How Tesco Tells A Story Of Joy And Grief With Gingerbread

The partnership of Tesco and BBH London has once again produced a Christmas ad that has got audiences talking as the world turns piece by piece into gingerbread. 

The campaign beautifully tells of the joy of Christmas and the heavy heartbreak of grief in a 90-second film woven with creative ambition. Audiences see the story of Gary who experiences highs and lows on the continuum of festive spirit; after experiencing moments of Christmas happiness his surrounding landscape turns into gingerbread, however, his positivity wavers when he enters a period of grief over the absence of his deceased grandmother. 

Central to the campaign is Gary’s journey to rekindle the tradition of building a gingerbread house - something he used to do with his grandmother. Alongside his grandfather, Gary relives the tradition and the freshly built and decorated gingerbread house takes centre stage on the family's Christmas Day table. 

While providing a moving story about love and loss, the ad keeps the supermarket at its forefront, displaying how Tesco products can ‘Help Feed Your Christmas Spirit’ this festive season. 

Murray Bisschop, UK marketing director for Tesco, described how “incredibly proud” the supermarket chain is of its 2024 campaign and the hard-work from all parties to put it together. Its aim, he explains, is to emphasise and embody how Tesco wants to show up for its customers this Christmas.

As for putting gingerbread at its forefront, he said, while not only very popular amongst Tesco customers, you couldn’t do much better in finding food more "semiotic" of the season.

“It’s uniquely and distinctively Christmas,” he claims. “I think as a quick read into something that is festive, Christmas, warm and a shortcut to family and togetherness, as a food you’d have to work quite hard to go further than gingerbread.”

The ad continues off the back of a successful 2023 which told of a father and son’s relationship with the festive season. Audiences saw the son fighting the urge, despite encouragement from his father, to get into the Christmas spirit which, once caving in, turns him into a Christmas tree.

It was an ad that saw success amongst consumers; marketing analysts System 1 ranked it as Tesco’s “highest-rated Christmas ad yet” with an “exceptional spike” rating when looking at short-term sales impacts. That indicates that such emotional stories have a strong effect on viewers. 

Off the back of such success, inspiration for 2024 kept the theme alive. The brief maintained the same want for emotional storylines - and building on last year’s work was a key part of the creative conversation, according to Alicia Southgate, head of marketing at Tesco. 

“The thing we really wanted to do was to connect with our customers and we wanted them to feel a real engagement with the campaign,” she said. “That was quite a broad brief we gave the agency but clearly what we’ve got to as a result of that is something that is really a story that hopefully our customers will connect to.”

Felipe Guimaraes, deputy executive creative director at BBH London, says looking at the successes of last year benefitted the creative headspace for 2024. 

“I think creatively, we were super happy to get to a space and an insight that felt super ownable. We workshopped a lot of things, and we got to this brief about how do you continue on this idea of the Christmas spirit being something that Tesco helps? 

“So if last year was about helping people get their Christmas spirit, this year is about helping them take care of it.”

For Guimaraes, a key part of this year’s campaign was finding the secret ingredient to help make a different dish from the same recipe.

The ad is accompanied by ‘On Melalcolny Hill’ by Gorrillaz, a song that, according to Guimaraes, was a no-brainer that perfectly accompanied the ad’s melancholic storyline.

“We looked at over 400 tracks. The reason we ended up with this track is the film is actually quite complex in the sense that it needs to make you feel good but it also needs to make you feel sad. 

“Because there is so much going on with the film, you needed a track that would hold your hand through it, as opposed to taking front and centre.”

Unlike other Christmas ads showcasing celebrities or established brand characters from over the years, Tesco’s campaign remains true to its usual style by including actors that audiences are unlikely to recognise.

Guimaraes reveals that the teams initially debated on how to approach the trend of celebrity being used in Christmas campaigns, but decided that the overall driving force was to connect audiences to an emotional story instead. 

“We wanted things to get out of the way of that connection so made a collective decision that getting an incredible actor and allowing people to connect with the story was much more important that leveraging the fame of a famous actor.”

Bisschop adds that on this occasion, both parties “genuinely felt this was the right approach” for what they are trying to do. 

The Power of a Long-term Creative Partnership 

2024 marks the ninth consecutive year BBH has collaborated with Tesco on its Christmas campaign. 

Both the creative agency and supermarket brand relish the opportunity to work together in a relationship that is grounded by honesty and forward-thinking storytelling. And true to BBH fashion, the agency isn’t shy to break away from expectations - true to its zig-zag style. 

Guimaraes said the working relationship with Tesco is one that leaves no room for confusion with everyone remaining on the same page. 

“I am unafraid to present what I think is right. I don’t think I ever go into any conversations with [Tesco] second-guessing,” he explains. “I think that gets to this kind of work where you don’t have to cut corners. It’s unapologetically what we set out to do.” 

Tesco is also proud of the culture of the relationship with its agency, which Bisschop recounts as one the supermarket values - both through BBH itself and the collaborative work they have produced together. 

“We have good robust discussions at times that I think we’re absolutely on the same page and I hope we bring the best start in each other.”

He continues: “We both have quite high ambitions and we are very grateful to have them as a partner.”

For Southgate, she believes the already established relationship between Tesco and BBH is one that allows for honest conversations. 

“We have an established enough relationship to be able to have those conversations together and get to the nub of the topic,” she said. “There’s no skirting around. We will have the conversations that need to be had but that makes the work better.”

Beyond Television 

Away from television screens, Tesco is working hard to ensure its customers receive a special Christmas like no other.

With charity partners Trussell and FareShare, the supermarket has pledged to donate 10p for every purchased gingerbread product to help provide access to food to communities. 

Southgate explains how this year’s campaign will be brought to life with grottos appearing across 150 different Tesco stores where customers can take their families to visit Father Christmas for free.

Returning for 2024 is a customer favourite in Tesco’s Christmas Markets. While hoping to get customers into the festive spirit, the markets will have new products from a range of brands ready to be tried and tested in a way that is bigger and better than before. Alongside, stores will also have gingerbread activations, celebrating the central element of its campaign. 

The full 90-second ad will also be rolled out across Cineworld cinemas in the UK, where customers can grab free Tesco popcorn, while digital, social and various OOH works will be displayed alongside.

So as the festive season progresses, Tesco remains feeding consumers Christmas spirits - one piece of gingerbread at a time.