Twix Campaign: The Secret Power of Licensed Characters in Advertising

Why do some ads become unforgettable… while others disappear instantly?

In this episode of Born to License, David breaks down one of the most powerful tools in modern advertising: licensed characters.

Using the latest Twix campaign as a starting point, this episode explores why brands are increasingly turning to iconic characters — from Rick and Morty to Wallace and Gromit — to create instant recognition, emotional connection, and cultural impact.

Because when you use a character people already love, you’re not starting from zero — you’re tapping into decades of built-in awareness.

In this episode:

🎯 Why licensed characters work so well in advertising

• Instant recognition and emotional connection
• Borrowing decades of audience familiarity
• Why brands don’t need to “build” awareness from scratch

🔥 Real campaign case studies

• Twix’s “iconic duos” campaign
• Buddy the Elf and the UK’s #1 ad of 2022
• He-Man & Skeletor going viral for MoneySuperMarket
• Direct Line’s use of Transformers, RoboCop & Ninja Turtles
• Sainsbury’s and The BFG as a long-term brand asset

📈 What the data proves

• Higher brand recall and emotional engagement
• Massive increases in social reach and cultural conversation
• Measurable impact on sales and market share

🧠 The key takeaway

 It’s not about choosing the biggest character —

 it’s about choosing the right one.

When licensing is done right, it’s not just a creative add-on.

 It becomes the engine behind the entire campaign.

If you work in marketing, licensing, brand strategy, or advertising, this episode will change how you think about using IP.

🎙 Born to License – Hosted by David Born

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Transcript

Something landed this week that I wanted to take a moment to talk about on the podcast. Twix. Yes, the chocolate bar brand. Twix just launched a brand new out of home campaign in the UK and it's brilliant. The concept is simple. They took one half of iconic duos and put them on posters. Rick without Morty, Wallace without Gromit, Laurel without Hardy. No taglines needed. Your brain does the work instantly. Now, of course, all those characters had to be licensed. The campaign wouldn't have existed, couldn't have existed without securing the rights to those ip. I know this because the team at Born Licensing managed the licensing from start to finish. The campaign perfectly illustrates something I've believed for a long time and that the data keeps proving. Famous characters are one of the most powerful tools in advertising. 

 So today that's what I want to dig into. The why, the how and the proof. I'm David Born and this is born to license. When a brand creates its own character from scratch, think the compare the market meerkats or the Geico Gecko. They have to build awareness from zero. It takes time and it takes money and takes a lot of both of those things. When you license a famous character, you're borrowing decades of awareness. You, you're tapping into something that already lives in the audience's memory. The recognition happens in a split second. Think about what Asda did in 2022. They licensed Buddy the Elf, a character from a 2003 Will Ferrell movie, for their Christmas campaign. Elf had never been licensed for brand marketing before. Again, the Bourne licensing team were the ones to make that first happen. The result was incredible. 

 System one named it the nation's favorite ad of 2022. That's right. Not only did it win Christmas, but it was the number one ad of that year. The whole year. It achieved a perfect 5.9 stars on their prediction model for long term market share growth. The fluency rating, which measures how strongly people connect the ad to the brand, was 100. And it sat in the top 3% of all UK ads ever tested by Kantar for at making people smile. Why? Because the moment Buddy appeared, people felt something. They felt warmth, they felt joy, they felt nostalgia. It was already there, fully foamed, loaded and ready to fire. Now, the second reason characters are so powerful is fandom. When a brand uses a famous character, the fans of that character become unpaid advocates for the campaign. 

 The clearest example I have of this is the Money, Supermarket, he man and Skeletor campaign. Mother London approached the Bourne licensing team wanting to Mash up Masters of the Universe characters with an iconic Hollywood dancing moment. That moment, of course, was Dirty Dancing. The campaign premiered in front of over 6 million viewers during the X Factor. Within days at 27 million views and Money Supermarket's Twitter mentions went from 100 day to 35,000 an hour. Now I have to repeat that just in case you didn't catch it. The advertisers mentions on Twitter went from 100 to a day to 35,000 an hour. It went viral because Masters the Universe fans, Dirty Dancing fans, and everyone who just thought it was really funny all went and talked about it. 

 The campaign did 6% revenue uplift for money supermarket was voted the number seven out of the year by Campaign magazine and won Best License Promotion at the Lemur Awards. And people still bring it up to me almost a decade later. So that is the definition of cultural staying power. Here's the thing though. Not every character works for every brand. The magic happens when there's a genuine fit between the character's world and the brand's message. Look at Directline. They had Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolf for Pulp Fiction, running for six years. It worked brilliantly. Wolf was the ultimate fixer, someone you can call when things go wrong. When Directline needed a refresh, their agency, Sachin Sachi, came to us and asked us to find new characters who embodied the same idea of speed, efficiency and problem solving as Direct Line themselves. 

 The Bourne licensing team presented over 150 characters. Slowly but surely, the list whittled its way down and they landed on three incredible characters. Bumblebee from Transformers, Robocop and Donatello from the Ninja Turtles. The campaign was 20% more effective at driving quotes and sales than their previous campaign, which was a lot because their previous campaign was enormously successful. Advertising recognition of 53% against the Kantar norm of 33%. And it won the Grand Prix at Marketing Week Masters. A brilliant result by any measure. Or we could also take a look at PGA Tour Superstore and Happy Gilmour's coach, Chubbs Peterson. Their creative agency said it perfectly. There's an entire generation of golfers for whom Chubbs was the first golf pro they ever encountered. The brand's new tagline was golf's happy place. And Chubbs is literally the character who tells Happy Gilmore to find his happy place. 

 The fit was so clean that the campaign won Best Advertising Campaign featuring a Licensed Brand at the 2024 Licensing International Excellence Awards and then the Sainsbury's and the BFG. They've partnered with that character for two years running now. Their first campaign for Christmas 2024 bought the first Sainsbury's ad ever to score a maximum of 5.9 stars on System 1. Kantar named them the winner of Christmas 2024, so sales were up 3.5% and the highest market share since December 2019. Incredible results. In 2025, they came back with the BFG again introduced the greedy giant scored 5.9 stars again. And system one has a specific term for when a character becomes so associated with a brand that it generates compounding returns. They call it fluent devices. The BFG is now a fluent device for Sainsbury's at Christmas. 

 That's what happens when the character fit is right and you have the discipline to stick with it. So what are the takeaways here? First, the awareness is already built. When you license a famous character, you're not starting from zero on emotional connection. You're borrowing something the audience already loves. Second, fandom creates amplification. The right character brings its own community. People who will share, talk about it and remember the campaign because they care about the character, not just your brand. Third, fit matters more than fame. The BFG isn't necessarily a Christmas character. Chubbs Peterson isn't necessarily a household name. But both worked because the fit between the character's world and the brand story was right. Don't just chase the biggest ip, chase the right IP for your campaign. And finally, going back to Twix, look at what they did this week. 

 They didn't just license characters, they built their entire campaign concept around the power of the duo. The characters weren't decoration, they were the idea. And when you get licensing right, it's not a bolt on, it's the creative engine. So that's it for today's episode. If this is something you're thinking about for your brand or a client, reach out to the born licensing team at. Contact bornlicensing.com if you want to contact the podcast, you can do so by emailing hellorntolicence. As always, you can catch me on Instagram, LinkedIn. I'm on substack now and now I also have my own website where I share my thoughts on the licensing world. Check that out@thedavidbourne.com if you found this useful, please subscribe and recommend the show to a friend or colleague. I'd really appreciate it. I'm David Born and this is Born to License.