Description
Chelsea FC has today switched on That's Proper Chels, its Christmas 2026 campaign, created by creative agency TILL DAWN and built on a strategy devised by brand consultancy ICONIC.
Rather than releasing just another Christmas ad, Chelsea has turned itself into a Christmas TV-style network, with its own weather, phone-in, shopping channel and ad breaks, all selling the club's Christmas range.
Fans got the outtakes first: fourth-wall breaks, asides to camera, players corpsing and the behind-the-scenes footage most other campaigns leave out. The full programme arrives at the end, once fans have spent days living inside it. The glimpses fans see across the campaign reflect the nature of Christmas itself - it's a period of time, not just a day and fans are pulled in to a different element with each activation maximising intrigue and impact.
Underpinning the campaign is a commitment to making a positive difference. A percentage of sales from the club's festive range will be donated to Chelsea Foundation and its charity partners, helping to fund work that tackles loneliness and social isolation across London and the communities surrounding the club. Since launching its festive campaign in 2024, over £280,000 has been granted to organisations tackling loneliness and homelessness across southwest London and Surrey through festive product sales, supporter donations and community fundraising. Supporters have also played a vital role through annual gift donation drives, with more than 3,200 presents donated and distributed to those in need last Christmas alone.
The Chelsea Christmas schedule is aptly stacked; Jolie Sharpe sells the festive range QVC-style, Jason Cundy brings sports radio phone-in mayhem, João Pedro answers fans in Ask João, and Cole Palmer delivers the weather as cold as ever. His bromance with Morgan Rogers is tested to breaking point as the pair go head to head in Christmas jumpers. Players from across the men's and women's squads, including Levi Colwill, Katie McCabe, Ellie Carpenter and Alyssa Thompson, all get their slot.
Scott Fenton at Chelsea FC, said: "That's Proper Chels celebrates the nostalgia, humour and community spirit that make Chelsea unique at Christmas. While the campaign is designed to entertain supporters, it also has a meaningful purpose at its heart. Through Chelsea Foundation and its charity partners, we're proud to once again support people experiencing loneliness and social isolation, harnessing the power of the Chelsea community to make a difference during the festive season."
James Kirkham, founder at ICONIC, said: "Fans watch football flicking between clips, streams, reactions and live shopping within the same phone, so this Christmas Chelsea broadcasts everywhere all at once. You find it in pieces, channel-hop your way through a different clip or show on every platform, and it brings back that can't-wait wanting of circling the xmas catalogue - before it all turned into cardboard boxes on the doorstep."
Craig Stronach, founder at TILL DAWN, said: "We shot it like a live network with every camera rolling, so the corpsing, the asides and the looks off to the AD are as much the show as the show. Fans get those first, then a flood of channels, then the whole thing. This digital approach compliments perfectly the catalogue-like craft photographic style where premium meets nostalgia, with a certain Chelsea cultural cool"
That's Proper Chels is Chelsea FC's third campaign with TILL DAWN and ICONIC, following the multi-award-winning London, It's Our House, which won a Gold Clio Sports award, and Can't Tame Us, which saw Gymskin and Madonna dancing in a ‘leaked’ Chelsea kit this spring. The Christmas range is available now at the Chelsea Megastore and chelseafc.com.
This professional campaign titled 'That's Proper Chels' was published in United Kingdom in November, 2026. It was created for the brand: Chelsea FC, by ad agencies: Iconic and Till Dawn. This Film medium campaign is related to the Sports industry and contains 3 media assets. It was submitted 17 minutes ago.