GPT Group and Fabric, part of TBWA\Australia, have launched a Christmas campaign that skips the glossy ideal. Across GPT’s 16 shopping centres, ‘For the Love of Christmas’ runs a series of short skits about the season going sideways: forgotten presents, kitchen disasters, and children who refuse to cooperate for the perfect Santa photo.
The tone is warm and light. Each skit ends on a small payoff that reframes the mishap as part of the memory. Rather than telling shoppers to chase a flawless holiday, the campaign gives them permission to enjoy the real one.
Why this cuts through
Christmas retail advertising is crowded with polished family moments. GPT and Fabric have flipped that. The creative platform is deliberately imperfect, and that makes it more recognisable.
- It is built to scale: the same idea works across 16 centres without losing its voice.
- It uses tension and humour to earn attention, not just impressions.
- It positions GPT centres as places that help customers navigate seasonal chaos, from gift hunting to entertaining kids.
National retail campaigns often fall into one of two traps. They either produce a single film that feels generic across every centre, or they scatter local offers and lose the brand. GPT’s platform works because the central truth, Christmas never goes to plan, stays fixed while the execution can be adapted.
What marketers can take from it
Melissa Prpic, Head of Digital and Marketing, Retail at GPT, said the campaign recognises that the season rarely goes to plan and aims to capture it in a warm, relatable way. That is the strategic shift: the brand is not selling an escape from reality, it is selling help inside the reality shoppers already know.
Keenan Motto, Co-Founder and Creative Partner at Fabric, said: “the mess, mishaps and madness aren’t interruptions to Christmas, they’re part of what makes it memorable.” For marketers, the lesson is to find the unglamorous but recognisable moment, then build a scalable idea around it.
Use it before December
If your seasonal campaign still looks like every other brand’s, look for the specific friction your customers joke about. Write it as a short, repeatable scene. Then let the product or store be the small fix at the end, not the hero of the ad.
GPT’s approach shows a retail brand can be distinctive by being a little less polished and a lot more true.
Source: Campaign Brief
