OXO’s New Ad? Audiences XOX It
OXO
Chef Maya
When OXO came up with its “OXO family” concept in the early 1980s, it created a template for emotional, effective ads that still works forty years later. The original family, featuring matriarch Lynda Bellingham, had a few elements which wouldn’t work now – today’s OXO Dads are a lot less useless. But the basic concept of funny but authentic feeling sketches of British family life is strong enough to survive being tweaked and refreshed for each new generation.
Agency Above + Beyond are in charge of the latest OXO Family, and for the newest ad they’ve put the spotlight on the adorable junior member Maya, a little girl who is delighted to be head chef for a vital cooking mission: making hotpot for Grandpa’s birthday. With help from her sous chef Dad she stirs the ingredients and tests the food, but has a hunch something’s missing: OXO. The ad ends with a happy Grandpa arriving for his party and praising the young chef, who does acknowledge the help she’s been given! (Is she thanking Dad or OXO? You decide)
The ad also has a new strapline – “Made with OXO, Made with love”, which is brought to life cleverly on screen by the word OXO morphing into the text sign-off XOX. The “XOX” concept – visualised by lining up the brand’s stock cube packs in the end shot – is set to be the centrepiece of OXO’s wider campaign. It associates the brand with the idea of “love” as well as the idea of family, and does it in a way that resonates with younger consumers, to capture OXO’s cross-generational appeal.
How does all this come across to viewers, though? The short answer – they XOX it. “Made With OXO, Made With Love” is the brand’s highest-scoring ad in our database, landing a 4.8-Star Rating, which predicts strong share gain given the right level of investment. Before this new campaign, you have to go back to 2016 to find a previous OXO ad which hits the 4-Star bracket, and this commercial is the third-highest scoring ad ever in the Sauces And Condiments category.
On short-term and branding metrics, the campaign also excels. It gets an exceptional Spike Rating, predicting immediate sales impact, and its Brand Fluency is also exceptional. All three metrics are well above the category average.
What creates this kind of effectiveness? Lots of credit has to go to the execution – some lovely connection and “between-ness” amongst the characters, and a charming central performance by the ad’s young star. Maya’s narration anchors the ad and her final punchline creates a surge in happiness which delivers a “peak end” that boosts effectiveness.
But it’s also worth pointing out how strong the OXO Family concept is – even as times change, the basic idea of vignettes of family life on screen is a rock-solid framework for video ads. OXO may not be the only brand doing it these days, but they still do it better than almost anyone else. And this ad is a great addition to a four-decade legacy of success.