Date
3/16/2023
Client
Albert Heijn
Project Type
Agency
Happiness Brussels
Briefing
As thé leading supermarket brand in The Netherlands, ‘ALBERT HEIJN’ entered the Belgian market at about 10 years ago. But with the Belgian retail market being very, very protective and saturated with national and international legacy brands, after more than a decade of campaigning still 50% of Belgians didn’t consider setting foot in an ALBERT HEIJN store. So, how could get those Belgians to finally open-up to a Dutch brand?
Solution
To finally break the resistance, they needed Belgians to come to their store without having to come to their store. So, we worked out Belgians favourite form of entertainment: a sitcom.Introducing: ‘Grocery Stories’. A sitcom about the ‘not-so-daily’ life of a store manager and her employees, in a Belgian ALBERT HEIJN. With typically Belgian eccentric characters and typically Belgian off-beat humour. And with a cast of totally unknown amateur actors, selected to be as representative as real Belgian Albert Heijn employees as possible.
In 2023 we realised six long episodes (6 to 9 minutes) and a few shorter ones (2 to 3 minutes), to get Belgians to familiarize with our store and products, without them realising it since all was hidden in a typical sitcom narrative. To quote Belgians biggest local newspaper: “It’s not advertising because it’s a sitcom, that is not a sitcom because it’s advertising.”. All of them (and season 2 in the meantime) to be found at: www.dewereldinhetkleijn.be