JD Sports' Star Studded Christmas Spot Crowns the King of the Game

Today JD the leading retailer for youth fashion and sports brands unveils its highly-anticipated Christmas campaign – ‘King of the Game’.

Staying true to its roots, JD heroes the best in British youth culture, with this year’s campaign celebrating the spirit of competition and the magic of Christmas. With the Lioness’ celebrations still fresh and FIFA World Cup around the corner, JD has drawn inspiration from competition to create this year’s blockbuster festive campaign, inviting everyone to be king in their own chosen pursuit.

Premiering during Channel 4’s ‘Gogglebox’ from Friday 4th November, and running in over 800 cinemas nationwide from 11th November, the campaign features an impressive eclectic line-up of 32 superstars, from sport, entertainment, and music culture, including Kano, KSI, Anthony Joshua, slowthai, Jasmine Jobson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Created by creative agency Cake, the TVC is jam-packed with famous faces and soundtracked by Kano’s culture-defining grime track ‘P’s & Q’s’. The spot opens with a family Christmas shopping trip, featuring JD’s protagonist from last year, played by actor Cole Weallean-Watts. As the boredom kicks in, social media star Chunkz catches his eye and signals to an illuminated ‘JD Arcade’.

Entering a JD Arcade dreamworld, KSI and Tobi Brown can be spotted challenging each other on the dance machine, whilst British rappers Bugzy Malone, Knucks and Arrdee are seen battling it out on the air hockey table, alongside British boxing icon, Anthony Joshua. Top Boy’s Jasmine Jobson also makes a special appearance alongside Trent Alexander-Arnold, with a wealth of football talent, including Thiago Silva, Virgil van Dijk James Maddison, Harvey Elliott and Euro 2022 goal scorers Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly, visiting the JD Arcade to harness their competitive spirit.

Rap talent, Central Cee takes on the top score on the pinball machine, with slowthai and Ms Banks also appearing within the JD Arcade. Grime pioneer Kano makes a guest appearance, with cameos from other well-known figures including Amaria BB (music artist), Kojey Radical (Mercury Award nominated music artist), Ethan Matthews and Laurie Elle (TikTok stars), Fumez The Engineer (music producer), Ojerime (R&B artist), Harry Pinero (YouTuber & presenter), PK Humble (comedian), Snoochie Shy (presenter), Joanna Chimonides (TV personality), R.A.E (music artist) and Amelia Dimoldenberg (YouTuber & TV presenter).

The 30-second TVC will appear during key English Premier League and World Cup games, running in cinemas for six weeks nationwide. Its debut blockbuster appearance will be in trailers screened before ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ on the 11th November. During the Marvel film’s first week, the full length two-minute advert will preview in 68 selected cinemas so movie-goers can appreciate the mind-bending arcade experience in 4K with crisp surround sound. Consumers can also catch JD’s festive offering at other big-screen titles including Avatar, Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Inviting consumers to play against their friends and become ‘King of the Game’, the real life ‘JD Arcade’ will be rolled out via a tour of JD stores in Newcastle, London, West Midlands, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow, featuring classic arcade gaming machines as well as the JD Christmas App game. Consumers that spend in store will receive a token that gives them the chance to play, where instant prizes can be claimed and redeemed in time for Christmas.

Launching on 3rd November ‘King of the Game’ is one of JD's biggest OOH buys of the year. Expect to see Routemaster fully wrapped buses, taxi and tram takeovers and huge banners across key cities such as London, Dublin, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.

The two most anticipated sites include Westfield Stratford City’s unique double-sided bridge and Meridian steps, which will be transformed on Friday 11th November. Piccadilly Circus will then take centre stage on 14th November, featuring 3D visuals, created using Ocean’s proprietary DeepScreen technology,  to create a breath-takingly realistic scene from the commercial in the heart of Central London.

The TVC, supported by VOD, OOH and POS, has been created and delivered by creative agency Cake, part of the Vivendi-owned Havas Group.

Independent creative communications agency Exposure, has been appointed to deliver Communications and Experiences around the campaign launch. A neon-fuelled experiential launch event on Wednesday 2nd November in West London saw the ‘JD Arcade’ brought to life for the TVC cast, with content creators and media battling head-to-head, to find the ultimate ‘King of the Game’.

Nadia Kokni, global group marketing director, JD, comments, “JD has always been at the forefront of progressing youth culture. This year’s cast list demonstrates that JD takes pride in spotlighting and supporting talent that are pushing boundaries and hustling to be at the top of their game. The TVC brings to life the power of competition in a fun and festive way that everyone can relate to.

“Whether you’re performing on the professional stage, creating beats in your bedroom or competing with your friends for the freshest winter sportswear look; as the number one destination for sports fashion, JD is undisputed at Christmas and has you covered. We’re really excited to unveil ‘King of the Game’. The big question is, are you ready?”

Rosie Holden, chief executive officer at Cake, said, “Following the success of the Christmas 2021 campaign, this is the second year Cake has been asked by JD to deliver a culturally relevant creative concept. This has been another unique opportunity to bring together all of our strengths and thinking across culture, sport, music and entertainment to create another thoroughly modern Christmas campaign.”

The campaign has also been executed by JD’s partners including Mediacom and Peach.

The spot was directed by Rollo Jackson through Somesuch, with producer Elly Camisa. The campaign was created by Cake executive creative director Alex Groom, creative partner Lex Deasley, creative director Alistair Dixon and Katie Wood as agency producer.