With ‘Sweet Suspicion’, Waitrose Wants You to Solve a Christmas Mystery

“It was certainly one of the most ambitious shoots I've ever done in 20 odd years of making advertising,” said Nathan Ansell, Waitrose’s chief marketing officer. The ad in question is ‘Sweet Suspicion, A Waitrose Mystery’ which rejects festive cliches in favour of a whodunnit and ropes in some serious actors to help set the scene. Joe Wilkinson, Rahkee Thakrar, Sian Clifford, Dustin Demri-Burns and Eryl Maynard are all suspects in the crime of the missing pudding. And the amateur detective tasked with finding the culprit? None other than Matthew Macfadyen himself. Oh, and there’s also an adorable and mischievous cat called Fig who certainly looks like a likely suspect. 

Unusually, this is only part one, ending on a cliff-hanger, and setting in motion an integrated campaign to get the nation to follow the clues and try to guess who was responsible before the big reveal at the end of November. 

The 90-second film, created by Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by BAFTA-winning Lucy Forbes with production from Smuggler, shows a family of food lovers all busily preparing Christmas dinner until the realisation that the show-stopping No.1 Waitrose Red Velvet Bauble Dessert has gone missing. Alongside the actual stars, the food likewise takes centre stage and features some of the new and delicious products from the Waitrose Christmas range, like the melting Reuben Rarebit, crumbly Brown Butter Mince Pies with Cognac and a Glorious Treacle Glazed Turkey Crown.

“A big part of the strategy was about showing the making of Christmas dinner. So before we got to any mystery and whodunnit of the creative narrative that went on top of that, we were very focused. We have a lot of data to say that says that Waitrose customers enjoy making Christmas dinner, they take a huge amount of pride in it,” said Franki Goodwin, chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi. “That gave us a hook creatively around the context, but not the concept.”

The food, naturally, was the anchor that the creative team kept coming back to. “That's where we got to this idea of the whole family coming together, Christmas dinner being made, and everybody playing their role in that,” Franki added.  The idea for the missing pudding was “pitched in one line,” Franki said, with everyone’s alibi taking on a food theme. She continues: “Every time we developed the idea, I kept pushing the team and reminding them to go back to the food. Whenever there was a twist, we took it back to the food.”

“The food is so important to the story. It’s the MacGuffin, as you would call it in film language. That's why it feels so satisfying as a piece of advertising as well, because it's not shoehorning it in,” Franki added. 

Neither a crime mystery nor a cliff-hanger are what we would typically associate with the festive season. How did the Saatchi & Saatchi team sell the idea to Waitrose? “There was literally no selling required. It was one of those ideas that's just genius,” said Nathan. “Everything just comes together.” It was clear to Nathan that this was the right idea because it spoke to the heart of what it means to gather with family and cook that all-important meal. “Christmas dinner is a high stakes affair, right? It's always high pressure and high stakes when you're cooking anything for a crowd.”

That’s why the mystery genre worked so well, according to Nathan, and it was backed by insights too. “We know that it's one of the favourite genres for our customers to watch. And particularly around Christmas time. It’s not just about watching, but people get together and they play board games and they’re trying to guess whodunnit. So that air of mystery is always kind of hanging around Christmas time as well,” he added. 

Mystery, thriller, and crime have all been incredibly popular in contemporary culture, especially with hits like ‘Knives Out’, ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, and 'The Traitors'. “The genre has been elevated over the last five years. You can now push it to a space that's quite filmic. This gave us room to draw from both a British, fun and hammy mood, but then we also elevated [it] by bringing in an A-list cast,” she explained. 

While the TV ad is the undisputed star, it’s only one in a constellation of content that makes up this integrated campaign. It’s supported by social content made up of interviews with the suspects about their alibis (even Fig gets a moment to shine) and will be supported further by OOH activations and retail media, all helping build the suspense and excitement over the reveal. This was a chance to do something different and to extend the initial festivities that a Christmas ad launch brings over a longer period, rather than leave it languishing as so often happens. He likewise noted that customer feedback revealed that they’ve been finding Christmas ads to be quite same-y and Waitrose took that feedback in, opting to try something pretty different. “We wanted to bring drama, humour, suspense and fun,” said Nathan. “We take food seriously but not ourselves.”

It’s an industry adage to not work with animals or children and this spot features both yet Franki said it was a “very efficient shoot in that we had multiple teams running it and we were doing a lot in terms of logistics. It was beautifully managed, there weren’t any big crises! It was just about making sure that the food looks amazing,” she added. Was Fig the cat well-behaved? “The cat was very well behaved. We joke about these things, but when I was looking at scripts and at the logistics, you do think about these things, and you wonder, does this story really need a cat? It really did. And the children were remarkably good too,” she added with a big smile. 

“We had an amazing team from Saatchi & Saatchi, fantastic creatives, but also a brilliant director and an amazing cast. The production by Smuggler was brilliant. Everything came together really, really well. It was exceptional,” added Nathan, commenting on the whole process. 

Of the incredible cast, Franki pointed out that “most hadn't done advertising before,” adding: “I would argue that one of the big motivating factors in getting involved is how much they love Waitrose. I think people love the brand, and we were able to leverage that for this very happy creative shoot.” For Nathan and Waitrose, the casting process was about more than star appeal. “We always work with people who genuinely love the brand. The most important word I’d use here is ‘authenticity’; it’s really important that it’s an authentic fit.”

With the ongoing cost of living crisis, conjuring a sense of fun was vital for the brand. Nathan summarised it: “It’s one of those times of year where families get together and there's a little bit of suspending disbelief and having a moment. We've all got challenges in our lives but Christmas is a time of the year when you can leave some of those to one side and go and have some fun together. That’s really what we tried to do.”