Tesco drops ‘Food Love Stories’ after seven years

Tesco has retired ‘Food Love Stories’ after seven years, replacing it with a new brand platform – ‘It’s Not a Little Thing. It’s Everything’ – as it looks to “highlight the emotional impact of food”.

The supermarket is launching a series of vignettes under the new platform, which highlight how food can help people express different feelings such as gratitude or an apology.

Made in collaboration with BBH, the campaign will run across TV, video-on-demand, cinema, social, radio, out-of-home and digital. Plus it will be launching a limited-edition bag for life, where the Tesco logo is replaced with the words: laugh, share, party, treat and loved, which are featured in the film.

“When it comes to food, every detail matters to us, because we know the role it plays in our customers’ lives,” says Murray Bisschop, UK marketing director at Tesco. “Our new campaign captures this.”

Tesco’s Food Love Stories campaign changed how the retailer spoke about food in its advertising, positioning it as a brand that understands the role food plays in its customers’ lives.

It involved activations such as urging customers to film and dedicate their own food love stories on social media. Its success contributed to Tesco winning Marketing Week’s Brand of the Year award in 2020.

The retailer saw its “biggest ever Christmas” in the year just gone as the supermarket achieved its highest market share (28.5%) since 2016.

Tesco also went for emotion in its nostalgic gingerbread Christmas ad, which it worked with customers on to find a storyline that resonated.

At the time, Bisschop said customers love the “human story first and foremost”, with head of marketing Alicia Southgate saying the campaign was about showing to customers that the brand is “there to help in our little ways throughout Christmas”.