| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Zoe Aresti |
Co-op has launched a new cinema campaign encouraging people to invest in local people and communities.
Led by an extended piece of branded content helmed by This is England director Shane Meadows, the work presents real-life examples of community causes Co-op’s members are supporting through the 1% for your Community membership reward.
Under the Co-op’s new membership offer launched last September, members receive a 5% reward for any purchases they make of own brand products, with a further 1% directly benefiting local causes.
In 2017, the Co-op wants to get more people to join and make even more of a difference and at almost four minutes long, the film is the first step in communicating the stance to viewers in the undistracted environment of the cinema.
Award-winning director, Shane Meadows, is no stranger to portraying scenes of traditional British culture, having shot the gritty and poignant feature film, This is England. The new branded piece for Co-op, Join Us, is led by a strong soundtrack and features some of the 4,000 local causes that the Co-op is currently supporting.
The uplifting piece begins with images of empty rooms and locations before they become populated with people from the local causes doing the things that they love, including playing sport, music and socialising with smiles on their faces. From children to the elderly, the campaign doesn’t discriminate.
The film launched in cinemas on Friday 20 January.
Meadows does not normally work with brands but he has made an exception for the Co-op because he supports the mutual’s different way of doing business, believing it can make a real difference.
He said: "When the Co-op asked me if I'd be interested in making a film about all the charity projects they are now committed to helping, I have to be honest and say I had no idea what they were really up to or what separated them from any other supermarket chain. I'd unofficially retired from making 'commercials' a number of years back, but as this seemed to be coming from a genuinely good place, I was intrigued enough to find out more and once I realised I could use the actual people from the groups rather than a load of advert actors, I was in.
“With this sort of material you never know how it's going to turn out until you get there - filming real people just doing what they do with no script and no real structure is always a bit of a leap of faith, but once we began the first day's shoot with a group of children, their teachers and the volunteers who ran a community garden project in one of the toughest areas of Glasgow, I knew we had the opportunity to make something both touching and unique.”
Helen Carroll, Head of Brand at the Co-op said: “This work marks the start of a new approach for us that is not really advertising at all. It shows the power of community in a visual language that doesn’t hide anything. This is what made Shane Meadows a natural choice for us. We knew he would strip back the gloss of advertising, making it unembellished and emotional, and find the beauty and truth in real people being honest to camera."
“Our Co-op heroes are the people across communities that keep these local causes going, day in and day out, and they needed to be the stars of the show,” she added.
Karen Stacey, CEO at Digital Cinema Media added: “We are thrilled to have worked alongside the Co-op and Rocket to bring this film to the big screen to communicate the message about the group’s great work to our film audiences. One of DCM’s focus points this year is to bring more extended content to our ad reel in cinemas and to encourage brands to really explore the possibilities of telling great stories in our space.”