Episode 116 - Tesco Voice of Checkout Ad Reviewed by PHD Media and Metro Bank UK
In a world with so many talent shows, supermarkets are now “auditioning” great voices, too. Or at least Tesco have, with their “voice of checkout” TikTok clip.
This audition with the checkout machine, chosen by Contagious, is the topic of this week’s Advertisers Watching Ads featuring guests Pollyanna Ward (Director at PHD Media) and David Brewerton (Head of Growth Marketing at Metro Bank UK).
They both rated this ad a 5 out of 5, rewarding a great use of the platform without too much heavy branding, and yet a very recognisable activation. Watch the latest episode and see what you think!
Episode 116 - Tesco Voice of Checkout Ad Reviewed by PHD Media and Metro Bank
Transcript - It’s not perfect, but you get the idea!
Robert Beckman 0:00
Hi, my name is Bertie, Head of Growth at Automated Creative. And a very warm welcome to this week's Advertisers Watching Ads, the show where brands watch other brands' ads.
A big thank you to our much beloved partner, Contagious, for choosing this week's campaign. And without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to this week's fabulous panel.
Pollyanna Ward 0:24
Hi, I'm Pollyanna Ward, and I'm a Director at PHD Media.
David Brewerton 0:28
Hello. Yeah, I'm David Brewerton. I am Head of Growth Marketing at Metro Bank.
Robert Beckman 0:34
Welcome, guys, and an absolute pleasure to have you here. So this week we look at Tesco's "X Factor" style look for the next voice of their checkout machine. They basically asked TikTok users to duet with the checkout machine to find out who is the going to be the next voice of the checkout machine. And obviously after we've seen the ad, we'll be asking the panel does this campaign check out or not?
So that was the voice of the checkout. On the count of three, just with your hands, give me a mark out of five, which I think is going to be quite high for this. So all together, one, two, three... Wow! Three fives. That is sensational!
David Brewerton 2:14
I love what they've done with this. For me, it is just a perfect use of the platform. It's not, you know, really heavily branded, but there's so much branding involved at the same time with the, you know, the sounds, the voice, the feeling that you get involved with the ad itself. I just love it. I think it's... Demonstrates how you can bring brand to life through, through social really perfectly. Low production but high, high value, high gain.
Pollyanna Ward 2:36
They already were aware that people were sort of doing their own sort of skits around the checkout machine. It's incredibly low cost. Here, I think it just goes to show that TikTok as a platform has democratized creativity for brands and creators and you know, everyday user. But actually then, with that, it then gives you the sort of ammunition to then be able to add spend to it. Whereas if this was, let's say, like a few years ago, sort of pre-TikTok era. An ad... A campaign like this, you know, it would have been very heavily, probably created and crafted... There might have been CGI, there might have been actors and things like that. I think it kind of just shows the evolution of social as well. So yeah, I mean, I really, really enjoyed it. I thought it was just genius, just because it's taken something people are already doing and then giving the power back to them. I thought that was great.
David Brewerton 3:23
I quite like how they've managed to turn something in real life that's actually quite annoying. Like when you're in the store, if it doesn't work for you, like it's frustrating, and you've gotta wait for someone to come over to help. So everyone kind of doesn't really like that experience but puts up with it because it's convenient. But they've turned that actually into like a really fun thing. You know, it's difficult, you know, as we, as we went through social to maintain people's awareness throughout an ad or a piece of content, but I really feel like you know, I've watched this quite a few times now. And every time, I'm like trying to want to watch it 'til the end, it keeps you kind of, it keeps you right 'til the end which is great.
Pollyanna Ward 3:55
The follow ups to it, not necessarily aren't as exciting. I think if you haven't seen all of the videos, you know, they've kind of put the highlight reels up on their TikTok, I almost wonder whether maybe that bit could, could have had a little bit more sort of love given to it or attention. So that aftermath, so after the sort of big spike of, "Oh my gosh! We can audition." And then what is the next level stage to that? And I think if I was to add any improvement, it would be... Right, what happens now? You've got 3000 videos of all these people doing their own takes on it. What can we do that is still in keeping with the TikTok way. I think that would be I guess, a criticism?
