7th February 2024, London, UK: Valentine’s Day is meant for meaningful gestures, but sometimes, even the best intentions can lead to some questionable gifts. This year, Morrisons, in collaboration with Leo Burnett UK, is helping the nation make it right with Get Personal This Valentine’s Day—a campaign that turns real customer gifting mishaps into bespoke love songs.
At the heart of the campaign are three original tracks, inspired by true customer stories and sourced through a nationwide callout. The three songs— “Dine in for 2, for my honey boo”, “Oh baby let me buy you a strawberry tart,” and “Nothing says I love you like a giant cookie” – each tell the story of a past Valentine’s Day gift that may have slightly missed the mark. These humorous songs serve as playful apologies and highlight Morrisons’ products as a better solution this year, offering up a Giant Cookie, a Strawberry Tart, and The Best Dine-in for Two instead.
Produced in collaboration with Ninja Tune and artist Dirty Nice, the tracks span multiple genres, from R&B slow jams to power ballads, and will be promoted with single cover artwork and animated music videos across social media. Each track ends with the record label-style watermark, “It’s the loving season, Morrisons have all the reasons.” Artwork for the campaign was created by Leo Burnett’s in-house design team, POPDesign.
On 10th February, Morrisons will also launch a 20” TV film, Personal Dedication, spotlighting another couple’s Valentine’s redemption story. The film is dedicated to Marion, whose partner, Michael, makes a public apology for purchasing her a bin last year. This year, he’s making it up to her by cooking her favourite meal with Morrisons’ The Best Dine In for Two meal deal.
As part of a broader social and audio-first strategy, the love songs will be amplified across key digital platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Spotify. To further drive conversation, Morrisons is the official launch partner for Elizabeth Day’s new podcast How To Date, co-hosted with Married At First Sight’s Mel Schilling, which aims to help the nation navigate modern dating. Running alongside this, OOH, radio, and press activations will also highlight how the nation can do better by showcasing the many Valentines’ Day offers available at Morrisons. Media planning and buying was led by Wavemaker.
To source customers’ gift-giving stories, Morrisons and Leo Burnett ran a nationwide competition via social, offering participants the chance to win a spa break for two. The competition amassed over 5,000 responses, revealing some of Britain’s most unexpected Valentine’s gifts, including an electric screwdriver, a calculator, a bin, and nothing at all.
Mark Elwood, Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett UK, said: “This campaign showcases some bold, but ultimately not quite right Valentine’s Day choices. Clearly, we need to help the nation out. We’re helping Morrisons shoppers make up for some past missteps with some good ol’ love songs. You’re welcome, Valentines!”
Megan Fisher, Social Media Manager at Morrisons, added: “We love helping our customers make special occasions truly unforgettable. This campaign is all about turning those ‘What were you thinking?’ gifts of the past into something thoughtful and heartfelt – making this Valentine’s Day one to remember for all the right reasons!”
