Tesco and Lidl’s festive ads channel the quirky personas of modern Britain

Tapping into the values and quirky personalities of the British public is the strategy being pursued by both Lidl and Tesco as they look to win a greater share of consumer spend this Christmas.

Discounter Lidl is looking to highlight its relevance to the British public by portraying the eclectic “festive personas” that emerge during the Christmas period. From the ‘Mince Pie Maverick’ and the ‘Cheeseboard Champion’ to the ‘Pudding Perfectionist’, the light-hearted TV campaign aims to tap into the different Christmas “tribes” the British public inhabit throughout the festive season.

Created by TBWA\London, the campaign is also focused on showcasing the supermarket’s range of festive food under the ‘Every Lidl Thing For Christmas’ slogan. Debuting during ITV’s Coronation Street on 3 November, the 20-second TV adverts will be on screens throughout the holidays, with a fully integrated Christmas campaign also being rolled out across radio, press, online, digital outdoor, social and point of sale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZJwGz2_TAE

“Our campaign ‘Every Lidl Thing For Christmas’ has been developed to showcase the fantastic breadth of food and drink we have for the UK customer at Lidl,” explains Claire Farrant, Lidl UK advertising and marketing director.

“Each Christmas tribe is paired with a Lidl product, demonstrating how we are offering everything anybody could want for this Christmas, and always at unbeatable value.”

Lidl will go into the festive season buoyed by data from Kantar Worldpanel showing it was the UK’s fastest growing grocery chain in the three months to 8 October, during which time the supermarket’s sales rose by 16% and its share of the UK grocery market grew by 5.2%.

Meanwhile at Tesco, its ‘Everyone’s Welcome’ campaign celebrates the different ways UK shoppers enjoy Christmas, starting with the all-important turkey. The first of five TV ads debuted on ITV yesterday (5 November), and shows how different families across the UK approach cooking the turkey, from squabbles over the best cooking methods to which is the best way to carve.

To coincide with the launch of the festive campaign, Tesco has pledged to donate £1 for every fresh turkey sold in-store or online between its food charity partners FareShare and The Trussell Trust to help people in need over the festive period. This initiative builds on Tesco’s support of local communities through its annual food collection and food surplus redistribution scheme, Community Food Connection.

READ MORE: Tesco: If you need to explain it to customers then your charity partnership will fail

“This year our campaign will celebrate the many ways we come together at Christmas, and how food sits at the heart of it all,” says Tesco chief customer officer, Alessandra Bellini.

“We want our customers to know that however they choose to do Christmas, and no matter what they need, we can help – ‘Everyone’s Welcome’ at Tesco.”

Both Lidl and Tesco’s festive campaigns differ in tone from supermarket rival Asda, which ditched its price-driven approach in favour of a more cinematic and emotive style. Set in Asda’s fictional Christmas workshop – the Imaginarium – the Saatchi & Saatchi designed ad shows a little girl and her grandad sneak in to watch eccentric workers creating magical treats for the festive season.

Speaking to Marketing Week on 3 November, Asda chief customer officer Andy Murray explained that the supermarket wanted to move away from “functional” price-focused advertising and take a different approach to the concept of value.

“As a brand, Asda has always focused on offering great value to families,  but that shouldn’t mean we’re focused on purely functional price-only messaging,” he stated. “You can still be value-driven and communicate the emotion and joy that’s attached to offering great value.”