Mission Christmas is the UK’s largest Christmas toy appeal, run by Bauer Media’s charity Cash for Kids. Every year it works to ensure that no child wakes up without a gift on Christmas morning, and because every penny raised stays local, support goes directly to families in the community where it is given.
B&M partnered with Cash for Kids and Hits Radio Advertising to power a region-wide Mission Christmas campaign. As one of the UK’s best-known value retailers, B&M brought a strong local store network and a team eager to get involved, while Hits Radio Advertising provided the trusted regional audio platform to amplify the appeal. Together, the partnership set out to drive gift and cash donations, raise B&M’s profile as a community-minded brand, and give colleagues and customers a cause they could genuinely rally behind.
The Brief
B&M wanted to turn its support for Mission Christmas into something bigger than a donation: a true partnership that worked for the business as well as the cause. The brief for the campaign focused on four clear objectives:
- Drive gift and cash donations for Cash for Kids across the UK.
- Build brand exposure for B&M during the busiest retail season of the year, across radio, social and on-air talent.
- Engage colleagues and stores, giving teams a meaningful, hands-on cause to get behind.
- Strengthen local reputation, positioning B&M as a visible, credible supporter of families in its communities.
Hits Radio Advertising was tasked with amplifying the appeal to a large local audience, using trusted regional audio to reach listeners during their day and point them towards B&M stores as drop-off points for gift donations.
The Execution
The campaign was built on a foundation of audio. Hits Radio Advertising produced a series of radio trails carrying the Mission Christmas message into cars, homes and workplaces throughout the festive run-up.
- A bank of radio trails voiced to drive awareness of the appeal and B&M’s role in it, scheduled across peak listening periods.
- Clear calls to action directing listeners to their local B&M store as a Mission Christmas gift drop-off point.
- On-air amplification building on the Bauer Media baseline media mix across Audio, Publishing and Outdoor, so B&M’s package took the appeal closer to reaching every child in need.
- Store and colleague activation, with B&M teams collecting gifts and rallying customers in-store, supported by the wider regional campaign.
B&M’s nationwide network is a crucial part of the campaign. Stores become local gift donation points throughout Mission Christmas, making it easy for customers to pick up extra presents while they shop and donate them before they leave.
That activity is amplified by the teams at Hits Radio and Greatest Hits Radio, bringing Mission Christmas to audiences through on-air storytelling, calls to action and plenty of festive fun. Last year, a rematch between Hits Radio Drivetime presenters Gemma Atkinson and Mike Toolan in the annual Mission Christmas trolley dash resulted in B&M donating an additional £22,500 worth of gifts.
And the impact of the partnership goes well beyond one Christmas. Since it began, more than two million children have received gifts donated through B&M stores.
By combining B&M’s high-street presence with the reach and trust of regional radio, the partnership made the appeal impossible to miss throughout the season.
Listen to the radios trails that targeted those in the West Midlands:
The Results
The 2025 Mission Christmas appeal was one of the biggest Christmas appeals ever run, showing exactly what can be achieved when businesses, listeners and communities come together.
For B&M, partnering with Mission Christmas delivered impact well beyond the donation total. The campaign generated brand exposure across radio, social and outdoor at the busiest time of the retail year, drove genuine colleague engagement, pride and morale in stores, and built the kind of local goodwill and trust that money alone cannot buy, turning B&M’s CSR commitment into a concrete, measurable story its customers could see and its people could feel.
Over the 12-year partnership with Bauer Media and Mission Christmas, B&M has raised a total of £115,204,518, helping 2,482,145 children across the UK. This is the perfect example of what partnering with the UK’s biggest toy appeal can do.
“We’re incredibly proud of our long-standing partnership with Cash for Kids, supporting Mission Christmas for the 12th year. It’s a campaign that means a huge amount to everyone at B&M, bringing our colleagues, customers and communities together to help make sure children across the UK can experience the magic of Christmas.
Over the past 12 years, we’ve seen first-hand the incredible difference the campaign makes to families who need it most, and we’re proud to use the scale of our store network to make it as easy as possible for our customers and colleagues to get involved. Whether it’s donating a gift in store, raising funds or helping to spread the word, every contribution plays a part.
Our partnership with Cash for Kids has become an important part of Christmas at B&M, and we’re delighted to once again be supporting their fantastic work and helping Mission Christmas reach even more children and families this year.”
Senior Brand & PR Manager at B&M
Are you ready to make Christmas magical this year?
When your business partners with Mission Christmas, you become part of that story.