Argos’ 2025 Christmas campaign scooped Christmas Advert of the Year at the RG Excellence Awards 2026. Behind the humour and toy-led antics was a wider ambition – persuading shoppers to take another look at a retailer they thought they already knew.
Two tiny toy characters, a doll called Connie and dinosaur named Trevor, kidnapping an unsuspecting Christmas shopper is not the usual starting point for a festive brand story.
However, Argos saw that absurdity as precisely the point. Its winning campaign put surprise and entertainment ahead of sentimentality. By using Connie and Trevor’s mischief, it could deliver the message behind its ‘There’s More to Argos’ platform.
“Christmas advertising can often be emotional and sentimental, so we deliberately took a different approach and created something fun, playful and memorable,” Argos explains.
“We wanted to bring some joy to the festive season and give people something they’d genuinely enjoy watching.”
The retailer credits a willingness to be disruptive with helping the advert cut through a crowded festive advertising season. “At Christmas, consumers are exposed to so many brilliant campaigns, so standing out requires confidence and a distinctive idea.”
Simon Bird helped bring that idea to life, with Argos describing him as “instantly recognisable, relatable and effortlessly funny”.
The retailer says it was “absolutely delighted” to receive the award, crediting a joint effort across the business and its agency partners.
Getting shoppers to look again
The campaign’s humour served a broader brand objective. Argos has been helping customers prepare for Christmas for more than 50 years, giving it a familiar place in generations of family celebrations.
“People know us incredibly well, but they don’t necessarily know the full breadth of what we offer today,” the retailer admits. Christmas provides an opportunity to showcase toys and gifting alongside tech, beauty and home, while reinforcing its promise to help customers get what they want, when they want it.
That thinking will continue into its 2026 Christmas campaign, which Argos says launches across TV, streaming services, cinema and social channels from 01 November.
The story will lean into festive nostalgia, featuring a leading UK talent’s childhood memories of circling toys in the Argos catalogue, before moving into modern gifting for different ages and interests.
Beyond the toy aisle
The same ambition sits behind Argos’s latest home furnishings campaign, another chapter in ‘There’s More to Argos’. While toys remain central to its identity, the retailer wants to draw attention to categories including home furnishings and Habitat.
“Toys are an incredibly important part of Argos and something we’re famous for,” it says. The challenge is to show customers that they are only part of the range.
Launching in September allowed the home campaign to connect with shoppers spending more time indoors and preparing for colder months. It placed products in a setting intended to feel familiar and relevant, while giving Connie and Trevor another opportunity to challenge perceptions of the retailer.
“Last year they were mischievous kidnappers; this year they’ve evolved into larger-than-life mafia-style characters determined to set the record straight about what Argos offers,” the retailer says. The dramatic storytelling remains a vehicle for a straightforward message: its range extends further than shoppers might expect.
Turning attention into a reason to shop
Entertaining customers and delivering commercially are not competing objectives for Argos: “We never see brand building and commercial performance as competing priorities.”
Its approach starts with understanding what matters to customers and the role Argos can play in their lives. Campaigns then aim to combine an emotional connection with practical reasons to shop, from range and value to convenience and availability.
“The entertainment earns people’s attention, but we have to give them a reason to choose Argos,” the retailer says.
That means backing the creative with choice, trusted brands and the ability to get products quickly and conveniently: “Our opportunity is often getting them to look at us again and realise that what they can get from Argos today might be very different to what they remember.”
Delivering on the advertising promise
Making that promise credible requires more than a marketing campaign. Argos says the work involves teams across the business, with commercial colleagues helping identify the products, trends and innovations most likely to resonate with customers.
“We partner with teams across ecommerce, stores, operations and fulfilment to ensure the experience customers see in our advertising is reflected throughout their shopping journey,” it says.
Retail colleagues also feed customer insight into that process, helping the business understand what shoppers are asking for, what is working and where the experience could improve. Argos links that collaboration to its purpose of being trusted to make everyday life better, with a human touch, whether customers are watching an advert, browsing online or visiting a store.
The award recognises a campaign built to make people laugh. But the ambition behind the toy-led antics reaches beyond Christmas: using a familiar name to persuade customers there is still more to discover.
The 2026 Argos Christmas campaign will launch on 01 November 2026.
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