L.L.Bean launched its 2026 holiday campaign, "Give Presence," on Nov. 2 with Day One Agency.
The campaign is Day One’s second holiday run for the retailer and its first under new leadership.
L.L.Bean named longtime executive Greg Elder as president and CEO in January 2026.
Day One went into this transition with test data on its side.
Its 2025 holiday spot ranked in the top 15% of U.S. ads for driving short-term sales in Zappi's consumer testing.
"Give Presence" is a quiet campaign of three films, each playing a voicemail from a loved one over a single unbroken shot.
They present the Bean Boot, the Boat and Tote, and Scotch Plaid flannels as gifts that lead to time together outside.
This focus on time outside comes straight from L.L.Bean's new brand positioning.
"Working with L.L. Bean on this work was the perfect culmination of two years of collaboration," Day One Agency Chief Creative Officer Jamie Falkowski told DesignRush.
"'Give Presence' gave us a way to do that while still staying true to the importance of the season."
Keeping the incumbent agency through a CEO change spares a brand the months that a new shop spends learning its customers.
Seasonal Work Wins a Brand Positioning Brief
Day One began working with L.L.Bean in January 2025.
Its first holiday campaign for the brand, "Invited to the Holidays Since 1912," stitched together found footage and family home videos.
Chief Marketing Officer Nick Wilkoff, credited on the 2025 campaign, stayed in his role through the CEO change.
Elder himself spent nearly two decades at L.L.Bean before taking the top job. The account also grew during the transition.
After the fall and holiday campaigns, Day One won a bigger project in early 2026 to rework the brand's overall positioning, Falkowski shares with us.
The new brand strategy celebrates L.L.Bean as an "outdoor original."
Day One tapped director Janssen Powers of RESET to shoot the three holiday films under this positioning.
"We knew from the first chat with him he was the right partner to bring this idea to life, even going so far as to play a real voicemail from a loved one to show his immediate understanding of what we wanted to achieve.
We worked closely to find that right formula for the voicemails, to insert clearly the relationship, the emotional hook, and value of the gift in each," Falkowski said.
Before the holiday push, Day One introduced Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and his wife, Ann Michael Maye, as L.L.Bean's newest Team Members.
Holiday is L.L.Bean's priority selling season, which makes "Give Presence" the first real test of the new positioning.
The campaign runs across linear and connected TV, with a heavy live sports presence.
It also reaches shoppers through social, creator partnerships, podcast live reads, stores, the catalog, and L.L.Bean.com.
When one agency owns both the positioning and the seasonal ads, a company strengthens its brand identity with each campaign, even through a leadership change.
Single Takes Keep the Gifts in the Frame
Day One also changed how it made the work this year.
Last year's spot came from Day One Studios, the agency's in-house production arm, with director Christina Xing.
Powers shot this year's films, with post-production staying at Day One Studios.
A girl spots the first snowfall through a frosty window and runs outside with her mother in L.L.Bean parkas.
A man walks his dog at dawn in a field coat and Bean Boots while his pregnant wife leaves a voicemail weighing baby names.
At a campfire, a voicemail from a man's brother says, "Mom would have loved this."
"As much as we wanted to celebrate their iconic boots, totes, sweaters, and jackets it was just as important to showcase what they can provide and open the doors to," Falkowski explained.
The single takes keep the gear in frame for the whole spot.
Day One kept strategy, creative, and finishing inside the agency and hired out the one role the format depended on.
A shared script formula lets an agency hand video production to an outside director and still keep the product message in every film.
Three lessons stand out for marketers deciding whether to keep and expand an agency relationship:
- Keep the client-side lead in place. A marketing chief who stays through a CEO change keeps the agency relationship and its working knowledge of the brand intact.
- Map which roles the agency owns. Ask which parts of the work an agency makes itself and which it hires out, alongside the usual agency selection questions.
- Check the work against outside testing. Independent ad testing scores creative against category norms and gives a brand its own read on an agency before renewal.
Cover all three, and the renewal call gets a lot easier.
Our Take: Can a Likable Holiday Ad Lift Purchase Intent?
Two testing firms read Day One's 2025 holiday spot very differently.
Zappi measured a 38% purchase uplift for the spot, well above its 22% norm.
iSpot tested the 30-second cut and put purchase intent at 41%, below the 55% scored by L.L.Bean's top 2024 holiday spot.
iSpot blamed the gap on weak product focus, even though the ad hit the 98th percentile for likability.
We don't doubt a likable ad can lift purchase intent, as long as viewers can tell what's for sale.
The voicemail formula Day One wrote with Powers spells out each gift's value, which is the fix iSpot asked for.
Elder wants $2 billion in revenue by 2030, so Day One's next renewal should ride on gift-shop sales of the boots, totes, and flannels.
Any agency that wants to keep a retail account should walk into its next review with sales data next to its test scores.
Data is how an agency earns the partner status that Noble CEO Jarrod Lopiccolo says clients book as an investment.
Reviewing your agency roster before a renewal? Explore these top creative agencies in our directory.
