BackLEGO Agency Puts 2-Week-Old Daft Punk Deal to Work in Holiday Ad
'The Greatest Showman' director Michael Gracey helms the 'One More Time' spot, with Keep It Stupid Simple returning on creative.
The LEGO Group put its new Daft Punk partnership on screen in time for the holiday season.
Just 14 days after announcing the deal, the company debuted a Christmas ad featuring the French electronic duo.
Created by Our LEGO Agency (OLA), with Copenhagen creative shop Keep It Stupid Simple, the 74-second film is directed by Michael Gracey.
The director previously helmed "The Greatest Showman" and "Better Man."
Set to Daft Punk's "One More Time," the film follows a single LEGO brick through a secret holiday workshop.
Along the way, it encounters characters from across the LEGO universe, including Thor, Doctor Doom, E.T., and Derpy Tiger from "KPop Demon Hunters."
The production follows LEGO's Oct. 22 announcement of a wider partnership with Daft Punk.
View this post on Instagram
The agreement covers products, content, and brand experiences, with an official LEGO Ideas set based on the duo's 2007 Alive tour also entering development.
OLA's involvement also offers a useful case study in how brands organize creative work.
LEGO maintains an in-house agency while bringing back external specialists for major campaigns.
Genevieve Hoey, senior director of global creative at OLA, said the team wanted to capture the joy of giving and the temptation to keep a gift.
"Finding the perfect gift isn't easy. But that's the beauty of LEGO creativity. So many worlds, so many passions, and something for everyone.
The only hard part? Giving it away. Trust us, we get it," she said in a press release.
Source: The LEGO Group
Hoey also described the collaboration with Gracey and Daft Punk as a way to bring extra magic to the holiday season.
In-house creative operations and repeat agency relationships get the spotlight at a time when brands are reassessing who should lead their marketing work.
OLA Reunites with Keep It Stupid Simple for Holiday Season
The 74-second film opens with Daft Punk minifigures racing through the snow toward a glowing yellow door.
LEGO F1 ACADEMY driver Esmee Kosterman and Yeti characters join them.
Inside the workshop, a single 2x4 LEGO brick passes through several departments.
The Northern Lights, Heroes, Vehicles, and Music teams each add their own creative contribution.
Thor, Doctor Doom, and Mystique use their powers in the Heroes department.
View this post on Instagram
In Vehicles, engineer minifigures and unicorns give the brick a racing upgrade.
Daft Punk then sends it dancing above an LED pyramid stage that nods to the duo's Alive 2007 tour.
The journey ends with the brick packaged as a gift.
But the workshop crew struggles to say goodbye, eventually following it to a family's home and joining the celebration.
Gracey said he liked the idea of a secret world behind a door, where a single LEGO brick could connect characters from different universes.
"At its heart, it's an idea I've always believed in," the director added.
"That there's something incredibly joyful about making something with your own hands."
This is a returning relationship for the Copenhagen shop.
Keep It Stupid Simple also earned creative agency credit on LEGO's 2025 holiday ad, set to a choir remix of Lionel Richie's "Hello."
The 2026 roster adds Partizan and LOVEBOAT on production, Framestore on post-production, and Publicis One on media.
The wider campaign includes seven 15-second films focused on Adventure, Discovery, Gaming, Nature, New Stories, LEGO Pokémon, and Vehicles.
LEGO is also extending the creative into its retail stores through holiday workshops, interactive displays, and building activities.
Source: The LEGO Group
Its New York and London flagship stores are recreating the workshop with immersive storefront displays.
Short films and in-store workshops stretch one holiday ad across feeds and shop floors, where experiential marketing earns its budget.
LEGO Survey Finds 24% of Parents Buy Sets for Themselves
LEGO's 2026 holiday campaign also draws on research into how parents and children share the experience of building together.
A September 2026 survey of 11,001 parents across 11 countries found that 89% wish they spent more time playing with their families.
Also, 24% have bought a LEGO set as a gift, partly because they wanted to enjoy it themselves.
Nineteen percent even bought a second set to keep for themselves, and 11% kept a LEGO set because it was too difficult to give away.
LEGO's survey backs up the film's punchline with numbers, which hands PR and retail teams a ready-made hook.
Proprietary data like this gives a holiday brand strategy a second news cycle after the ad drops.
Brands reviewing their marketing strategy can take three lessons from LEGO's agency relationships:
Keep Reliable External Creative Partners
Brands should retain proven specialist agencies when their expertise complements internal teams and supports recurring campaign needs.
Keep It Stupid Simple received creative agency credit on both LEGO's 2025 holiday campaign and its 2026 Christmas ad.
Give In-House Teams Clear Creative Ownership
Brands should define which decisions internal teams own and where external partners contribute to avoid fragmented creative direction.
OLA's 2026 credits include global creative leadership, creative direction, strategy, production, and project management roles.
Connect Partnership Rights to Campaign Planning
Brands should coordinate licensing, creative production, and media planning early to get more value from major entertainment partnerships.
LEGO's Oct. 22 Daft Punk announcement covered products, content, and brand experiences, with further developments planned for 2027.
LEGO's model provides a practical framework for combining internal creative leadership, established agency relationships, and partnership marketing.
Our Take: Can LEGO's Agency Model Scale?
LEGO keeps brand strategy and creative direction inside OLA, then calls in Keep It Stupid Simple, Partizan, and Framestore to make the holiday film.
We'd say LEGO's hybrid agency model scales, as long as the company keeps rehiring the same few specialists.
A shop that already knows the brand makes a 14-day turnaround on a brand-new license far more realistic.
LEGO already rotates directors each year, with Alaska on the 2024 Cataclaws film, Steve Ayson in 2025, and Gracey in 2026.
Keep It Stupid Simple stayed on for the last two, which keeps the brand's voice steady while each film gets a new look.
The agency says it takes on only a small handful of clients at a time, which caps how much LEGO work one boutique can absorb.
Brands copying the setup should keep strategy in-house and lock one or two outside shops into repeat seasonal contracts.
Amazon's in-house team also launched its "Joy Delivered" holiday film this week, set to a bespoke rendition of The Beatles' "Golden Slumbers."
Source: Design Rush