Co-op’s Christmas campaign focuses on giving back to the community

Dec. 01, 2016

This year’s Christmas campaign from the Co-op focuses on what makes it unique as a retailer: Every time its Members buy Co-op products they earn money for causes local to them.

This is encapsulated in the phrase: “Something for you, something for your community”, which demonstrates Christmas #TheCoopWay.

TV and cinema ads, created by agency Leo Burnett, remind us of the joys of Christmas, highlighting the role food, family and friends play in making it a wonderful time of year. But we are asked to imagine, too, whether buying food that also helps the community would make us feel even more Christmassy. 

The feel-good campaign, which breaks on 1^st December and runs throughout the UK, includes outdoor advertising, press, online, social and in-store executions which further bring to life the idea that something for you can be something for your community too. In the films, delicious Co-op food links to some of the good causes it will help fund.

So far Co-op hope, that together with its members, raised over £1.5m for worthwhile causes, helping communities thrive.

The script was written by the creative team Rob Tenconi and Mark Franklin, at Leo Burnett. The voiceover is a spoken word piece, delivered in a conversational and down-to-earth style.

“The commercials feature genuine friends, families, groups and local causes from communities all across Britain.’ points out Rob Tenconi at Leo Burnett. “This was important in achieving our authentic, documentary-style window, with a real life soundtrack instead of a Christmas theme tune, of real Britain.” 

Jemima Bird, Co-op Customer Director adds: “For our Christmas 2016 campaign, we have focused on the very thing that makes the Co-op so special, showcasing how buying our brilliant own brand food and drink can do good within your community through the 1%.  

“As a convenience retailer that operates in the heart of communities across the UK, we see our membership scheme benefiting local causes every single day, and the groups in our Christmas advert had great fun participating in the filming too.”