Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 Exec Summary Everyone knows that in retail, Christmas is the most important trading period of the year. Especially true if you’re the nation’s largest retailer – Tesco, with a large proportion of their yearly sales dependent on the last 6 weeks of the year. Because of our increased understanding of the nation, 2017 was deemed a ‘close to perfect’ Christmas. We had landed on a strategy and creative idea that resonated, so in 2018 we doubled down on this. At a time of increased complexity and uncertainty, we embarked on becoming the retailer that best understood how the nation does Christmas. In the patchwork quilt that makes up Britain, no two Christmases are the same. Only Tesco, the retailer that serves more customers than anyone else, could truly understand this. This understanding meant that we could give customers the confidence that however they do Christmas, Tesco was here to help throughout the festive season. In order to live up to this promise, we had to literally understand everyone's Christmas, so we kicked off the mammoth undertaking of creating the most comprehensive body of Christmas insight ever assembled. Once collated, we were rigorous in ensuring that every single piece of communication was built out of a genuine human insight. Given the size of the campaign, this was no mean feat, but the cumulative effect meant that it was undeniable that Tesco really understood how the nation truly celebrates Christmas. This insightful approach paid off, not only did the campaign appeal to customers but it was also commercially successful as Tesco entered its 12th Consecutive quarter of growth, with a 2.6% sales uplift, beating the rest of the big four and making it their most successful Christmas performance in 10 years.

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 The Challenge Everyone knows that in retail, Christmas is the single most important trading period of the whole year. This is especially true if you’re the nation’s largest retailer – Tesco, with a large proportion of their yearly sales dependent on the last 6 weeks of the year. Entering into 2018, Tesco were starting from a place of strength. 2017 was their most successful Christmas in four years, winning against the rest of the big four in the twelve weeks leading up to 31st December. The communications played a key role to its success - gone was the Tesco family and instead the campaign took a more insightful approach, launching with an observed piece of film that showcased all the different ways people host Christmas within the patchwork quilt that makes up Britain today. By showing what Christmas really looked like, the campaign resonated with the nation, with the campaign achieving incredibly high empathy scores and exceeding Nielsen norms. So, when it came to Christmas 2018, we knew we had a creative strategy that worked. But we couldn't rest on our laurels. The cultural context had changed dramatically, increased uncertainties around Brexit meant people were cautious, less willing to splash out during the festive season, with consumer confidence at an all-time low. We had to give people an even more compelling reason to choose Tesco in order to meet our ambitious objectives.

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 In Summary Because of our increased understanding of the nation, 2017 was deemed a ‘close to perfect’ Christmas. In 2018 we had to go bigger and better in order to stay on top. We had landed on a strategy and creative idea that clearly resonated with people, so in 2018 we doubled down on this. At a time of increased complexity and uncertainty, we embarked on becoming the retailer that best understood how the nation does Christmas. How we used insight Tesco’s scale is unquestionable, there is one in every postcode across the UK. But its size has often been its Achilles heel and so has shied away from leveraging its scale explicitly in communications. But what if, this year, Tesco used its scale to its advantage? Because the reality is, Tesco has more interactions with the British public than any other retailer, and with Clubcard it has a deeper understanding of how the nation shops. So when it came to Christmas, Tesco leveraged the one competitor advantage it had versus the other retailers - its scale. How? By taking all of this customer insight and using it to demonstrate to the nation that if there was one retailer that really understood Christmas in 21st century Britain, it was Tesco. And if Tesco could truly understand each and every unique Christmas, it would know how best to help them. Because in the UK today, there isn't just one standard way to ‘do’ Christmas. Research shows that we are fundamentally bonded by the same emotional needs of togetherness and tradition… ...but the reality is, whilst we all celebrate together, we all do it our own way. Everyone approaches it differently, be that having all of the presents wrapped at the beginning of October or a mad dash to the shops on the 24th. Different things kick the Christmas season off - the Starbucks red cups, 1st day of Advent, the first mince pie. We spend the big day differently - from a traditional family Christmas to Christmas abroad, to Christmas at the in-laws. We also entertain ourselves differently - from watching the Queen’s speech, monopoly rows, post lunch walks – the list goes on!

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018

This is especially true when it comes to the most important thing at Christmas - the food. We all cook, feast and host in our own unique way, be that slavishly re-creating secret family recipes, trying out alternative dishes or even opting for a Chinese takeaway on Christmas Day! (yes, people of Edinburgh, we know that’s you!)

In Summary In the patchwork quilt that makes up Britain, no two Christmases are the same. Only Tesco, the retailer that serves more customers than anyone else, could truly understand and help ensure that they had everything they needed to celebrate their own unique Christmas. Our comms task was therefore simple - in order to retain shoppers, we had to give them the confidence that however they do Christmas, Tesco was here to help the whole way through the festive season.

