Sainsbury’s is bringing the BFG again for Christmas 2025 in an advert centered on serving to others over the festive season, designed to “mirror” the grocery store’s model tone of voice. Persevering with the BFG marketing campaign, a part of Sainsbury’s long-standing inventive platform ‘Good Meals for All of Us’, was a no brainer for advertising and marketing director, Radha Davies.
“It pushed all of these buttons when it comes to the nostalgia and the emotion. Prospects actually associated to the character and it introduced plenty of pleased reminiscences. That’s a part of the magic you want for a terrific Christmas advert,” says Davies.
Supply: Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s is bringing the BFG again for Christmas 2025 in an advert centered on serving to others over the festive season, designed to “mirror” the grocery store’s model tone of voice.
Persevering with the BFG marketing campaign, a part of Sainsbury’s long-standing inventive platform ‘Good Meals for All of Us’, was a no brainer for advertising and marketing director, Radha Davies.
“It pushed all of these buttons when it comes to the nostalgia and the emotion. Prospects actually associated to the character and it introduced plenty of pleased reminiscences. That’s a part of the magic you want for a terrific Christmas advert,” says Davies.
“For us, and the story we needed to inform this 12 months, it was very a lot about how Sainsbury’s is there so that you can be prepared for something and the BFG was the proper automobile to assist us inform that story once more.”
The marketing campaign, created in partnership with New Business Arts, reveals real-life Sainsbury’s colleague Annie serving to the BFG on a mission to seize a 48-foot hungry large who has simply devoured all of the Christmas meals contained in the grocery store’s supply van.
Because the mischievous large stomps via the city, crashing via the roof of a household’s dwelling to grab their scrumptious unfold of festive canapés, the BFG and Annie launch into motion to ship a speedy substitute of breadsticks.
After gobbling a Style the Distinction Dry Treatment Gammon and tucking right into a Christmas dinner, Annie and the BFG uncover the enormous sleeping soundly outdoors a Sainsbury’s retailer. He’s whisked away with the assistance of Sainsbury’s colleagues and Annie invitations the BFG to hitch her for a Christmas lunch.
Though the advert does characteristic meals, it was performed with a view to the LHF advert restrictions which got here into impact final month, which Davies says Sainsbury’s is “very supportive” of.
“We deliberate it in from the get-go, so we labored with our meals business colleagues to have a look at the innovation listing for the 12 months and we chosen the merchandise that might be compliant, and people are those that we wrote into the storytelling,” she explains, the thought being to make sure there was “no final minute panic”.
The return of the BFG displays the actual fact the “the advert carried out extraordinarily nicely” final 12 months, Davies provides.
Final Christmas, nearly 20% of huge basket prospects have been completely new to Sainsbury’s and over half contained a Style the Distinction product, with the vary delivering gross sales progress of 16%. The grocery store additionally grew grocery market share for the fifth consecutive Christmas.
Being extra related
The Christmas marketing campaign is run in partnership with Comedian Reduction, as a part of Sainsbury’s 26-year relationship with the charity. Davies explains it’s a “essential time of 12 months” for the partnership to “ensure everyone has a very good Christmas”.
To drive visibility the advertising and marketing combine is diversified, together with 60-, 40- and 20-second edits, a separate Comedian Reduction edit, out-of-home exercise, print, and social – the latter which is that includes “closely”.
“With social, the actually useful factor is being clear on our inventive proposition. We at all times ladder again as much as our model promise which is Good Meals for All of Us and this 12 months’s inventive thought is all about being prepared for something,” says Davies.
She believes this considering makes for a “broad method” into speaking about all of the totally different festive buyer missions, from gifting to internet hosting. Working with influencers and the grocery store’s personal colleagues is seen as a gateway in, whereas TV stays an important a part of the combination.
“What we’ve turn out to be actually adept at is having the precise message for the precise channel. And TV continues to be actually vital to inform emotional storytelling and get that preliminary hook,” says Davies.
Every channel is used to drive consideration and conversion, the thought being to make sure the story “isn’t simply one-dimensional”.
Supply: Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s is within the second 12 months of its ‘Subsequent Stage’ technique geared toward reworking the model. Within the 12 months to 1 March 2025, the grocery store notched up its highest market share features since 2016, with first quarter gross sales up 4.9% for Sainsbury’s and 4.4% for Argos.
The retailer’s worth perceptions have grown 370 foundation factors over the previous 4 years, with high quality perceptions up 200 foundation factors – credited partly to the Subsequent Stage technique and ‘Save and make investments to win’ programme.
The grocery store’s Nectar Costs providing now spans greater than 9,000 merchandise, with over 1 million prospects accessing personalised financial savings every week. The corporate is working to ship 500 million weekly personalised provides.
Elsewhere, chief expertise, knowledge and advertising and marketing officer, Mark Given, was awarded the title of Marketer of the 12 months on the Advertising and marketing Week Awards 2025 final month.
Davies says the grocery store is “doing extraordinarily nicely” with regards its Subsequent Stage technique.
“We’re rising share, our quantity gross sales are up. The truth that we’re making an attempt to be extra related to extra prospects on extra of their retailers, strategically that’s completely a part of Subsequent Stage,” she explains.
Actually getting individuals to like Sainsbury’s and bear in mind all the nice issues about Sainsbury’s as a model has been my mission since I’ve joined the enterprise.
Radha Davies, Sainsbury’s
The in-store expertise will likely be key for the model this Christmas, with Davies calling its shops the “most vital channel” when it comes to fulfilling their “conversion job”.
The festive technique can be tied into the grocery store’s wider model and advertising and marketing efforts this 12 months for Style the Distinction and Nectar. The ‘Rely as much as Christmas’ initiative returns this 12 months after greater than 1 million prospects took half within the scheme in 2024, a promotional problem that permits members to earn 1,500 bonus Nectar factors by finishing 5 personalised duties.
This work hyperlinks to Davies’ wider deal with worth and “ensuring individuals can afford to buy at Sainsbury’s no matter their funds”. She sees the Christmas marketing campaign because the “climax of this 12 months’s work” round worth.
Success of the marketing campaign will likely be measured when it comes to ROI and gross sales, with KPIs set for various channels and Savanta advert monitoring in place.
Wanting forward, Davies’ objective is to leverage the energy of Sainsbury’s as a model “with a lot heritage”.
“Actually getting individuals to like Sainsbury’s and bear in mind all the nice issues about Sainsbury’s as a model has been my mission since I’ve joined the enterprise, and so will probably be our ongoing mission to at all times be sure that we’re bringing Good Meals for All of Us to life,” she provides.
