Waitrose’s festive, two-part whodunnit campaign helped the supermarket make the most of its relatively meagre media budget and hold people’s interest for longer, amassing more than 150 million views.
The Sweet Suspicion campaign — which featured an all-star cast, including Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen and Fleabag’s Sian Clifford — began on 5 November, with a film about a family Christmas thrown into disarray by the disappearance of a Red Velvet Bauble Dessert.
ITV trailed and launched the ad like it was a drama programme, as part of a partnership with Waitrose, and the campaign ran across other TV channels, as well as BVOD and online video, with additional executions across print, radio and social media.
The second instalment of the campaign, in which the pudding thief is caught, was released on 26 November.
‘You see a lot of creative scripts, but to have one that gives you so much creativity in media is brilliant,’ says Geraldine Ridgway, executive director at MG OMD, which handled the media for the campaign.
According to Ridgway, the agency worked with Waitrose’s customer insights team and used Omnicom Media Group’s audience insights tool, Omni, to understand people’s Christmas shopping behaviours. These insights informed the media plan, which in addition to the films and posters, included a physical evidence board (assessing the suspects) at London’s King’s Cross Station, polls on Waitrose’s website and on social media that invited people to guess the culprit, and in-store clues to help customers solve the mystery.
‘To have something with all the tropes that let us go into new places and spaces was key this year,’ says Ridgway, ‘because otherwise you’re all just playing in the same space and it becomes a bit hard to differentiate.’
‘Waitrose is an incredibly collaborative client,’ adds Ridgway. ‘Particularly for media, it’s about iterating, developing and building the entire idea as it comes.’
Working closely and being aligned with Saatchi & Saatchi, the Publicis-owned agency that handled the creative, was also key to the campaign’s success.
‘Obviously at Christmas the number-one thing is about getting that cut through when we’ve got such a low budget,’ says Ridgway. ‘I don’t think any client is comfortable with the amount of budget they’ve got, but Waitrose does have a significantly lower share of voice than many of its competitors. The need for media and creative to work exceptionally together is vital, because everything has to punch above its weight.’
The Sweet Suspicion campaign was created in line with Waitrose’s overall media strategy for 2024, which was about being more ‘visible and present,’ says Ridgway.
Leaving three weeks between the two campaign films, and filling that gap with multi-channel executions and partnerships, helped Waitrose keep the intrigue alive, and sustain people’s awareness of the retailer beyond the launch. ‘To have media and creative work together in that second moment has been a gift,’ adds Ridgway.
According to Waitrose, the campaign has garnered ‘over 150 million views across social, TV and digital channels, making part one Waitrose’s biggest ever Christmas campaign, ranking number one on YouTube’s Christmas Ad Leaderboard.’ Although Ridgway was unable to share specific numbers, she mentioned that Waitrose has been happy with the performance of the campaign. Research from adtech company Quantcast shows that the campaign increased the supermarket’s addressable audience by 19%, coming in seventh in the category.
Featured image: Waitrose Sweet Suspicion
Update 18.12.24: The name of the agency on this article was updated to MG OMD from Manning Gottlieb OMD.