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 How it impacted marketing In order to take last year's campaign even further, we realised we would have to make it even more true and even more authentic in 2018. That meant quite literally understanding everyone's Christmas. In order to do this, we had to create the most comprehensive body of Christmas insight ever assembled. To kick off this mammoth undertaking we started by commissioning bespoke research with YouGov to get a robust quantitative understanding of how the nation does its Christmas, which was then bolstered with specific focus groups, to understand just how diverse the nation was when it came to their Christmas traditions. We then married this with social listening and Google data in order to get a holistic sense of people's behaviours at Christmas both on and offline. Because we had cast our insight net so widely, we then had to collate and make sense of all this data. And so The Christmas Customer Insight Handbook took shape – an incredible 243 pages of Christmas insight. No one knew Christmas better than us. The handbook focused on 15 moments across the Christmas season – starting with how people got into the Christmas spirit to how they were celebrating New Year’s Eve, and everything in between - with food and drink always being the primary focus. This handbook became the bible for anyone who worked on the Tesco Christmas campaign - from colleague, product & editorial teams within Tesco to the PR, instore & media agencies to all of the creative teams, ensuring that every single piece of communication was informed by genuine human insight.

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 Once the handbook had been collated, we looked at the wealth of insight at our disposal and our overarching creative thought became clear. We could now proudly say that ‘However you do Christmas, everyone’s welcome at Tesco’. We were then rigorous in ensuring that every single piece of communication was built out of a genuine human insight from the Handbook - every single scene in our three TV adverts, every single piece of OOH & print and all of the digital communication stemmed from a consumer insight. This ensured that whatever piece of comms the customer saw within the entire ecosystem, it all laddered up to our promise that, ‘However you do Christmas, everyone’s welcome at Tesco’.

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 Insight: 53% crack open their first alcoholic drink with lunch (Source: YouGov Survey - Tesco 2017) OOH

Insight: Best thing about Christmas conversation, 105 of 2,660 posts, UK, 2017 (Source: Social Listening) Vans & Trucks

Insight: 2.5% of our have brown sauce with our Christmas dinner. (Source: Splendid However you do Christmas Report 2018) OLV

The food flavours and table setting informed by Tesco Christmas focus groups, particularly Afro-Caribbean families Launch TV

313,000 Google searches for brined turkey (Source: Google) 30” Mains TV “Has it been brined?” “Yes, it’s been brined!”

81% of the older generation like Christmas pud, compared to 34% of youngsters (Source: The Guardian) 30” Desserts TV “Oh come on, it’s not Christmas without the pud”

Insight: 29.5% dislike or hate Christmas pudding (Source: YouGov Survey - Tesco 2017) Print

Insight: 25% of people have salmon + champagne for Christmas Day breakfast (Source: YouGov Survey - Tesco 2017) Regional Cover wraps

Insight: Shortbread is the ultimate Christmas biscuit 2015-2017 based on ultimate Christmas biscuit conversation (5,061 of 9,865 posts) (Source: Social Listening) Regional Cover wraps

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018

We also used customer insight to ensure that we could target people with the most relevant creative message. For Christmas 2018 we deployed a first of its kind media targeting system designed to heighten product relevance using data & signals to help hosts at Christmas - matching them to the right products, deals & offerings. So not only was our creative insightful, but the way we served it customers was insightful too. We became so confident in knowing how the nation does Christmas, we even took this claim to the press, with the However You Do Christmas Report - with coverage in 50 papers and 1 billion opportunities to see.

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 Most importantly, our understanding of how the nation does Christmas led to inform our Christmas product range - with more vegan / veggie & meat alternatives on offer than ever before, reflecting the 49% YoY increase in Google searches for vegan Christmas and the largest Free From range in the market. In particular, Tesco’s Free From Panettone was first to market for own label this year demonstrating the brands desire to help everyone celebrate Christmas with traditional festive products. In Summary There was not one piece of communications that didn't stem from a genuine human insight about how the nation does its Christmas - from shining a light on some of those niche behaviours, to tapping into rising trends, to acknowledging behaviours we all exhibit at Christmas. Given the amount of touchpoints Tesco has as its disposal at Christmas, this was no mean feat but the cumulative effect meant that it was undeniable that Tesco really understood how we as a nation, as a family and as individuals truly celebrate Christmas. Results Christmas 2018 was the worst Christmas retailers had seen in a decade. Despite these incredibly tough conditions, Tesco’s rigorous understanding of every single Christmas in the UK paid off, with the results speaking for themselves. Tesco entered its 12th Consecutive quarter of growth, and in the last four weeks in the run up to Christmas the business saw a 2.6% sales uplift, beating the rest of the big four and the discounters if you exclude new store openings. The business out-performed the market in all key categories: food, clothing and general merchandise, making it Tesco’s most successful Christmas since 2009. Dave Lewis: "As a team we have achieved a lot in the 19 weeks. In the UK we delivered significant improvements in our competitive offer and this is reflected in a very strong Christmas performance which was ahead of the market."

Tesco, However You Do Christmas Campaign 2018 When it came to communications, clearly the campaign resonated, with intent to do the big shop with Tesco at the highest level since last Christmas. Over half of customers took out the key message that ‘Tesco recognises that everyone does Christmas differently’ with brand favourability at 83% amongst those who were exposed to and could remember the campaign. Likeability of the digital campaign was 14% above Nielsen norms at 56% and TV appeal at 64%.

In Summary At a particularly anxious time for the nation, Tesco embraced its scale to demonstrate that it truly understood every single one of its customers and their unique Christmases. This understanding meant that we knew how best to help each and every one of them, which was not only a compelling creative strategy but was also commercially successful. 2018 was Tesco’s most successful Christmas performance in 10 years - it was indeed a Merry Christmas.