Revealing a holiday secret
Guldägget Nominee
Challenge
Every year, Nordiska Kompaniet unveils its Christmas window displays along Hamngatan in Stockholm. The reveal has become a well-established tradition that draws large crowds and is widely perceived as the informal start of the Christmas season in the city.
Because the event is already an established annual institution, the communication challenge was not awareness but renewal. The campaign needed to reinforce the significance of the unveiling while offering a fresh narrative perspective on a ritual that repeats annually.
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Solution
The concept was built around a simple narrative insight: if the unveiling of the Christmas windows marks the beginning of the holiday season in Stockholm, there must be a mechanism that actually starts it.
The campaign introduced the fictional idea of a hidden Christmas machine located somewhere beneath the department store—an unseen device that lies dormant throughout the year until the moment the windows are revealed.
This narrative was visualized in a full-spread print advertisement published in Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. The illustration suggested a vast mechanical structure hidden beneath the building, implying that the festive atmosphere of the city is activated from within the store itself.
By presenting the unveiling as the activation of this imagined machine, the campaign reframed a familiar tradition as the visible result of an unseen seasonal engine.
Outcome
The print campaign reinforced the cultural status of the Christmas window unveiling at Nordiska Kompaniet by introducing a narrative that expanded the meaning of the event.
Rather than simply announcing the annual reveal, the campaign contributed a layer of mythology — suggesting that the department store plays a hidden role in initiating the holiday season across Stockholm.
The work was nominated at Guldägget, Sweden’s national advertising and design awards.
Role
Concept development and art direction.
Client: Nordiska Kompaniet
Agency: Cole, Russel & Pryce
Photography: Åsa Tällgård
Set design & retouch: Fido Film
Awards: Nominering Guldägget
