Born Licensing’s 10th Anniversary: 10 Best Campaigns
Over the last 10 years Born Licensing has had the honour to work with ad agencies all over the world who have incorporated IP into its creative work.
What better way to celebrate its 10th anniversary than to go on a trip down memory lane and to revisit some of the most impactful projects the team has helped to bring to life? CEO of Born Licensing David Born adds some insight to each!
10) Barclays x The Muppets
To launch their new offering, Barclaycard Entertainment, Barclaycard were keen to create an advertising campaign that entertained their audience. Barclays’s creative agency, AKQA, developed an incredibly entertaining script featuring characters from The Muppets, the long-running TV and movie franchise. Born Licensing helped Barclays and their agency to negotiate the use of the Kermit, Miss Piggy and other Muppets characters in the campaign. The multi-channel campaign launched with a 30” TV advert which was also shown on VOD and in cinemas. The Muppets also featured on customer communications and a Barclaycard Entertainment portal.
David says, “When working with a generational brand like The Muppets, which happens to be owned by Disney, you must be ready to get to work. I’ll always remember this as a job that required great stakeholder management. The combination of IP, puppets, decades of goodwill, talent, puppeteers and various other parties meant that this was a huge job. But one that certainly felt worth it in the end.”
Client: Barclays
Agency: AKQA
Property: The Muppets
9) Envestnet x SpongeBob SquarePants
Envestnet partnered with Nickelodeon to bring the Intelligent Financial Life under the sea with SpongeBob SquarePants character, Mr. Krabs. In the campaign we see a financial adviser advising the money-obsessed restauranteur on his complex finances. The campaign leverages an interactive digital experience where advisors can engage with five scenarios inspired by the TV series – such as the destruction of the Krusty Krab, opening a second restaurant, and firing SpongeBob – and through the Portal, advisors can see how these events affect Mr. Krabs' overall financial picture. The campaign won The Drums B2B Awards for Best Product Launch and Best Website.
David says, “I loved working on this campaign. Creating custom animation can be a long process, but when you’re working with someone else’s character it is a next level job. The dialogue is also critically important, as each line is scrutinised by the Rights Holder to ensure the character is responding and behaving authentically. But these are the types of jobs where the painstaking parts of the work are the ones that contribute most to the campaign being so special.”
Client: Envestnet
Agency: HeyLetsGo
Property: SpongeBob SquarePants
8) Uber x SpongeBob SquarePants/Scooby-Doo/TMNT
Uber decided to license some iconic vehicles that were seen on the streets of American cities during Halloween weekend in 2021. Uber riders in Miami had the chance to take a spin in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Party Wagon, riders in Los Angeles had the chance to ride in SpongeBob SquarePants’ Patty Wagon, and riders in Atlanta had the chance to motor around in Scooby-Doo’s Mystery Machine! In the spirit of wishing riders a safe Halloween, those lucky enough to hitch a ride with the famous cars won a fun Scooby-Doo, TMNT and SpongeBob SquarePants face covering. The launch was also supported with a social film plus specially made content from influencers Will Wahony and Nina Drama.
David says, “This work involved creativity on an entirely new level. The agency literally turned an existing vehicle into SpongeBob’s Patty Wagon. I don’t have enough space here to go into the intricate detail of what that involved, bearing in mind that it needed to be able to legally drive on American roads. Needless to say, the job was full of hurdles, but we managed to get the Patty Wagon on the road (and legally!).”
Client: Uber
Agency: Kamp
Property: SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo
7) PGA Tour Superstore x Happy Gilmore
Born Licensing also contributed to bringing back the iconic Chubbs Peterson from Happy Gilmore in the 2023 campaign for America’s largest specialty golf retailer, PGA TOUR Superstore. Again, the brand and the agency effectively harnessed the great potential of a well-known character like Chubbs Peterson: the three 30” films managed to attract the emerging generation of golfers, while also appealing to the more seasoned ones. The campaign also won ‘Best Advertising Campaign Featuring a Licensed Brand’ at the 2024 Licensing International Excellence Awards.
David says, “Nostalgia is a theme across many of our most successful campaigns, and this is a great example of that. A character not seen since 1996 returning 27 years could be considered a risk. But the truth is that Chubbs and Happy Gilmore have reached iconic status, and it proved to be a unique and successful creative approach.”
Brand: PGA TOUR Superstore
Agency: Tombras
Property: Happy Gilmore
6) British Airways x Winnie The Pooh
This star-studded spot rolled out as a love letter to Britain for British Airways’ centennial anniversary. Featuring familiar faces such as Oscar winning actress Olivia Colman, Gary Oldman and anthropologist Jane Goodall, iconic British bear Winnie the Pooh also appears throughout the spot. Born Licensing managed the licensing of Winnie the Pooh on behalf of British Airways and Ogilvy London.
David says, “A centenary campaign for a brand like British Airways is a big moment to be involved with. What I loved about this was where most ads favour celebrities over characters, Ogilvy and British Airways saw the value in both. Of course, Winnie the Pooh should have played a role in this anniversary, and we were proud to be the ones to make it happen.”
