Ocado Inspired Choice School Play Children as Flock of Lambs

Ocado offers moments of inspiration in new campaign by St Luke's

The online supermarket makes use of light humour

By Creative Salon

04 July 2023

A pre-school play, a life drawing class and a terrible date are among the moments when Ocado shoppers are struck with inspiration to add to their shopping trolley in the latest campaign for the UK’s best online grocer, created by St Luke’s. This campaign is the next evolution in the online supermarkets advertising and sees a tonal shift towards naturally observed moments of everyday life.

The new campaign “Inspired Choice” marks the launch of a new brand platform communicating Ocado’s core proposition of more choice; Ocado offers more than 49,000 different products, far exceeding traditional bricks-and-mortar supermarkets - including more than 5,000 Marks & Spencer products. Demonstrating that there really is an ‘Ocado just for you’.

St Luke’s brings this to life in a humorous 60-second film showing the various everyday moments that serve as that sudden moment of inspiration for your Ocado shopping list.

One vignette shows a mum proudly filming her child’s stage debut as one of the lambs in the school play, she nods and smiles at another mother who is also holding her smartphone aloft. We then discover this second mother is actually searching for ‘mint sauce’ on the Ocado app, thanks to the reminder of the dancing flock. In another scene, a life drawing student is inspired to pick up his smartphone mid-class and search for ‘cocktail sausages’.

As each scenario plays out, an inset animation scrolls through just a few of the possibilities thrown up by each search, from M&S Dinky cocktail sausages and M&S Meringue Nest and countless other brands in between.

Driving the campaign is research into the habits of Ocado shoppers, including the insight that, unlike a trip to the supermarket, it’s not about adding everything to the trolley in one go. Instead, it’s a process of curating your shopping, making tweaks and additions whenever grocery inspiration strikes to achieve your perfect grocery order - something that’s only possible thanks to Ocado’s unbeatable choice and frictionless service.

To coincide with the new ad, Ocado asked more than 2,000 respondents for the strangest place they had amended an online order. Responses included "at a funeral, in the doctors waiting room, in a maths class, in labour - on the way to the hospital, sitting on top of a ride-on lawn mower, in the bath, at the fishmongers, up a mountain, in church and even on the toilet!"

Sarah Emerson, Head of Brand Advertising at Ocado, said: “Only Ocado makes online grocery shopping feel this effortless. An intuitive app, more delivery slots and more choice than any other supermarket. This new campaign is designed to show the incredible choice and the ease we bring to all of our customers every day”

Al Young, Joint Chief Creative Officer at St Luke’s, said: “Shopping with Ocado means you gradually populate your basket as inspiration strikes. The creative twist is sometimes, shopping becomes a covert operation. Thirtytwo have delivered precisely the funny, nuanced film we all hoped for.”

The “Inspired Choice” campaign breaks on 4 July, with 60-second and two 30-second hero films and 10-second cutdowns running on broadcast TV, VOD and social media. It will dovetail with the “10,000 Price Promises”, also created by St Luke’s, which launched Ocado’s new value proposition last month. Media is by Hearts & Science and Threepipe.