The start of a new year is always pressured for families who are getting back to routine and school, and coping with extra expenses of uniforms, stationery and the like. With the uncertainties surrounding Covid, these pressures are being felt more keenly than ever.

So, Countdown wanted to help families by demonstrating the many ways they offer value for money and help them stretch their precious budgets even further. Rather than talk about a specific deal or promotion, Countdown wanted to take a more holistic approach to value that brought together their key value drivers in a compelling and motivating story, building real trust in price and brand.

Screens and high impact OOH, selected in clusters to bring all the value drivers together, were key to demonstrating the broad value proposition Countdown provides for its customers – and quite literally, making Countdown’s value message unmissable. In this commercial, a Countdown trolley comes to life, leading a shopper to where the all the best value is to be found.

M&C Saatchi executive creative director, Paul Hankinson, said of the campaign: “A Countdown trolley is where all of Countdown’s value drivers come together in real life - so it’s only fitting that it should be where they come together when telling a story about it. And to add a bit of fun and theatre to that story, we gave the trolley a sense of mischief and mind of its own."

“Now more than ever, Kiwis are looking for value when they shop." added Brid Drohan-Stewart, head of brand and acting GM marketing at Countdown. "Value you can count on is a critical driver for us as a supermarket, essential for our customers to see in our stores, and we hope this campaign helps make it even easier for our customers to get the most out of their shopping budgets.”