Ocado positions itself as a Christmas stressbuster

Like the recent Airbnb advert, Ocado Retail is playing to its strengths to win over audiences this Christmas. And it seems to be working.

With a reported 7% rise in its like-for-like sales over the Christmas period on last year, Ocado’s latest Christmas campaign with Mischief is clearly playing to the zeitgeist by focusing on the therapeutic benefits of online shopping. But, as if we needed reminding, there’s also some science to back its claim…

Ocado is prescribing a weekly dose of Ocado Retail to lower festive stress (they would though, wouldn’t they?), teaming up with the boffins at Oxford University, where Professor Charles Spence conducted an experiment that revealed that in-store shopping spiked heart rates similar to those seen when watching a horror film.

An online shop, meanwhile, was found to lower heart rates to yoga class levels, giving a zen incentive to avoid the crowds. On average, Christmas shoppers, apparently, spend one hour and 53 minutes on their festive food run, with most needing more than two trips to ensure they have all of the essentials. Many still find themselves making last-minute dashes for milk, bread, and potatoes.

When shopping online, participants had an average heart rate of 79bpm during their Christmas shop, which is comparable to practising yoga or stroking a pet.

Our take

Although stylistically very different, messaging-wise Ocado’s advert reminded us of Airbnb’s recent campaign, which used its core value (in this case the cosy appeal of ‘homeliness’) to appeal to Christmas travellers.

Ocado is also putting its biggest sell front and centre: namely the undeniable convenience of clicking your way to a home delivery.

Adverts aren’t always the online retailer's medium of choice at Christmas. In 2021, it turned to personalised email marketing rather than TV advertising, sending more than 600,000 customers an “early Christmas present”, in the form of a personalised video summarising their year of shopping with online retailer.

Ocado may not often do Christmas adverts then, but when it does, it nails them. And, while this effort doesn’t feature CGI giants or lovable carrots, it’s undeniably effective in bringing home exactly what it wanted to deliver.