The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I'm a Celebrity has aired every November for over two decades. The creative challenge isn't awareness; it's anticipation. How do you make a format the audience knows intimately feel like an unmissable event? Compounding this: the campaign launches into the most creatively competitive month in advertising among major brands.

Creative needed to cut through Christmas, not compete with it.

Through original audience research, ITV Creative uncovered a unique series truth - audiences saw the show's November launch as the official start to the Christmas countdown.

The concept - "John Lewis meets Jumanji" in ECD Tom Houser's words - required a precise creative hand. Too warm and it becomes a Christmas ad; too chaotic and it loses the emotional pull.

Writers Hannah Roe and Jonathan Truin threaded that needle: a family Christmas dinner interrupted by Ant and Dec in festive jumpers, bushtucker bites replacing the turkey, stockings stuffed with slime-covered stars, and creepy crawlies colonising the table.

The series launch delivered ITV's highest overnight audience of 2025 – 6.6 million viewers, consolidating to 11.2 million – the biggest entertainment launch on any channel that year.

The campaign's impact is clear: 25% of viewers who had not intended to watch were persuaded to do so by the advertising.

ITV Creative identified a cultural truth, built an original concept around it and executed it well enough to make a 24-year-old format the biggest entertainment launch of the year. A concept that converted non-intenders, broke streaming records and set a voting high not seen.