AdMiration feature: L.L.Bean’s “Invited to the Holidays Since 1912"

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to L.L.Bean’s “Invited to the Holidays Since 1912" ad, released just ahead of the holidays as part of their 2025 Christmas campaign. 

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to an iconic holiday scene from Christmas Vacation that shows actor Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold donning his blue flannel and lifting a Santa Claus beard to his face in the mirror as the doorbell rings. 

With a drumbeat, the play of the guitar and the L.L.Bean logo, the scene shifts to show a montage of other holiday moments captured with family and friends through either found home video footage from years ago to newer videos likely shot on iPhones or polaroid snapshots to recent digital moments — all capturing memories of loved ones together on the holidays, complete with their L.L.Bean flannels.

The ad closes with more polaroid photos atop a wooden surface with the L.L.Bean logo and words: Invited to the Holidays Since 1912. 

3 facts

• This is a strong Christmas ad from L.L.Bean, landing in the top 15% of US ads for ability to drive short term sales (Sales Impact: 88) and the top 25% of US ads for ability to drive brand equity over the long term (Brand Impact: 79). 

• The spot resonates strongly with viewers, making them feel a lot of love, nostalgia and holiday cheer (Overall Emotion: 69 vs. 57 norm), while also clearly communicating L.L.Bean’s key message and celebration of their timeless connection to the holidays among families and friends since 1912, with some sharing: “I like how the ad showed different generations celebrating holidays together all connected by the same brand” and "It brought cherished memories back. The choice of clothing was also great. It looked comfortable, something you'd wear when surrounded by family."

• This combination of real family memories and instillation of trust for the brand that is ever-present in these scenes helps drive considerable purchase uplift for L.L.Bean (Purchase Uplift: 38% vs. 22% norm) during a peak time of year for the retailer. 

2 learnings

• Nostalgia is a great way to connect with your audience. Nostalgia works really well for Christmas ads. Showing people celebrating, enjoying traditions and family time creates a nostalgic mood that works very effectively during this season. And right off the bat, L.L.Bean hits viewers with a wave of nostalgia with the scene of Clark Griswold holding up the Santa beard in the mirror. But this only grows as the montage of found footage and photographs begin to play out — bringing older audiences in particular back to simpler times spent with friends and family during this time of year.

• Keeping it simple can still have an impact, even during the holidays! Some Christmas ads have big budgets and can come across like mini movies with a complete story, fleshed out characters, impressive sets and costumes. But you don’t always have to go big to evoke strong emotions among viewers. In this case, L.L.Bean keeps it simple but still packs an emotional punch, making viewers feel the love (Love: 38% vs. 27% norm) through the found footage of families and friends getting together in their L.L.Bean flannels, as well as tell their story and deliver it with precision in under a minute.  

1 reflection

Is it more powerful to show or tell viewers that your brand is one they can turn to? When done right, simply showing how a product has been a trusted go-to over the years in your advertising can be a very effective way to implicitly communicate higher order benefits and an emotional connection towards a brand, which leads to strong purchase intent, predisposition and warmth towards the brand. 

In this case, L.L.Bean tapped into a truly authentic way to communicate its value — by implicitly showing how their flannels have been and continue to be a holiday season staple in people’s lives. They illustrated this beautifully through real footage and photographs taken over the years to create a truly heart-warming ad that did not even require a voiceover to drive their message home! 

This translates to strong perceptions of high quality, trust, comfort and a perfect gift for the holidays, generating a strong purchase uplift of 38% (significantly higher than the norm of 22%) for L.L.Bean. 

L.L.Bean’s Christmas spot was created with Day One Agency as part of their 2025 holiday campaign also titled Invited to the Holidays Since 1912.

The campaign highlights the brand’s history as a holiday constant through actual found footage and photos such as kids opening their Christmas gifts under the tree in their flannel pajamas to friends reuniting in the cold donning flannel shirts, all from L.L.Bean, for over a century.  

Nick Wilkoff, CMO at L.L.Bean, shares: “L.L.Bean has always been part of life’s everyday moments, but the holidays hold a special kind of magic. Invited to the Holidays Since 1912 celebrates that timeless connection and the role flannel plays in it. It’s more than a fabric for us; it’s a thread that runs through generations of gatherings, traditions, and memories.”

Jamie Falkowski, chief creative officer at Day One Agency, adds: “Holiday advertising often tries to outdo itself with bigger productions and louder moments. We went the other way: less flash, more human. This campaign has been in the making for decades, through family photos, films, and traditions. It’s a celebration of those real moments that connect us, generation after generation.”

The campaign will be released across TV, social media, digital, radio and print, as well as a pop-up activation in New York through November 30th.