Robert Beckman 4:31
Genuinely, I agree with a lot of what you guys have said. I think it is, in many ways awesome. And I think it is a great example of how TikTok has changed the way that brands and advertisers have to think. One of the famous things that came out of it was Aldi's duet where they... And I'm sure you both saw it, where they basically said that, "You don't need a Clubcard because we've got low prices anyway." Do you think that affected it negatively in any way? And I'm clutching at straws here a bit.
David Brewerton 4:59
You know, we all know what Aldi are like. They tend to jump in, when they can add some value. And actually, their response was, you know, it was kind of lighthearted and within the tone of the ad itself. I think some of the other responses were a bit dreary and it's a bit tragic but... In terms of taking anything away from Tesco and the ad, no, I don't think so. I think genuinely people enjoy brands bringing personality. And if you're going to go into this space, then you've got to accept that you might get a challenger like Aldi with a repast. But as long as it's kind of all fine, and it doesn't get too serious. Don't take yourself too seriously like Marks and Spencer might have. Then yeah, it's all good.
Pollyanna Ward 5:34
I think I would almost come back to that sort of paid versus organic argument that kind of surfaces every now and then every time we talk about social media, but again, just taking those two numbers. So you've got 26 million for Tesco and then I saw that Aldi response, I think it only had like 1.3 million even today, counting. You can kind of assume that the people that watched that were already Aldi customers. But the reality is that the purpose of this, I imagine the brief was... I'd like to think it was, "How do we get more Clubcard members with a younger generation?" Right? This is the idea and then we'll put some paid media behind it to reach as many young people on the platform as possible. So I think, when I sort of put that approach on it. I do agree that it is sort of trying to steal Tesco's thunder, but I think from a numbers perspective, looking at that, and understanding and thinking a little bit more about how algorithms and things like that work on social, I don't think it would have dented Tesco in the slightest.
David Brewerton 6:29
I think limited to this campaign, I think I'd be much more worried if I was Tesco. And actually some of the other supermarket brands around there kind of, Aldi price match approach. If you see what they do from a more traditional marketing execution, whether that's in store or external, they kind of plaster the word Aldi and the brand Aldi everywhere. It's like wallpaper at the moment in a lot of supermarkets. I think that's probably a lot more damaging than kind of the "brandter" type thing that you get on social.
Robert Beckman 6:56
David, what do you think marketers can learn from this success?
David Brewerton 6:59
It's not easy for every brand to play in every social channel. It's just not the right thing to do sometimes. So putting in a lot of thought and work on into this rather than it kind of been you know, it can look when it's low production value, when it's you know, when it doesn't require a lot of, of investment from a monetary point of view, it can look like it's something that anyone could be doing. And then it's something that's easy to do. But actually, probably, sometimes some of these more simple ideas are the best ideas. And we don't need vast production budgets. It's just about tapping into trends, tapping into things that people are interested in. Understanding the platform, understanding how people use the platform, and then just using that to see where your role is within the platform and the audience.
Robert Beckman 7:36
Pollyanna, what do you think marketers can learn from it?
Pollyanna Ward 7:38
The learning really here is that to get a viral campaign on TikTok, you kind of need to rip up that brand book and, of course, take you know, your legal team and your brand team on that journey and demonstrate to them, you know, benefits, any risks, and obviously have that plan B, or you know, an exit strategy if it goes wrong. But I think here, it is very much testament to the teams to kind of release some of those brand guardrails that probably are there before. So I'd say that would be the main one. You know, we see a lot of sort of copycat content. One brand sort of starts it off, and then other brands just sort of copy it. Like, "No, we've seen what they're doing." Kind of across in the community. And we're going to put it all together with our existing distinctive asset, which is the checkout machine and the voice and then push it out.
David Brewerton 8:24
Just hats off to the Tesco team and I assume that it is BBH team to pull this together because it's a step out there. Out of their comfort zone, probably. As Pollyanna said that, you know, they've got a big brand to protect, so it's not easy to make these things happen. So yeah, hats off.
Robert Beckman 8:41
Pollyanna, David, thank you for being absolutely fabulous guests.
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