Lessons from Aldi's IPA Gold winning Kevin the Carrot - McCann

As Christmas ad season is in full swing, I speak to the dynamic duo behind Aldi's Kevin the Carrot, Jamie Peate and Darren Hawkins of McCann to find out the secret behind creating the UK's most loved carrot.What we cover in this episode: Why Darren and Jamie bring a life size Kevin’s to meetings The benefit of doing strategy as a pair Convincing a sceptical customer to shop at Aldi for Christmas Taking inspiration from John Lewis the reigning king of Christmas How the humble carrot being the big idea Selling the idea into Aldi Why they didn’t want to recreate a brand new campaign every year The challenge to beat Kevin every year Inspiration from light entertainment and why’s its harder than it looks Sticking to what works whilst always finding ways to keep it fresh How to balance Christmas, a cost-of-living crisis & Christmas The importance of entertainment even in tough times Jamie & Darren rate this years crop of Christmas ads Beating the benchmark Coke Truck Index How Kevin successfully leverages the Long and Short of it Using System1 testing to screen for early stage ideas Why the simplicity of the System1 metrics are so important The case for testing a 4 min long animatic How media is like renting a stage upon which to put on a show The astonishing business results delivered by the Kevin campaign Proving that being cheaper doesn’t mean you can’t be better The power of combining fame and consistency Wear in vs wear out on the System1 Test Your Ad database Why we are over familiar with our own work vs the audience How little attention advertising actually gets The power of jokes you know the punchline to Being lovably pirates rather than the navy The powerful purpose being Aldi’s mission to make good food affordable