It’s an ambitious positioning for a supermarket brand, but it launches with a 60 second film that reveals an extraordinarily intimate understanding of the ups and downs of everyday existence and delivers it with caring.

The springboard for the new three-year campaign was Rothco’s very successful Christmas campaign, Here’s to the Hosts, Family Makes Us Better.

“This brand gets you” is not a unique message. Nor is using real families to draw customers to a brand. In Australia, Woolworths is striding down a similar path with its ongoing campaigmn, That’s why I shop at Woolies. But Rothco has left Tesco’s products and services out of (at least) its launch ad, and depending entirely on the emotional bond it is creating makes Tesco’s positioning feel more authentic. That’s a powerful asset.

The launch film was directed by Joshua Neale and shot over four days. It features real families from all over Ireland as they go about their daily lives.

Rothco executive creative director, Alan Kelly, commented, “This has been a hugely rewarding project for Rothco. From the outset, we sought to really get under the skin of the Tesco shopper in Ireland to identify what human truth resonates with them. Through our 2016 Christmas campaign, Here’s to the Hosts, and through our more recent Easter campaign, our approach has been to consistently demonstrate the importance of family to Tesco in an authentic, honest and relatable way.”

“What we discovered through the deep dive into our immersive sessions with customers and our ongoing customer data was to understand that Irish people’s purchasing habits are motivated by the desire to do our very best for the ones we love. Above all else, family is hugely important to Irish people, and what we’ve discovered is that what Irish families may not realise, however, is how important family is to Tesco too,” added Sean Nolan, head of customer marketing, Tesco Ireland.

“We’re committed to putting family at the heart of everything we do. This isn’t a new departure for us, we have always been rooted in families; we are made up of Irish families, from our colleagues to our suppliers to every generation of our farming families. We firmly believe that this direction will help us to add warmth, understanding and underpin our role in helping Irish families.’
The campaign is running on TV, outdoor, social and digital, as well as on all Tesco owned assets – grocery home shopping vans, bags and in store.

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