Kevin the Carrot returns (with kids) as Aldi’s Christmas campaign continues fairytale story
Kevin the Carrot has returned to screens, taking centre stage in Aldi’s Christmas campaign once again.
The retailer released a trailer last week, teasing the return of character that’s been at the heart of its festive advertising for the past two years with a spoof of a Coca-Cola ad.
After a perilous journey to meet Santa in 2016 and meeting his wife-to-be Katie in 2017, Kevin’s fairytale story has this year picked up in “times medieval” where Katie and his kids are being held captive by Pascal the evil Parsnip (of course).
The first 60-second film to be released follows Kevin as he makes his way across an Aldi-food laden table to save Katie, Chantenay, Baby Carrot and Jasper.
Other ads in the campaign will feature Kevin re-telling fairy tales, such as ‘Kevin the Carrot and Pea-nocchio’, ‘Katie the Carrot and the Fairy Cake Mother’ and ‘Kevin the Carrot and RhubarbStiltskin’.
“Our customers told us how much they love Kevin the Carrot and want him back this Christmas,” said Adam Zavalis, marketing director at Aldi UK on the colourful character’s return.
“Whilst Kevin gets up to more adventures, this time it’s all within the context of fairy tale stories being read to the family and each story brings to life our very best Christmas produce.”
Award-winning actor Jim Broadbent has also returned to narrate the ad, as has the soundtrack from Edward Scissorhands.
Dave Price, executive creative director at Aldi’s long-running ad agency, McCann UK, said: “Everyone loves Kevin the Carrot – or so we thought. Turns out someone is boiling with rage at his success.
"This titanic battle between Pascal the Parsnip and Kevin is the centerpiece of the 2018 Aldi Christmas campaign. It’s a tale of jealousy, food, rage, and more food; a story with deep roots, sometimes 12 or 14 inches long.”
The campaign will launch on Friday 9 November during ITV News
As retailers wrestle with the best creative advertising to lure shoppers during the most competitive shopping period of the year, Aldi has found continuity to be a more effective strategy (a tip Tesco appears to have taken with the return of the same campaign it ran for Christmas 2017).
In the first year it launched in 2016, Kevin help Aldi achieve a 15.1% increase in sales while last year it beat John Lewis’ Moz the Monster and M&S’ Paddington Bear when it came to social engagement, generating greater mentions on Facebook and Twitter within five minutes of airing than any other retailers’ campaign.