, so we want it to feel warm, emotive and magical.

This is a new version of the BFG. It’s not the same ‘creation’ as seen in previous films or TV adaptations. David, is this a good example of how ads can give licensors license to reimagine iconic characters?
David: Absolutely. I think all of the most successful campaigns we’ve worked on involved this, like the campaign that put us on the map – Skeletor and He-Man dancing to Dirty Dancing. We took these classic characters and bought them into a live action scenario with real people wearing these incredible suits. It gave Masters of the Universe fans something they’d never seen before. We did a similar thing with Buddy the Elf in 2022 for Asda’s Christmas campaign – putting a beloved character in a new scenario.

People respond really well to that sort of thing in campaigns. They can often be more successful than anything that’s super hot ‘right now’ because they have the pull of nostalgia that other brands don’t have right now…. They can tap into treasured memories in a way that some of the ‘hottest’ brands in the world aren’t able to do.

Alice: We’re really proud that our IP continues to resonate with audiences. It’s something that really sets us apart from other content owners that are heavily driven by new content. It’s a tribute to how audiences feel about our stories and about our characters, especially the BFG, that we can create relevant adaptations for today’s audience.

David: Paddington is an interesting example of what we’re talking about here. Paddington in Peru is out and the brand is everywhere. If Sainsbury’s had done something with Paddington, it would have got a bit lost. That’s not to poo-poo Paddington because that team has done an incredible job and their goals have been a bit different to this. The benefit of doing something with the BFG –where there isn’t a tentpole happening around the brand right now – is that Sainsbury’s get a bigger share of voice around what’s happening with the brand.

Absolutely makes sense. And Alice, does something like this give a shot in the arm to the BFG brand in other ways?
Alice: For sure. the BFG is a universally loved character, and the story is one of our most popular evergreen titles. The added engagement that this opportunity brings to the IP has been wonderful to see, and off the back of this we’ve had some exciting licensing opportunities. There’s BFG Christmas cards and wrapping paper sold in Sainsbury’s this quarter. That obviously came from this partnership. We are also expecting to see a halo effect for our publishing business and in other licensed products.

Nice. And yes, I suppose if an ad resonates, there’s plenty of ways to turn that ad creative into products.
David: Yeah, and it can fuel sales for the core product too. When our MoneySuperMarket ad with Action Man launched, sales of Action Man action figures spiked. When we launched a campaign with Angry Birds and GEICO in the US, engagement with the game and digital downloads spiked as well. We’re really happy with that.

There are certainly opportunities with retailers to translates aspects of ads into consumer products, but the biggest challenge is timing. Ad agencies don’t work very far in advance, so there are limitations on what can be achieved in consumer products because of the longer lead times. It all depends on how much time you have to work with.

“We’re really proud that our IP continues to resonate with audiences.”

Have brands fully woken up to the potential of the Christmas ad space and what it could do for their brands? Was your phone ringing off the hook as since as this ad aired!?
David: Two things have happened. One is that the licensing community gets in touch with us to ask: “How can you do something like that for us?” The second thing is that on the advertising agency and advertiser side of things, the success of ads like this gets people thinking about how they could work with IP.

The other great thing is that System1 – a group that tests advertising – has a platform called Test Your Ad. They give your ad a score that relates to the ad’s potential to drive long-term brand growth. The score is between one and 5.9 – and only 1% of ads make it to five. The BFG Sainsbury’s campaign got a 5.9.

Amazing!
David: We’re absolutely thrilled – and it’s that kind of stuff that gets people in the advertising industry understanding that this works. I’ve been beating this drum for 10 years, talking about how effective characters can be in advertising… There’s only so much that I can say – you need to have results like this.

Two years ago, our Buddy the Elf campaign also scored a 5.9 and ended up being the number one most effective ad of 2022. When you’re starting to get these consistent high scores, people start paying attention. Characters are proving themselves in this space.

How many 5.9 ad campaigns do you need to have spearheaded before we have to call you the ‘King of Christmas’?
David: I think I need one more – wait until I get the hat-trick!

Ha! I’ve made a note! When a campaign resonates in the way this has, does it shape or change anything about how you approach extending brands moving forward?
Alice: We know there’s so much more scope for us to use our characters to help brands tell their stories; it’s relatively untapped for us in the ‘above the line’ marketing space and we want to ensure that we’re exploring all opportunities. So yes, it has opened up more ideas on our side and may well evolve our strategy moving forward, given its success so far.

David: For me, it’s reinforced this idea that brands with generational awareness and broad appeal belong in advertising – providing it feels authentic and the creative is great. It gives us new material to put in front of ad agencies and brands to say: ‘Look how incredible this can be.’

Before we wrap up, what’s on the agenda for you both in 2025?
Alice: There’s lots of exciting plans in the pipeline, including some really exciting new products across different categories and retailer campaigns – things like apparel, gifting, games and FMCG in food and beverage. When we can reveal more, we’ll have another chat about it.

And you’ll have Netflix’s The Twits animated movie next year too?
Alice: Yes, that’s arriving in 2025 and we’re really excited about that.

Terrific! And what’s in store for you next year David?
David: This campaign is a brilliant way to close out our 10th anniversary year and we always have exciting things in the pipeline. There’s a number of campaigns that we’re in the early stages of right now that will soon go to production. That’s exciting.

We’ll also be really busy on the licensing side with our Born to License arm, which we launched at the start of the year. We’ve just hired Alyssa Gourlay as our VP of Licensing in North America and we’re advertising for a licensing coordinator role in the US. The business has exploded bigger than I thought it possible to in our first 12 months. It’s been very cool.