Aldi brings back Jean for new marketing campaign

The 91-year-old gin-lover returns to TV screens this evening, where Aldi will premier a bespoke soundtrack centred around the ‘Everyday Amazing’ strapline for the first time.

Aldi is bringing back gin-lover Jean to try and get shoppers unfamiliar with the supermarket to re-evaluate their preconceptions of the quality and value of its offering.

Nine years after her first appearance, the 91-year-old great-grandmother will return to TV screens this evening (24 February) to declare what she likes about shopping at Aldi.

‘Like Aldi’, created by long-standing agency McCann, builds on the German discounter’s popular ‘Like Brands, Only Cheaper’ campaign, which won Marketing Week’s campaign of the decade in 2019.

In a first for the supermarket, the TV ad will premiere a bespoke soundtrack centred around its ‘Everyday Amazing’ strapline.

“We know that once customers try our great range of award-winning products at amazing prices they fall in love with Aldi,” says Aldi’s UK marketing director, Sean McGinty.

“The Like campaign uses Aldi’s well-known sense of humour and one of our much-loved characters to say, ‘come on, try it for yourself. You might just like it’.”

Inside the campaign of the decade: Aldi’s ‘Like Brands, Only Cheaper’

The advert’s first peak spot will air during ITV’s showing of Coronation Street. It will run as part of an integrated digital, social and outdoor nationwide campaign throughout the year, with further support appearing across weekly leaflets and point of sale in store.

Like Brands, Only Cheaper thrust the German retailer into the public consciousness in the early 2010s, providing an antidote to campaigns from other supermarkets that featured Jamie Oliver and ‘food porn’.

The original ad, aired in 2011, featured elderly lady Jean who compares a box of PG Tips with Aldi’s own-brand offering before declaring she prefers gin.

The ad was part of a series of similarly witty executions, marking a turning point for Aldi as it tried to convince the nation that, despite lower prices, its products are as good as big brand alternatives.

Almost a third (30%) of Marketing Week readers voted it the best campaign of the decade, while 62% remembered the campaign and 84% linked it to Aldi.

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