Morrisons still has its own farms (it seems) and therefore a whole food chain all to itself. Which is a pretty strong selling point although Waitrose appears to have some of this too.*
Anyway, it’s been the cornerstone of Morrisons marketing for ages, down to its ‘market street’ aisles in the shops. Not that they seem that different to anyone else’s. And you still don’t really associate Morrisons with “back to nature” although that’s the underlying theme of Leo UK’s Christmas effort.
So we start work with farmers in the summer and go all the way to the big day (another delivery, they feature in all the supermarket ads. Maybe the self-serve tills they love so much can’t cope with Christmas orders – whoops.)
Credit for trying something different – not really convinced though. Morrisons currently has something of an identity crisis.
MAA creative scale: 5.5.
Meanwhile M&S has enlisted two national treasures for its in-house food offer; Dawn French (as ever) and chef Tom Kerridge, who’s everywhere at the moment including everything M&S (Tom’s efforts seem to come with a £100 price tag.) Mercifully genial Tom’s kept to a minimum here.
French’s efforts from M&S usually feature highly in System1 Xmas rankings (alongside that carrot) and a bit more thought than usual has gone into this, even though it’s reliably silly. Another ad showing some Christmas frustrations (the whole country seems becalmed by roadworks and temporary traffic lights) alongside Asda’s price-conscious Grinch.
MAA creative scale: 7 (surprising ourselves.)
*Interesting that Waitrose took a similar route in 2022.
