Christmas is a special time of year, old traditions centered around core family values, enforced by mothers and aunts asking why you don´t have a girlfriend. “When Harry met Santa” is a film that uproot this family norm through love, and aims to modernize tradition by provocative use of our most iconic Christmas character. Promoting same sex relationships, fighting ageism and sparking discussion about tradition on a global scale. Making Christmas more inclusive and offer a glimpse of hope to people all over the world who might have given up hope on love due to age or sexuality.

The right to love whomever you want is a fundamental human right, and is not considered a political issue in free democratic societies in 2021, and truly so in Norway. However, this is not the case in many countries around the world.

The Norwegian Postal Service has connected people for 375 years, and will continue to do so regardless of orientation or gender identity. A fight that is truly a matter of the heart and boundaryless. Insights showed that representation from large public or private corporation is key to obtain equality. Everyone around the world should feel welcome, seen, heard, and included.

This year’s Christmas Campaign embraces this.

What we needed last year was a heartfelt love story. A celebration of the fact that we can love whomever we want in Norway, despite everything bad that happens around the world.

Because, on the 17th of June 2022, it is fifty years since the decriminalization of homosexuality i Norway.

For the majority of us, Christmas is a time we spend with those we love, and we wanted to show that love belongs to everyone, regardless of orientation, age, or whether you live on the North Pole.

So, we made a story about how Posten made love possible, at the same time as we marked the anniversary in 2022 when it is 50 years since it became legal to love whomever you want in Norway.

Posten has had a challenge reaching urban 18-39 year olds. Many of them do not have a long historical relationship with Posten and are happy to use other services to send parcels. The competition has increased, especially in the cities, and the options for sending and receiving packages at Christmas are countless.

So, how can a 375-year-old company appear innovative, relevant and an actor that simplifies everyday life for a discerning target group with many choices?

It all starts with a brave customer who has realized that breaking with the category in terms of marketing gives the greatest results. Focus on differentiation gave previous campaigns an almost exponential increase in efficiency. The more we separated Posten from other campaigns at Christmas, the more efficient it became. We saw that if Posten wanted to create an effect with relatively low market budgets, the safest alternative was to take the biggest risk.

The 4-minute short film (ad) was released online on YouTube the week before Black Friday - the 19th of November 2021, and was supported by a press release to selected media i Europe and the US. The rest went viral.

"When Harry met Santa" has, according to calculations from Google, reached over 1,2 billion people in 150 countries across the globe. It was praised for its interpretation of Santa Claus as gay, and the four-minute Christmas Ad has been viewed over 2.5 million times on YouTube, gone viral in all social media on all continents, and received the attention of tens of thousands of media worldwide.

The film has been loved and shared by LGBTQ+ communities around the world, and shows how important representation is for integration, diversity and equality.

The campaign has also created record breaking effects on all parameters, from brand building and positioning, to knowledge building and sales. Never before has Posten experienced anything like this.

The great international attention has lifted the campaign nationally and given attention far beyond what can be expected.