Waitrose takes on the rom-com in star-studded cinematic Christmas ad

Waitrose’s has launched mini rom-com film ‘The Perfect Gift’ to highlight the power food can have in bonding people, as it uses Christmas to further cement itself as “the home of food lovers”.

Waitrose’s festive ad, made with Wonderhood Studios and released today (12 November), stars Love Actually actress Kiera Knightley and comedian Joe Wilkinson.

The ad starts with Wilkinson’s character Phil – who returns from last year’s whodunnit ‘Sweet Suspicion’ – being told by his late wife that the only person he could ever move on with was his favourite film star, Keira Knightley. After a chance meeting at a Waitrose deli counter, the film follows the duo as they embark on whirlwind romance.

Phil and Knightley go on a series of dates, before Wilkinson’s character is startled to see a present from a mystery ‘Mark’ for Knightley.

To win her over, he uses Waitrose ingredients to cook an assortment of food, including a turkey pie saying ‘I love you’, only to find out that Mark is, in fact, her brother. Yet the food still wins her over, and the ad ends with the slogan ‘and they ate happily ever after’, soundtracked to ‘She’s a Star’ by British Indie rock band, James.

Nathan Ansell, Waitrose’s chief customer officer, says the Christmas ad plays into the brand’s wider strategy of “being the home of food lovers”, an ethos which the marketer says is “guiding literally everything we do”.

“That coupled with the ambition to entertain, engage, surprise audiences, cut through and then take a multichannel approach all the way through from what goes on TV to socials and in-store, and enabling our partner to really own the campaign – in that context, the brief wrote itself,” says Ansell.

The campaign follows ‘Sweet Suspicion, Waitrose’s two-part Christmas day whodunnit ad from last year, and a successful time for the brand.

The grocer is using Christmas as a moment to boost its growth over the last couple of years, as, in the 26 weeks to 26 July, Waitrose sales surpassed £4bn in the first half for the first time, driven by a 6% increase in sales to £4.1bn and a 3% rise in volumes. Some 9% more customers were also shopping with Waitrose compared to the same time two years ago.

According to early System1 pre-testing, this year’s advert achieves 5.9 stars, the maximum score, for effectiveness. For Ansell, sales and customer footfall are “ultimately” the main measures of effectiveness, and he says there’s an “art and science” to measurement.

The team also has a “sophisticated econometric model”, looking at metrics and brand perceptions, and brand momentum has risen 11 points recently, which the marketer says is “rare”.

‘Industry first’

The hero advert is four minutes long, which Ansell calls an “industry first”, yet 60-second and 30-second versions will be the most common assets shown on TV, social, and digital, as they are produced as movie trailers. These will run in programmes such as Coronation Street, Gogglebox and The 1% Club. Despite the rise of other channels, Ansell still feels TV is an important outlet that is “super involved” in the Christmas advertising mix.

The out-of-home activations will also look like movie posters for a typical rom-com, and Knightley and Wilkinson will feature in individual episodes of the Waitrose Dish Podcast shared on 12 November and 17 December respectively, as well as be interviewed by content creator Max Balegde in press junket-style content for social.

Paid influencer work and behind-the-scenes content will also run across social media.

The campaign will also be highlighted through the in-store experience, following the opening of Waitrose’s concept store in Newbury last week.

Ansell says through Waitrose’s ‘Passionate Partners Serving Food Lovers’ programme, customers will be urged to have conversations with partners around food, and staff will be wearing a range of t-shirts in-store related to the advert. A real partner, Samantha, is also featured in the advert.

To personalise the customer experience even further, the supermarket is using its My Waitrose loyalty scheme as a platform to highlight its Christmas range. Through its recently launched Little Treats scheme, Christmas products such as its Cinnamon Knots will be available for customers to claim.

“As we develop the scheme, it’ll become more and more personalised. We’re trying to make sure that Little Treats fits in with the overarching campaigns – in this context, Christmas and The Perfect Gift – but also personalised to individual customers as well,” says Ansell.

‘Keep the conversation going’

Though moving away from the episodic approach of last year with the four-minute film, Ansell still wants to “keep the conversation going” around the Christmas campaign.

He says conversation often “fizzles out” around an ad after the immediate launch, so Waitrose is adopting a plan that will “take [it] right the way through to Christmas and keep customers intrigued”.

The team also sees food as a staple to any rom-com – think Bridget Jones’ blue soup and the banoffee pie in Love Actually – with the rom-com approach allowing Waitrose to be “part of entertainment culture”. The pie from the film will also be available to buy in-store.

This follows on from the reimagination of Waitrose’s print magazine and the launch of its Food Content Studio last month, which was created to make cooking more accessible to people in an entertaining way.

Closer to Christmas, there will also be short product-focussed cutdowns. Ansell says it has been “a lot of work for the team” to make advertising compliant with HFSS and LHF regulations, but Waitrose has worked to achieve this. For example, each of the products in the cheese counter has its own nutritional certificate.

“Also, we’ve had to be quite choiceful about how we’ve shown the Christmas dinner, for example, because otherwise that would have fallen foul. So, you just have to think about the product choices and work it all through. And then there are things like the Christmas mince pies that won’t get shown until after 9pm,” he says.