Coles gets the extended family together for a very Aussie Christmas via DDB
In a busy year for the retailer, Coles has gone to market with its new Christmas campaign via DDB (and an in-progress Smith Street) as it looks to provide reassurance to Australians that price doesn’t come at the sacrifice of quality.
The campaign this year comes with the backdrop of cost of living dominating the conversation towards the end of this year, as the retail giant looks to kick off Australian summer by telling customers it is here to help whether you’re hosting a couple of people or the whole country over Christmas.
“It’s been a few years since everyone’s had an opportunity to get together,” general manager of brand, digital and design, Sam McLeod told Mumbrella. “So we wanted to make sure that one, we were representing what an Aussie Christmas is and looks like so people could see themselves in there, and we wanted something that delivers a little bit of joy and festivity.
“And then we also wanted to really importantly, reassure our customers that we are going to offer great value solutions and make sure Christmas is affordable because everyone’s really been looking forward to Christmas and we want to make sure that they can have that.”
The campaign builds on Coles’ ‘Value the Australian Way’ platform.
Group creative director at DDB, James Cowie said the team began working on this year’s campaign as early as January this year.
“The number one thing that we wanted to do was really communicate that Christmas is a time where everyone comes together, but so much of what we know about Christmas is based on sort of northern hemispheric traditions.”
“We really wanted to create that scale of the opportunity, but in a really distinctly Australian way, filled with insights that belong here. Not in the Christmas land that you often see on TV. That just doesn’t speak to our audience.”
“One of the criteria we gave ourselves, was it should feel weird if it was going to air anywhere other than in Australia,” added McLeod.
It has been a year of change for Coles, with a high-profile pitch seeing the brand reappoint its agency partners from Omnicom, while adding Deloitte Digital to the fold and parting ways with Big Red, just before CMO Lisa Ronson was announced to be departing.
McLeod said while Smith Street is official from 1 January, component parts of it are already around the table now, and that the project ahead is “really exciting”.
“As soon as we went through our Smith Street model and we did the appointment of OmniGroup, what we worked out is when we hit our stride in creative execution and working that through, we tried to use this as – let’s just start working in the new model straight away.”
“So really what that means is around centering people in a cross-functional way. Regardless of which agency you sit in or what your job title is, it is just, here’s the task to be done, you are the Christmas team.”
“It’s been a really good case study for us moving forward, into the new year where Smith Street will be up and fully operational.”
Cowie said last year’s project was more siloed, and this year living through it, it feels “more like one”, and a lot more streamlined.
Sustainability has become one of the main battlegrounds for supermarkets in recent years, yet this year has returned the fight to the cost of living and how it is hitting Australian’s pockets, while also being able to deliver the same quality they expect.
Sam McLeod
Cost and price is definitely more front and centre this year, said McLeod, “simply because that’s what we know is on our customers’ minds. But it doesn’t mean we’ve totally forgotten about all of the other elements.”
Coles is continuing its sustainability platform again through its 100% sustainable Christmas crackers, as well as making more packaging sustainable, adding the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) to more Own Brand packaging, and selling gift wrap made in Australia from 100% FSC Recycled material.
Rather than trying to tick off “Coles brand boxes”, Cowie said the story wanted to provide the sense of togetherness, and brand ambassador Curtis Stone fits in with the whole feeling of the campaign.
“He’s the arbiter of the food and quality story, so it was really important that came through, rather than include him as shorthand to the Coles brand.”
“He belongs at that table,” said Cowie, as adding that while the atmosphere and getting everyone together, the food quality is really important too.
“There’s something really unique about this year around that intersection between sustainability and value,” said McLeod.
“We’ve got lots of content that’s being created around maximizing your food, from everything like how to store your food so it lasts for as long as it possibly can, to classic stuff you’d see at Christmas around how to maximize your leftovers.”
The film was directed by Ariel from Airbag, which both McLeod and Cowie said contributed to the feel and scale of the end product.
“He was able to capture that scale, and sort of ‘big ad’ that Coles should have, and Coles deserves in that big Australia-wide setting, while also doing a great job of bringing humanity to it.”
The campaign launches today and is bringing its range of products and services to life across TV, digital, press and out-of-home advertising.
The 60-second hero film is supported by a wider campaign on the quality and price of Coles’ Christmas items, and its focus on leading as a sustainable brand.
Credits:
Agency: DDB Group Melbourne
Production Company: Airbag
Post: ARC and Fin Design
Sound: Bang Bang
Music: Level Two
Media agency: OMD
Coles:
Chief Executive – Commercial and Express: Leah Weckert
General Manager – Brand, Digital & Design: Samantha McLeod
General Manager – Media & Sponsorship: Kate Bailey
Head of Brand, Content & Design: Bianca Mundy
Head of Group Marketing & Insights: Geoff Turner
Media Manager: Caitlyn Shiel
Senior Marketing Manager: John Blaskett
Marketing Manager: Tanya Beaumont
Social Media Manager: Bridie McKenna Parry
National Media and Communications Manager: Martine Alpins
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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