BFG Magic Makes Sainsbury’s Best-ever Christmas Ad

One of the most powerful creative elements available to ads at Christmas is the “Hired Device”. A Hired Device is like a Fluent Device – a great, instantly familiar character who can make your ad more entertaining – but as the name suggests the character is licensed by the brand, not owned. For instance, we’ve seen Shaun The Sheep and Wallace And Gromit promoting several different brands at Christmas over the years – a classic hired device.

Hired Devices can work brilliantly – if it’s a character the audience loves it’s a very direct route to entertaining, emotional work. But it has a risk – the link to the brand needs to be really clear, to make sure the audience isn’t just loving a familiar face and ignoring the brand behind it.

Fortunately Sainsburys this year have given us the perfect example of how to use a Hired Device. It stars beloved Roald Dahl character the BFG (Big Friendly Giant). In the classic kids’ book he befriended Sophie, a human girl, and saved the Queen from the evil, man-eating giants. Now Sophie’s grown up, working at Sainsbury’s, and ready to help the BFG have a great Christmas dinner – since on his own all he’s come up with are recipes like Prawn Coattails.

Agency New Commercial Arts take the pair on a magical journey looking for the best ingredients before some BFG magic transforms them into a feast fit for a giant. The love the brand and agency have for the original BFG story and film is very obvious, with plenty of references to classic scenes and lots of jokes to pick up on multiple viewings. At the end Sophie says farewell to the BFG once more and returns to her busy Christmas shift in Sainsbury’s.

The ad is a triumph of effectiveness: it’s the first ever Sainsbury’s ad to score the maximum 5.9-Stars on the Test Your Ad platform, making it a real contender in the Christmas Ad race. What’s more, it gets the “triple whammy” on Test Your Ad’s three main metrics, getting Exceptional ratings for each. As well as that maximum Star Rating, it gets a massive Spike Rating suggesting a major short-term sales boost. And remember how Hired Devices can sometimes distract from the brand? That’s not what’s happened here, with a 96% Brand Fluency score putting Sainsbury’s in the top bracket there too.

So what do Sainsbury’s get right about their use of the BFG? The main thing is that they stay faithful to the tone of the original. A Hired Device is like an ultimate cultural reference, and we know cultural references work well at driving effectiveness (the evidence is in Orlando Wood’s Lemon) – but you need to get them right. A BFG which didn’t feel like the BFG wouldn’t have worked as well.

There’s also a skillful use of branding in the ad – strong use of Sainsbury’s when Sophie meets and says goodbye to the BFG, but most of the commercial moves away from the brand and shows the BFG roaming around the Christmassy countryside. So Brand Fluency is high but the brand never distracts from the emotion.

The result is a Christmas ad which feels as special as the food, and works as a strongly branded commercial that’s also a lovely tribute to a British children’s classic.

Get into the Christmas Spirit with Our Christmas Advertising Playlist!