No Frills turns up the savings message amid expansion
As No Frills opens a wave of new stores, the Loblaw-owned discount banner is putting the spotlight squarely on savings.
Its new campaign platform—“No Frills. Yes Savings.”—developed alongside advertising agency One23West, aims to clearly communicate what Canadians can expect as the retailer expands into new markets.
Loblaw recently announced plans to open 70 stores this year, including 31 No Frills and Maxi locations as Canadians flock to discount stores.
“Inflation has not let up, and with food prices increasing over the past four years, saving money on groceries is priority No. 1 for most Canadians, regardless of income level,” says Colin Carroll, VP of strategy at One23West. “Our job was to help launch No Frills in new markets as part of a big expansion plan, and a lot of growth within Loblaw is coming from discount.”
READ: Loblaw continues pivot to discount as shoppers demand value
While previous campaigns such as “The No Frills thing to do” and “Here to Help” featured local owners and saving-money messaging, the new platform aims to show Canadians exactly what No Frills is and what it offers. “This was an opportunity to reset and define what the brand is as No Frills is expanding,” Carroll says.
Launch videos revolve around the “No Frills Nod,” featuring Canadians in everyday scenarios saying no to unnecessary frills with a shake of the head, before emphatically nodding yes to savings with No Frills. A food delivery order is swapped for two bags full of groceries, a tiny can of wet dog food is traded for a giant bag of President’s Choice dry dog food, and a restaurant Caesar—with outlandish garnishes like a whole roasted chicken, a donut and a giant pickle—is passed up in favour of a bottle of Mott’s Clamato at a No Frills store.
“We knew we had a job to do breaking into new markets—we had to simply communicate who No Frills is and what we are providing for people. And that was the ability to say yes [to savings],” says Kyle Waye, group creative director at One23West. “We also needed to do that in an entertaining, breakthrough way… We wanted to grab people’s attention.”
The fun, musical vibe of the videos reaches back to No Frills’ popular “Haulers” campaign, he adds.
“On one hand, we were trying to recapture the swagger and fun that comes with being able to save that we are known for in Ontario, but also using that to break out into the West in an interesting way.”
In addition to the videos, the national campaign will run across out-of-home, social media, radio, in-store and flyers.
“On top of creating a platform that was bold and breakthrough at the brand level, it was important that it could also flex to deliver strong impact across all markets and touchpoints,” said Mary MacIsaac, EVP, chief marketing officer at Loblaw Companies, in a press release.
Waye says some of the messaging across channels is meant to be fun and contextual. “An out-of-home ad could be something along the lines of, ‘no, we can’t stop the traffic on the Gardiner. Yes, you can save on car snacks,” he says. “It also allows us to get hyper-functional: ‘No Frills. Yes bananas $0.99’ if there’s a sale. We’re just starting and rolling this out, but part of what we love about the platform is its flexibility to talk to everything from big brand advertising to specific retail items.”
Looking ahead, Carroll says the “No Frills. Yes Savings.” platform is designed to be a long-term play. “We view that as a tagline that will be long-lasting. Will the nod always be a part of that? I don’t know, but it’s a great way to launch it. ‘No Frills. Yes Savings.’ as a line is something that we want to put out there over time, to really entrench what the brand is.”
