Co-op is reminding consumers of its roots with a bold new brand platform and integrated, multiplatform campaign, stating ‘If you were inventing a business today, you’d invent Co-op’.
Created by VCCP London, ‘Owned By You, Right By You’ has been designed to reintroduce Co-op to the nation, highlighting the social and financial benefits of its co-operative business model.
The campaign was devised in response to the fact that over 50% of consumers don’t understand what a co-operative business actually is.
The new brand proposition will extend across all channels, including retail and POS.
Breaking the grocery mould
A 60″ campaign film uses stop-motion animation created with printed till receipts to tell Co-op’s story, breaking the mould of traditional price-focused grocery adverts.
It emphasises the business’ structure, ethics and values before asking how to create the perfect business. The ad gives a nod to typical grocery messaging by its spotlighting low prices, as well as emphasising quality products, ethical practices and the group’s investment in community support.
A voiceover from This Is England’s Michael Socha states: “If you were inventing a business today, you’d do right by people… all people”.
The film was created by VCCP’s global content creation studio Girl&Bear, who worked with multi award-winning director Sam Gainsborough and Blinkink to bring the film to life.
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Running until the end of the summer, the new campaign will launch tonight (17 July) during Coronation Street on ITV1. In an ITV first, the ad will be teased as the channel’s logo turns black and white, mirroring the receipt-focused campaign creative.
The film will also be shown across BVOD, YouTube and in premium cinema spots.
Co-op: great business, doing good
The integrated campaign, with media planning and buying by Carat UK (a Dentsu company) will also run across other platforms including D/OOH, press, radio, social and digital. It will be delivered in partnership with MullenLowe for owned social, web and app, ITG for retail and POS and Halpern for PR.
Elsewhere, a bespoke, targeted OOH plan includes a hand-painted mural in Manchester’s Northern Quarter as well as the London Underground, while Say It Now will integrate an audio call to action, driving audiences to sign up via the Co-op membership page.
VCCP ECDs Chris Birch and Jonny Parker said: “We are both lifelong superfans of Co-op so it’s a dream of ours and an honour to have worked on this.
“It is a brand that has so much to say and does so much good that we wanted to share its incredible story and to turn everyone else into superfans too,” they continued.
“It is a great business, run in a unique way – it stands alone in its own category in that respect – and it’s never been more needed. If you were going to invent a business today, you’d have to invent Co-op.”
Doing business differently
Today, Co-op operates almost 2,400 food stores, over 800 funeral homes and provides products to over 6,000 other stores. As a business, it is currently owned by over 5 million members and earlier this year announced its ambition to grow the number of member-owners to 8 million by 2030.
“At Co-op, we have been proudly delivering a different way of doing business for 180 years,” said the group’s chief membership and customer officer Kenyatte Nelson.
“Now is the time to champion the co-operative model and demonstrate how it provides a solution to many of the challenges we face today. That is why we are on a mission to re-introduce Co-op’s core values and principles to the UK.
“Through our ‘Owned By You, Right By You’ campaign we will remind the nation that by simply shopping at Co-op as a member-owner, you get a say in how the business is run, lower prices on the products and services you need, and the opportunity to create better societal outcomes in the communities where you live.”
