Sainsbury’s on why the BFG is the ‘perfect vehicle’ for its Christmas brand promise

Sainsbury’s is bringing the BFG back for Christmas 2025 in an advert focused on helping others over the festive season, designed to “mirror” the supermarket’s brand tone of voice.

Continuing the BFG campaign, part of Sainsbury’s long-standing creative platform ‘Good Food for All of Us’, was a no-brainer for marketing director, Radha Davies.

“It pushed all of those buttons in terms of the nostalgia and the emotion. Customers really related to the character and it brought lots of happy memories. That’s part of the magic you need for a great Christmas ad,” says Davies.

“For us, and the story we wanted to tell this year, it was very much about how Sainsbury’s is there for you to be ready for anything and the BFG was the perfect vehicle to help us tell that story again.”

The campaign, created in partnership with New Commercial Arts, shows real-life Sainsbury’s colleague Annie helping the BFG on a mission to capture a 48-foot hungry giant who has just devoured all the Christmas food inside the supermarket’s delivery van.

As the mischievous giant stomps through the town, crashing through the roof of a family’s home to snatch their delicious spread of festive canapés, the BFG and Annie launch into action to deliver a speedy replacement of breadsticks.

After gobbling a Taste the Difference Dry Cure Gammon and tucking into a Christmas dinner, Annie and the BFG discover the giant sleeping soundly outside a Sainsbury’s store. He is whisked away with the help of Sainsbury’s colleagues and Annie invites the BFG to join her for a Christmas lunch.

Although the ad does feature food, it was done with a view to the LHF ad restrictions which came into effect last month, which Davies says Sainsbury’s is “very supportive” of.

“We planned it in from the get-go, so we worked with our food commercial colleagues to look at the innovation list for the year and we selected the products that would be compliant, and those are the ones that we wrote into the storytelling,” she explains, the idea being to ensure there was “no last minute panic”.

The return of the BFG reflects the fact the “the ad performed extremely well” last year, Davies adds.

Last Christmas, almost 20% of big basket customers were entirely new to Sainsbury’s and over half contained a Taste the Difference product, with the range delivering sales growth of 16%. The supermarket also grew grocery market share for the fifth consecutive Christmas.

Being more relevant

The Christmas campaign is run in partnership with Comic Relief, as part of Sainsbury’s 26-year relationship with the charity. Davies explains it is a “crucial time of year” for the partnership to “make sure everybody has a good Christmas”.

To drive visibility the marketing mix is varied, including 60-, 40- and 20-second edits, a separate Comic Relief edit, out-of-home activity, print, and social – the latter which is featuring “heavily”.

“With social, the really helpful thing is being clear on our creative proposition. We always ladder back up to our brand promise which is Good Food for All of Us and this year’s creative idea is all about being ready for anything,” says Davies.

She believes this thinking makes for a “broad way” into talking about all the different festive customer missions, from gifting to hosting. Working with influencers and the grocer’s own colleagues is seen as a gateway in, while TV remains a crucial part of the mix.

“What we’ve become really adept at is having the right message for the right channel. And TV is still really important to tell emotional storytelling and get that initial hook,” says Davies.

Each channel is used to drive consideration and conversion, the idea being to ensure the story “isn’t just one-dimensional”.

Sainsbury’s is in the second year of its ‘Next Level’ strategy aimed at transforming the brand. In the year to 1 March 2025, the supermarket notched up its highest market share gains since 2016, with first quarter sales up 4.9% for Sainsbury’s and 4.4% for Argos.

The retailer’s value perceptions have grown 370 basis points over the past four years, with quality perceptions up 200 basis points – credited in part to the Next Level strategy and ‘Save and invest to win’ programme.

The supermarket’s Nectar Prices offering now spans more than 9,000 products, with over 1 million customers accessing personalised savings each week. The company is working to deliver 500 million weekly personalised offers.

Elsewhere, chief technology, data and marketing officer, Mark Given, was awarded the title of Marketer of the Year at the Marketing Week Awards 2025 last month.

Davies says the grocer is “doing extremely well” with regards its Next Level strategy.

“We’re growing share, our volume sales are up. The fact that we’re trying to be more relevant to more customers on more of their shops, strategically that is absolutely part of Next Level,” she explains.

Really getting people to love Sainsbury’s and remember all of the great things about Sainsbury’s as a brand has been my mission since I’ve joined the business.

Radha Davies, Sainsbury’s

The in-store experience will be key for the brand this Christmas, with Davies calling its stores the “most important channel” in terms of fulfilling their “conversion job”.

The festive strategy is also tied into the grocer’s wider brand and marketing efforts this year for Taste the Difference and Nectar. The ‘Count up to Christmas’ initiative returns this year after more than 1 million customers took part in the scheme in 2024, a promotional challenge that enables members to earn 1,500 bonus Nectar points by completing five personalised tasks.

This work links to Davies’ wider focus on value and “making sure people can afford to shop at Sainsbury’s whatever their budget”. She sees the Christmas campaign as the “climax of this year’s work” around value.

Success of the campaign will be measured in terms of ROI and sales, with KPIs set for different channels and Savanta ad tracking in place.

Looking ahead, Davies’ goal is to leverage the strength of Sainsbury’s as a brand “with so much heritage”.

“Really getting people to love Sainsbury’s and remember all of the great things about Sainsbury’s as a brand has been my mission since I’ve joined the business, and so it will be our ongoing mission to always make sure that we are bringing Good Food for All of Us to life,” she adds.