"Freud schänke": Coop launches new Christmas campaign

"Freud schänke" is the motto of Coop's big 2015 Christmas campaign, for which Havas Worldwide Zurich came up with a loving and emotional story. In four episodes, little Amélie meets a reindeer that becomes her best friend in the course of the story. Together they experience festive adventures and bring joy to many others in the process.

The four 40-second TV spots were directed by Maurus vom Scheidt, who has proven many times that he can skilfully translate highly emotional content. He was supported behind the camera by Frank Griebe, who is best known for his work with Tom Tykwer on "Perfume" and "Cloud Atlas.

The TV campaign is accompanied by a large-scale POS initiative and a print campaign, for which photographer Per Kasch was behind the camera. While the POS motifs stage the "Freud schänke" theme in Coop supermarkets, the print subjects, like the TV spots, give hints about the gift that customers will receive for free with every purchase during the respective week. For example, in the first week of the campaign, starting on Monday, November 30, Coop will be giving away a CD with 15 specially composed Christmas songs by the Schwiizergoofe, Switzerland's most successful children's choir. No less than 4 million Christmas CDs have been produced in the three national languages. The wish: to bring joy to the whole of Switzerland at the holidays.

The songs on the CD were composed and produced at Hitmill - they were penned by Roman Camenzind and his co-producers Georg Schlunegger and Fred Herrmann. The Schwiizergoofe are a project initiated by Nikol Camenzind in which children from all over Switzerland are given the chance to participate. Coop has supported the Schwiizergoofe as the main sponsor since 2013. All four of the Schwiizergoofe's CDs released to date have reached platinum status and are among the best-selling Swiss albums of 2014. The title song of the TV campaign "Es Truckli vou Liebi" is part of Coop's Christmas CD and, like the other songs, can be downloaded at Coop.ch/holidaygratis download. The Schwiizergoofe also appear in the first TV spot - together with the title heroine Amélie. The subsequent spots are about more joyful surprises, also accompanied by the Hitmill theme song.

The campaign is flanked by a wide range of measures designed and implemented by other agency partners. For example, the entire offer communication as well as the Christmas special issue comes from the Basel agency Valencia. The PR activities, the storytelling via the multi-part Christmas story of Amélie and Rémy in the Coop newspaper and via audio book version as well as the web content are the responsibility of YJOO, the digital advertising measures of Nexum and Goldbach and the media planning of TW Media.

Havas CEO Frank Bodin takes great pleasure in the campaign: "It was important to us to create a campaign that has the power to move people emotionally. We wanted a campaign that not only conveyed the motto 'Freud schänke' but was a part of that joy. I think we achieved that." All the films were shot in Switzerland, the opening spot with the Schwiizergoofe, for example, in Solothurn. Folker Wrage, CCO at Havas, on the main actors: "Amélie and Remy are simply a dream couple, and you can tell from the films that they also became best friends in real life during the course of filming. Maurus vom Scheidt has brought this friendship to life in a wonderful way." Coop's Christmas campaign starts on Sunday, November 29, 2015 and runs until the end of the Christmas holidays.

Responsible at Coop: Thomas Schwetje (Head of Marketing/Services), Sacha Zuberbühler (Head of Advertising), Carole Burri (Main Project Management), Cassandra Zamorano (Project Management Advertising Festive Market), Kathrin Wullschleger, Christof Braun (Advertising), Karin Heliopoulos (Media), Oliver Johnson (Head of Digital Marketing), Anja Kapust (Project Management Digital Marketing). Responsible at Havas Worldwide Zurich: Frank Bodin (overall responsibility), Folker Wrage (CCO), Michael Kathe (CD), Magnus Sambo, Christoph Hess (text), Sebastian Krayer, Moritz Stillhardt (art direction), Walter Tagliaferri (client service director), Claudia Sigg, Martina Faeh, Sabina Wothe, Patrick Naef, Jonas Brändli (consulting), Toni Gadza (print production). Film and photo: Constantine Wrage (FFF production), Maurus vom Scheidt (director), Per Kasch (photo), Pool Films (film production). Responsible at Hitmill: Georg Schlunegger, Nikol Camenzind, Roman Camenzind (composition, lyrics), Georg Schlunegger (producer), Roman Camenzind (executive producer), Fred Herrmann (mix), Noemi Mathis (project management HitMill), Jonas Künzle (project management Schwiizergoofe), Daniel Jerosch (graphics). Responsible at YJOO: Nina Krucker (conception), Christian Nill (editing), Jennifer Wagner (project management). Responsible at Valencia: Diana Aberkane, Iraklis Hungerberg and Eliane Weisskopf (all consulting), Tommy Schilling (creative director), Jan Kempen (art director), Nadine Gschwend (junior art director), Emanuel Plüss, Marco Fritz, Stefan Stohler, David Wangler and Marina Korth (all polygraphy). Photography Magazine: Per Kasch, Martin Graf. Styling Magazine: Karin Messerli, Claudia Schilling, Feride Dogum. Responsible at The Cover Media: Michel Zürcher, Baschi Thommen. Responsible at Nexum: Mirko Reckhard (Consulting), Fred Augstein (Conception), Peter Steier (Art Director), Krystel Moreno, Simon Theis (Design), Aleksandra Gulba, Lydia Heckl (Editing), Jonas Reindanz, Jana Börner, Stephan Pavlovic (Development), Julia van Egeren, Dominic Hirtz (Project Management). Responsible at Goldbach Interactive: Andrea Dätwiler (Consulting, Project Management), René Schoedon (Art Direction / Concept), Benedict Ritschel (Screendesign / Production), Sandro Kohler (Motiondesign). TW Media: Stephan Küng (Managing Director), Maja Fricker (Managing Director).