EE’s 'Christmas Double': doing two families, one network

EE has finally joined the Christmas ad arms race, and its first festive outing is about doing two Christmases in one day, held together by 5G, and social pressure.

Created by a Publicis Groupe UK cross-agency team (Saatchi & Saatchi, Digitas, Boomerang and LeSHOP) and directed by Phoebe Arnstein through Magna Studios, ‘The Christmas Double’ follows a mum and her two kids attempting the dreaded “Christmas double”: lunch at one house, dinner at another, with all the traffic jams, forgotten gifts and the family politics which that implies.

Smartphones, tablets and video calls keep everyone loosely in sync, from coordinating timings to sharing a cousin’s thoughtful present, as EE’s network quietly underpins the chaos.

Beyond the hero TV spot, the idea extends into cinema, radio, social, OOH and DOOH executions that show “hosting and guesting” from both sides, plus a Samsung partnership fronted by Andi Oliver and a '12 days of Christmas' set of customer offers.

The campaign is insight-backed, too. EE’s own numbers show broadband traffic jumping 17% during Christmas week and big spikes in mobile activity on motorways like the M25 and M1, so the campaign doubles as a sort of data visualisation of the nation’s festive guilt-tripping.

Our take

Tonally, this lands somewhere between John Lewis relatability and classic EE “banger track” fodder, which worked for us at least.

The “Christmas double” is a near-universal pain point, bringing some relatability into the mix. 

The “the UK’s best network” tagline, meanwhile, sort of hits at Christmas if you’ve ever tried to stream via a lesser network.