Brand: British Airways
Agency: Ogilvy London
Property: Winnie The Pooh
5) Facebook x Rocky
Facebook wanted to ensure their first ever Super Bowl campaign packed a few punches, and did it ever! In a clever spot for their Facebook groups platform, they highlighted a number of groups related to the word ‘Rock’. The spot ends on the famous Rocky stairs with none other than Sylvester Stallone. It was a big success for Facebook, achieving 8.05% share of digital voice, almost 10 million online views and over 274 million social impressions. Born Licensing managed the licensing of Rocky for this campaign as licensing agent for Rocky’s Rights Holder MGM.
David says, “Leading up to this campaign we had something in common with Facebook – we had never worked on a Super Bowl campaign. This was a big moment for Born Licensing, as we were able to participate in advertising’s biggest event after previously only being able to watch enviously from the side lines.”
Brand: Facebook
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Portland
Property: Rocky
4) GEICO x Angry Birds
The 2021 spot by GEICO sees Red, Chuck, and Bomb from Angry Birds causing havoc in a couple’s backyard smashing into windows and breaking plant pots as a reminder to viewers that GEICO makes insurance easier. We love how GEICO mixed fantasy with reality bringing popular animation characters to real life settings. It came off the heels of two other GEICO campaigns in 2022 which featured famous characters: Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo Bear joining a BBQ and the Muppet’s Animal making a racket in someone attic.
David says, “There is popular debate around the effectiveness of creating owned brand characters compared to licensing existing popular characters. Although I’m clearly biased to favour the latter, what GEICO teaches us is that the answer could easily be ‘both’. GEICO have one of the most successful brand characters in the world with the GEICO Gecko, and yet they also truly understand the value in borrowing the goodwill of existing characters too.”
Brand: GEICO
Agency: The Martin Agency
Property: Angry Birds
3) Direct Line x Optimus Prime
Having previously enlisted Bumblebee from the Transformers, Donny and Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and RoboCop, Direct Line returned in the first of their 2022 follow up spots with Optimus Prime taking a road trip in the South of France. The Transformer is seen playing volleyball, snorkelling, enjoying a spa treatment, and skiing after Direct Line once again saves the day. The epic spot used original assets from the Transformers movie making the campaign a cinematic delight to watch.
David says, “The work we did with Direct Line and Saatchi & Saatchi London was an opportunity to really showcase our capabilities. The first campaign involved three x 60” spots, each starring an iconic character owned by a different Rights Holder. Each had a unique way of coming to life in the creative which represented a huge amount of work. Followed up by an extremely ambitious Optimus Prime script and then a campaign with Marvel’s King Valkyrie, we were really able to flex our muscles here.”
Client: Direct Line
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London
Property: Transformers
2) Moneysupermarket x Masters of the Universe
In 2017 Moneysupermarket were looking for new ways to bring that EPIC feeling of saving money to life. Alongside creative agency Mother London they decided on recruiting two iconic 80s characters: Skeletor and He-Man from Masters of the Universe for their famous ‘You’re So Moneysupermarket’ theme. After a successful first campaign featuring Skeletor, the agency hired Skeletor AND He-Man to take things one step further: this time, they recreated one of the most iconic dance scenes in movie history, using choreography from Dirty Dancing to the hit song (I’ve had) The Time of My Life. The spot generated over 27 million views in a matter of days and trended on Twitter across the UK three times. It really garnered the level of word of mouth that everyone was hoping for and resulted in a 6% uplift of total revenues for Moneysupermarket.
David says, “I think of Born Licensing as ‘before-Skeletor’ and ‘after-Skeletor’ because this work with Moneysupermarket changed our business overnight. After this moment it was a lot easier for agencies and brands to understand exactly what we do, because we had an enormously popular example of our work to point them to. It gave us the ultimate elevator pitch.”
Client: Moneysupermarket
Agency: Mother London
Property: Masters of the Universe
1) ASDA x Buddy the Elf
The hugely ambitious 2022 ‘Have your Elf a Merry Christmas’ campaign by Havas London involved rotoscoping Will Ferrell’s loved character, Buddy the Elf, from the 2003 movie, Elf, and placing him into a bustling ASDA store in the lead up to his favourite time of the year. Born Licensing were able to secure the first-ever license for Elf in marketing making it even more of a unique campaign. It's been recorded as the 'most emotionally effective' campaign ever tested by System1, it was voted ‘the nation’s favourite ad of 2022’ by ITV and System1, and has landed in Kantar’s top 3% of all UK ads for making people smile.
David says, “Christmas campaigns are always special, and we get particularly excited whenever a script comes our way that we know could really meet a moment. We immediately knew that if we could pull this off it would win Christmas. Not only did it do that, but it won the entire year.”
Client: ASDA
Agency: Havas London
Property: Buddy the Elf
It’s been an incredible 10 years and we’re truly proud of what we’ve accomplished over the last decade. A gratitude goes out to the agencies and brands who trusted us to bring their creative vision to life.
With so many projects under our belt, narrowing down our portfolio to ’10 Best Campaigns’ wasn’t an easy task. So below are five honourable mentions that we consider extremely strong and successful.
