Every so often a TV commercial comes along that features an 'employee' of the advertising organisation - think Halifax, KFC and Kwik-Fit - that pretty well defines the employee experience for the multitude. Sainsbo's are the latest to take this route, with their ITV2-heavy 'Back To Work' campaign featuring 42 year-old single mum, Sarah.
Ignore the fact that Sarah is quite obviously Tricia from Corrie (harassed single Mum and, if I remember correctly, one time squeeze of dubious lothario Curly Watts) if you can. The question here is - is this a conscious effort to articulate the Sainsbury's EB as it pertains to in-store employees, or has (once again) HR been steamrollered by their more muscular siblings in the Marketing Dept?
Let's look at the ad and see what it tells us about working in-store at Sainsbo's:
- They're more than happy to hire 42 year-old single mums.
- There's camaraderie in the workplace. (Witness Sarah's wave to the guy pushing the trolleys, and her banter with the colleague at the end.)
- It's somehow fun. ('I'm having a great time'.)
- It's a good way to generate ideas for feeding your boisterous family on the cheap.
All this is fine, if pretty familiar fare for retail recruitment. And you can argue that it's stronger than what appears in the 'Great Place To Work' page on the Sainbury's site. There, you have to wade through all the HR-centric rhetoric about people policies, diversity and CSR before you get to the meagre employee-centric propositions about development, recognition and reward.
So, it doesn't actually conflict, but it doesn't marry up that much either. Perhaps it'll develop as the campaign continues. (Sarah gets to meet Jamie Oliver in the next installment.)
The point of all this: more people will develop an understanding of the Sainsbo's EB from this commercial (with its multi-million media spend) than from any of the rec ads, web pages and in-store bumpf the HR dept is producing.
So did HR and Marketing converse on this - and if not, why not?
This is about as edgy as an Andrex ad. I’ve now lost 40 seconds of my life, forever.
The only way this campaign can possibly be redeemed is if Sarah hunts -- and kills -Jamie Oliver in that promised next installment.
* crosses fingers *
Posted by: local_celebrity | September 16, 2008 at 12:40 PM