Tesco is once again portraying the rich tapestry of UK family Christmases in its latest work from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which breaks tonight (6 November).
In common with last year’s push, the campaign, "However you do Christmas, everyone’s welcome at Tesco", is a montage of Christmas Day scenes with various characters sharing their own traditions.
Unlike last year's work – a series of vignettes about the mission to get the turkey ready – every idea is based on an insight from the retailer’s consumer research, according to chief customer officer Alessandra Bellini.
A 60-second spot that covers various aspects of Christmas dinner will be followed by shorter executions focusing on specific components, such as turkey and pudding. They are soundtracked by a new, brass-led instrumental version of Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way.
The TV ads were created by Alex Sattlecker, Linda Weitgasser and Psembi Kinstan, and directed by Randy Krallman through Smuggler. Richard Prentice, David Adamson, Josh Croston and Daniel Liakh contributed creative for print and social. The media agency is MediaCom.
"What we discovered is, if you go a little beneath the surface, people celebrate Christmas very differently around the country and they feel very passionately about how they do it," Bellini said.
"Every single scene in every ad is rooted in an insight. We found out what people do, how many people eat, at what time, what they drink, how many people like what kind of meat and what kind of dessert."
BBH managing director Karen Martin added the campaign aimed to turn the discussion of Christmas dinner planning to something of a debate, because "in your family, if you do it a certain way you think that is the right way".
Tesco’s research, which will be published in full in late November, produced findings such as that 66% of Brits have sprouts with their Christmas dinner, while 38% include the slightly more contentious Yorkshire pudding – and 8% put ketchup on their dinner.
While many of the differences are between individuals families, some regional factors emerged. Residents of Brighton, for example, are five times more likely to serve cauliflower with their Christmas dinner – a controversy that was brought to life in a 2010 episode of Peep Show.
