Super Brand Affinity Supermarket Advertising
As exemplified by the featured commercials, the most memorable supermarket and convenience store advertising realisations, are those ‘super’ creative brand affinity initiatives, that transcend the retail genre’s habitual use of formula driven campaign constructs, that are predominantly of mere fleeting interest, and low brand recall.
1. Grand Frais, In The Food For Love
Advertising Agency: ROSA, Paris France
Executive Creative Director: Gilles Fichteberg
Group Leader: François-Xavier De-Sousa
Copywriter: Julien Perdra
Agency Producers: Benoît Fernandes, and Delphine Cotellon
Production Company: Big, Paris, France
Music and Sound Design Studios: Schmooze, Paris, France
Film Director: Trevor Clarence
ROSA agency’s entertaining brand affinity commercial, for France’s leading fresh food retail specialist, Grand Frais, is a prime example for me of the human truth in food sector advertising, that apart from price reduction and coupon promotion rationality, “food is not a fact, it’s an emotion”.
Directed by South African filmmaker Trevor Clarence, with superb performances from his cast, the impressively effective brand goodwill-factor of the fun scenario, is aided by a great soundtrack featuring not one, but two love songs: “Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie, and “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston.
2. Intermarché Supermarket, Love Story
Advertising Agency: Romance, Paris, France
Executive Creative Director: Alexandre Hervé
Production Company: Grand Bazar, Paris, France
Post Production and VFX Studios: Mikros MPC, Paris, France
Winner of a Cannes Lion for casting in 2017, and a Grand Prix for Advertising Strategy, Romance Paris agency’s Intermarché commercial, brilliantly directed by filmmaker Katia Lewkowicz, features a romantic narrative underlining the supermarket chain’s passion for fresh produce, and consumer proposition commitment of being a provider of healthier meals.
The charming scenario’s superb portrayals by a great cast, play out to a resonant soundtrack of French singer, Marcel Mouloudji’s song, ‘L’amour, L’amour, L’amour’.
3. Waitrose Supermarket Chain, Snowed In
Advertising Agency: adam&eveDDB, London, UK
Production Company: Academy Films, London, UK
Agency adam&eveDDB’s Waitrose film-scenario, of villagers who find themselves snowbound at the highest pub in Britain, aims at promoting a community spirit as the beating heart of their festive season brand campaign.
Directed by filmmaker Martin De Thurah, the cinematic, monochromatic commercial, of ‘art imitating life’, was filmed in the 17th century, Tan Hill Inn, near Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales, where at 1,732 feet, patrons have been snowbound 50 times since 2005.
The featured soundtrack is “Carol Of The Bells”, by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych, rearranged by film composer and musician, Guy Farley.
4. Aldi Süd, Spacestation
Advertising Agency: Oliver Voss Werbeagentur, Hamburg, Germany
Production Company: Czar, Hamburg, Germany
Post Production and VFX Studios: Bacon X, Hamburg, Germany
The Oliver Voss Agency’s inspired Aldi Süd scenario, elevates supermarket genre advertising to inventive ‘new heights’.
When the Houston Space Centre received a ‘please help’ message from a group of astronauts on a NASA space station, who after running out of food, surprisingly turned down an offer of borscht from a Russian space station nearby, because their preference is for pasta, but there is no Italian space station they could turn to, Houston engaged Aldi to solve the problem.
Directed by filmmaker Bart Timmer, the superbly produced commercial, with its entertainingly unexpected approach, features cinematic spaceships and Flight Control scenes filmed in a studio in Sofia, Bulgaria, and fun zero-gravity supermarket scenes filmed at an Aldi Süd store in Bavaria, Germany.
5. Albert Heijn Supermarket Chain, Great Little Love Story
Advertising Agency: TBWA\NEBOKO, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Production Company: Holy Fools, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Director of Photography: Martijn Broekhuizen
Post Production and VFX Studios: Ambassadors, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Animation Director: Nick Groeneveld
TBWA\NEBOKO agency’s charming 2021 festive season Albert Heijn film-scenario, was brought to entertaining life by filmmaker and director Jelle de Jonge, in a superbly produced, brand affinity commercial, of viewing delight for all ages.
6. Walmart, Ode To Motherhood
Advertising Agency: Camp Jefferson, Toronto, Canada
Production Company: Scouts Honour, Toronto, Canada
Post Production and VFX Studios: Saints, Toronto, Canada
Walmart’s ‘Ode To Motherhood’, directed by Mark Zibert, is a dramatised, true to life short film, of a Mum struggling with the day-to-day challenges of motherhood.
‘Ode To Motherhood’ is surreal, fast-paced, funny, emotive, full of surprises and rewarding to watch.
Tammy Sadinsky, VP of Marketing Communications at Walmart explained the insight behind the campaign:
“Parents’ love for their families is limitless even though time and financial resources are not.”
“We wanted to acknowledge this by telling their stories in an empathetic way. By saving, parents can have better lives, which ultimately means deeper relationships and experiences with their families.”
7. Intermarché, Santa’s Diet
Advertising Agency: Romance, Paris, France
Production Company: Carnibird, Paris, France
Post Production and VFX Studios: Mathematic, Paris, France
Masterly directed by filmmaker Katia Lewkowicz, Romance agency’s engaging film-scenario features a remarkable performance by a young lad concerning the vexing problem of Santa’s wide girth.
In his present physical condition, Santa is never going to be able to slide down inside their chimney at home. He solicits the help of his sister to come up with healthier food offerings for slimming down the rather, too roundly jolly Santa.
Playing out to a soundtrack of Henri Salvador’s well-known French song,“J’ai tant reve” (I’ve dreamt so much), the commercial concludes with the brand affinity consumer proposition, “Nous sommes producteurs et commerçants pour vous aider a manger un peu mieux tous les jours”. We are producers and traders to help you eat a little better every day.
8. Edeka Supermarkets, Christmas Humanity
Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg, Germany
Production Company: Sterntag Film, Hamburg, Germany
The most mould-breaking Christmas-themed commercial of all time for me, is Jung von Matt’s 2017 imaginative short-film scenario for Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket chain, portraying a dystopian world in 2117 ruled by artificial intelligence.
The superbly produced, cinematic epic, directed by storytelling filmmaker extraordinaire Matthijs van Heijningen, is painstakingly art-directed, exquisitely detailed, and compellingly atmospheric.
Featuring a soundtrack by composers Simon Heeger, and Christian Vorländer, founders of Music Production Company, 2WEI, Hamburg, Germany, the charming sci-fi depiction of a robot in search of experiencing human companionship, in a real Christmas celebration family dinner, ends with the insightful line, “Without love, it’s just a feast”.