// Sainsbury’s has launched its Christmas campaign to show off its history
// The grocer aimed to create a “heartwarming” ad
// The campaign will air during ITV’s Emmerdale tonight
Sainsbury’s has released its 2019 Christmas advert which illustrates the grocer’s history as it celebrates its 150th year of trading.
The Big 4 grocer’s TV campaign, which is already online, will air during ITV’s Emmerdale tonight and tells a Christmas story based around the first Sainsbury’s store, which opened in 1869.
The ad follows the story of an orphan, Nick, who is wrongly accused of stealing a clementine from the Sainsbury’s store.
After enduring several trials, he turns out to be the child who will one day be Father Christmas.
Sainsbury’s head of broadcast marketing Laura Boothby, who played a part in bringing the ad together, told the press at a Christmas screening that the retailer “wanted to stay true to its heritage”.
“It’s been a special year for Sainsbury’s and we felt it was fitting for our Christmas advert to look back and celebrate the role we’ve played in making Christmas Christmas for the nation for the past 150 years. We’ve always helped to bring a bit of sparkle to everyone’s Christmas, be it through the delicious turkey, brussel sprouts or even exotic clementines!
“When we make Christmas ads we think: ‘will customers like it?’ ‘will they remember it?’ ‘will they recognise it as a Sainsbury’s ad?’,” Boothby said.
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She added that Sainsbury’s aimed to come up with a “heartwarming” campaign despite the challenges the companies face when attempting to undertake this with a grocery advert.
“In the retail industry, it’s always incredibly pressured to create a Christmas advert,” she said.
“This is the only year that we can keep saying it’s our 150th year, and we’ll put that in everything we do.”
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