The perils of being a big supermarket chain in the UK look a lot like those of the Big Two in Aus. If there is a lesson in the events of the last eighteen months, it’s that behaving badly is bad for business. Tesco did the worst (of all of them) and came off worst. In England, Tesco is using the usual devices to win back customers.
In Ireland, it has done something completely different.
Agency, Rothco, has made two smart decisions. One was not to tackle the Tesco scandals head on. The other was to open its heart and talk humbly – about a tangential issue, being big.
The campaign is called Big Can Be Good. The ad is, in essence, an apparently honest brand manifesto – that flips the negatives associated with its being big into positives, suggesting the benefits of size to customers, suppliers and local communities.
…the story underlined by a visual device. In the 60 second TVC, people are tiny and their world is big. The production technique used to achieve this is called tilt shift. And it was pioneered by an Australian – film director, Keith Loutit – who also worked on the production for the commercial with the team from Butter and director, Hadi.
Rothco copywriter, Bernie Martin, commented, “This campaign is about unveiling the hidden truths about Tesco as a brand. When we started working with Tesco earlier this year, we really wanted to understand what made them tick. So we met colleagues, fruit and veg growers, farmers, the Tesco Quality Team, anyone who’d talk to us and ultimately, we discovered something we weren’t expecting – Yes, Tesco is a big machine but it also has a really big heart.
“The problem was no one seemed to know about all the good things they’ve been doing! With a revival in independent traders and craft produce, consumers have begun to shed a negative light on large corporations. Big Can Be Good seeks to reveal the great behind-the-scenes work Tesco is doing to support Irish trade and communities.
“We chose the tilt shift style because it carries a huge amount of charm, and we felt that it perfectly complemented the honest and humble tone of voice we were looking for. We also saw using large products and objects in each scene as an interesting way to highlight and emphasise all the things that Tesco are big on in Ireland. Not only that, it’s also a unique style that wouldn’t be confused with communications from any other supermarket.”
The Big Can Be Good campaign is running across TV, press, outdoor, radio, online, POS, on Tesco vans and bags and in all Tesco Ireland communications.