Filling viewers with the warmth of holiday nostalgia from Christmases past, this spot from L.L.Bean landed in the top 15% of US ads for ability to drive short term sales and the top 25% in ability to drive brand equity over the long term (Sales Impact: 88, Brand Impact: 79). 

Using a lot of found footage and photographs from the 90s and earlier, it’s no surprise this ad resonated even stronger with adults 45 and older — who may fondly remember the flannel-filled glow from those earlier holidays (Sales Impact: 95, Brand Impact: 87).

The inclusion of L.L.Bean’s flannels, particularly in the opening scene with Clark Griswold and then within the montage that followed, made for a very distinctive ad that stands out, allowing it to drive great reach and be noticed and remembered (Distinctiveness: 3.8 vs. 3.7 norm, Claimed Attention 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm, Brand Distinctiveness 3.8 vs. 3.7 norm). 

In fact, the L.L.Bean logo and the all the flannel worn throughout the ad is primarily how people recognized the brand in the ad. Among the whole audience, Unaided Brand Recall is on par with the average US ad (Unaided Brand Recall: 74% vs. 70%), but again is unsurprisingly much higher for adults 45 and older (Unaided Brand Recall: 87% vs. 80%). 

The message that is simply shown (not told) that L.L.Bean flannels are a holiday season constant strongly resonates with audiences. They really enjoy it (Enjoyment: 4.2 vs. 3.9 norm), find it relevant (Relevance: 3.9 vs. 3.7 norm) and easy to understand (Understanding: 4.5 vs. 4.3 norm).

Even as a shorter ad with essentially no spoken dialogue, the ad still conveys key things about the L.L.Bean brand. After watching the ad, nearly two thirds (64%) said the ad conveyed that L.L.Bean was “comfortable,” 57% said it was “for everyone” and 53% said it was a “trusted brand” — just what a retail brand would hope to see during a peak time of year; in this case, the holiday season! And those percentages are even higher among adults over 45, with an incredible 73% saying that it conveys that the brand is “comfortable,” perhaps triggering warm and cozy memories of wearing the flannels during the holidays.  

On top of that, L.L.Bean’s warm, nostalgia-fueled message about the longevity of the brand comes through very clearly to viewers, with some people remembering the message as:

• “Gifting their products at Christmas time since 1912. Very nostalgic.” 

• “The LL Bean has been around for decades and is a good brand.” 

• “It was trying to convey warmth, nostalgia, brand history and family.”

This combination of nostalgia and family memories really resonated with viewers, making people feel something (Overall Emotion: 69 vs. 57 norm), especially love! (Love: 38% vs. 27% norm). 

The ad begins with a small burst of love as viewers see a short snippet of the movie Christmas Vacation, followed by the biggest spike of likes as the first found footage scene and “L.L.Bean” appears onscreen. A mix of love and like continues through the found footage but with more like than love, until love overtakes like when we see the family decorating the tree together and the next scene of the people dancing in their kitchen. The biggest spike of love and laughter occurs when the little kid in L.L.Bean pajamas says “Who is that? Santa?” And finally it’s love through the end of the ad when “L.L.Bean: Invited to the Holidays Since 1912” comes onscreen and we see the different pictures of the couple in L.L.Bean flannel.

Diving deeper into what viewers specifically like about this ad, the most common themes among respondents were the people and characters (15%), emotional appeal (13%) and visuals (7%) — indicating that the ad connects personally and emotionally with the audience and they appreciated the found footage. 

Here’s what some people had to say: 

• “It was full of nostalgia and heartwarming moments. The music was great and the characters were great. It made me think of things about the holiday growing up. I loved the retro desk, it looked just like my grandparent's desk. Love it."

• "What I like about the ad is its warm and inviting atmosphere of love and xmas. The family scene, the laughter and joyful moments create a cozy vibe that makes the ad relatable. The focus on comfort and festive moments also is relatable."

• “I love flannel anything, this ad definitely did the job in grabbing my attention! Also showing the variety from pjs to jackets to bundle up in."

• "I liked the family dancing together and the dad showing his Santa beard. I especially liked the little guy asking ‘Is it Santa?’"

• "I like how the ad showed different generations celebrating holidays together all connected by the same brand."

• "I liked everything from the family wearing matching outfits taking a family photo to the family video with another family to all the photos shown, everything was just wholesome. I loved it."

• "I liked the photos, and the home video footage. It brought cherished memories back. The choice of clothing was also great. It looked comfortable, something you'd wear when surrounded by family."

All of this ultimately led to increased purchase consideration for L.L.Bean (Purchase Uplift: 38% vs. 22% norm)! A true win for a retail brand advertising during the holiday season.

What a wonderfully warm and nostalgic holiday spot from L.L.Bean! What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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