Tesco Mobile: shopping trolly embarks on quest to save consumers from rivals

Part of the brand’s mission to call out bad practices by other mobile operators.

Tesco has launched an integrated campaign for its “super helpful mobile” spanning radio, out-of-home, print, digital and social, and a TV ad that follows the odyssey of a benevolent shopping trolly.

Part of the brand platform “Supermarket mobile”, the campaign reinforces Tesco’s claim that it prioritises customer service in a “category that doesn’t”, via measures such as eschewing surprise price hikes and earning customers Clubcard points.

Created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty London, the work depicts the ways in which Tesco Mobile helps its customers. For instance, three OOH ads use food imagery to convey the brand’s helpfulness. One execution features a picture of a smartphone, with a slice removed revealing a Victoria sponge. “Earn Clubcard points on every mobile bill. Piece of cake”, the copy reads. “This is supermarket mobile”.

The TV ad, “The epic mission”, opens on a dark and rainy night in a Tesco car park, where a mobile bill bearing the words “Mobile increase” blows up against the cage of a shopping trolley. The sentient trolly then embarks on a quest across the UK, on roads, through fields, even hitching a tow with a kid cycling up a hill.

The spot cuts to a woman on her phone, frustrated as she speaks to her mobile operator’s call centre, bemoaning that her bill has gone up. She is distracted by the heroic trolly and cuts her call short before riding the trolly to her local Tesco. “Join the network but won’t increase prices during your contract,” the voiceover says. “This is super helpful mobile. This is supermarket mobile.”

Rachel Swift, Tesco Mobile’s chief marketing officer, said: “We know how hard it is this year with the rising cost of living, so it’s important now more than ever, to provide Tesco shoppers with an unrivalled mobile experience that they can’t get from other networks – like being truly helpful and offering exclusive rewards.”

The TV ad was directed by 32 through Pulse Films and created by Tom Chancellor and Gavin Torrance. BBH collaborated with Electric Theatre Collective on post-production and with CGI specialist Illusion. Media planning and buying was by MediaCom UK.

Uche Ezugwu, BBH creative director, said: “Tesco Mobile is a challenger brand in the noisy world of telecoms. We created an idea that would right the wrongs of the industry, showing how Tesco Mobile is the customer champion. Work that would ‘hero’ their underdog spirit, helping customers in a way that only Tesco Mobile can.”