Co-op Doubles its Community Commitments with Uplifting Spoken Word Poem
Today (Wed 18th Nov) Co-op is launching a new campaign to highlight its pledge that, after a doubly hard year for everyone, the convenience retailer is doubling the amount of money it gives back to community causes.
Co-op recently refreshed its membership programme, making a commitment that 2p in every pound spent by members on own brand products would go to local community causes, doubling what had previously been donated. This year Co-op is paying out £15million from its membership programme, a figure which is now set to reach £30million in 2021.
The new campaign includes a new TV advert which launches tonight, created by Lucky Generals, based on a poem written in conjunction with up-and-coming spoken word artist Sarah Adedeji. The poem has been specifically written to encapsulate how everything has felt doubly difficult this year, but also deliver a message of hope that by working together we will emerge twice as strong.
The ad begins with a girl leaving her house and getting on her bike as the first line of the poem plays out over VO.
“Everything’s sort of double this year, isn’t it? We’re doing double shifts at double the speed, and to the virus we will not concede.”
As she continues her journey through the alleyways and roads of her own community she passes a nurse coming home from a shift, neighbours checking in on each other, and a socially distanced exercise class. It ends with the line: “With all the people giving nothing less than double, up is the only way we’ll build out of this rubble.”
This is part one of the retailer’s Winter 2020 campaign, with part two focusing on Christmas, launching early in December. Both adverts have a central theme of the importance of community, and the tangible positive difference which can really be made in these communities by those who live, work and trade there.
A print and digital partnership with the Mail Metro group and an audio partnership with Global is in place to extend the campaign’s reach.
Matt Atkinson, chief membership and customer officer, Co-op said: “I’m so proud of this advert and campaign. It’s amazing what can happen when small acts of cooperation and support all add up to make a significant impact to the communities we all live in and rely on. The poem cleverly describes how this year has been doubly hard for nearly everyone and we have responded as an organisation with our members support, to double our donations to the many thousands of local community causes we work with across the UK’
Greg Hutchison, director of membership and personalisation, Co-op, said: “Co-op is committed to creating value for our Members and our communities. With the refresh of our Membership programme and launch of our digital app we are able to do even more of this. We’re delighted to be able to double the amount we give to local causes to support the vital work they do in communities, particularly during this challenging time – alongside fantastic rewards, exclusive deals and personalised offers for our Members.”
Sam Beaumont and Jesse Sharpe-O’Hare, creatives at Lucky Generals, said: “It's not just Co-op giving double this year, it feels like literally everyone has been – and still is – working at least twice as hard to keep life moving. So, when working out how to tell people about this 'double support', it only felt right to talk about it from their perspective.”
Tom Green, director, Stink Films said: "From a shooting point of view, we had the challenge of COVID-19; but because of the outstanding work of our producer and production manager everyone felt confident on set. Additionally, as we shot in late autumn we had to work with limited light, wet weather and grey skies. I was keen to maximise the potential that that offered so that things didn't appear too bleak; that we could turn autumn light into something beautiful. I’m extremely happy with what we achieved and believe that this spot is a lovely testimony to the community efforts that we’re all witnessing, across the UK, from street to street.”
The film breaks on TV on 18th November across all major commercial TV channels. Digital versions have been developed by Kin + Carta. The campaign will be supported by long copy press ads which outline exactly how the Co-op directly funds local community projects, from £2.6 million of free school meal vouchers to 104 community centres.
There will also be an OOH element with posters repeating their lines of copy, doubling the message. Instore will be delivered by ITG and PR by Halpern.
