The Every Little Helps tagline has been part of Tesco’s identity for decades, but in the new campaign it is no longer a closing message added to individual offers. Tesco Ireland and the agency BBH Dublin position it as the foundation of a broader brand platform, connecting the company’s different activities through one shared idea of help.
The name That’s Every Little Helps appears after every concrete example of what Tesco does for customers and communities in Ireland. These include supporting more than 27,000 projects through the Tesco Community Fund, working with domestic suppliers such as McCanns Orchard in County Louth and partnering with the Children’s Health Foundation. The campaign also covers actions closer to everyday shopping, such as covering the cost of VAT on its own-brand suncream and donating repurposed end-of-life delivery vans to local charities.
The platform was developed for television, cinema, out-of-home advertising, radio, social media, Clubcard, stores and digital channels. OOH and radio ads launched first, followed by TV, VOD and online communications on 17 August. The campaign is currently active across Ireland.
The television film follows a Tesco colleague throughout her working day, with the company’s individual initiatives transformed into scenes from the communities they are intended to support. The film was directed by Rich Hall through the production company Riff Raff Films and features music by Irish artist Morgana from the album The Whole Thing Was Very Very Emotional.
For the out-of-home advertising, the agency reworked one of the familiar elements from Tesco stores, the colleague name badge. Each badge represents a particular initiative or organisation, giving the broad subject of community support a simple and recognisable format. The executions appear on sites across the country, including a Luas wrap and localised high-impact formats in Terenure.
BBH Dublin collaborated with Irish illustrators Tara O’Brien, Laura Callaghan, Stephen Heffernan and Darren Whittington on this part of the campaign. Their designs did not remain digital illustrations. The agency produced them as physical badge models and then photographed them for the ads, building a visual system that can be adapted to different examples of help.
The radio ads draw on the experiences of colleagues, who discuss the support their stores provide to customers and local organisations. National and local versions allow the unified platform to retain its connection to the places and people it features.
Marcos Gemal, Executive Creative Director at BBH Dublin, describes the creative task as demonstrating the breadth of activities encompassed by the famous tagline. “So we chose to focus on a collection of unexpected ‘helps’, from big to small, that customers may not know about, bringing them to life in a warm and genuine Tesco way,” said Gemal.
Instead of developing a new message for each individual initiative, That’s Every Little Helps gives Tesco a shared framework in which support for a supplier, a donated van, a local project and a pricing decision can all belong to the same brand story.
