This Dobbies Garden Centres campaign uses a magical growing bauble to reframe festive shopping with warmth and wonder — Clapboard's Global Ad Archive.
The wedding of the year is here - ALDI | Clapboard Ad Archive
Aldi’s 2025 Christmas campaign The wedding of the year is here, developed by McCann Manchester, solidifies the supermarket’s now-iconic seasonal property through the latest chapter in the decade-long saga of Kevin and Katie the Carrot, leveraging narrative and character continuity to drive brand warmth and cultural engagement in the highly competitive UK retail market. The storyline, touching on last-minute Christmas heroics and romantic cliffhangers, orchestrates a full-scale festive spectacle around the question of whether Kevin and Katie will finally make it down the aisle, culminating in a bold West End-inspired musical declaration of love that anchors Aldi’s brand message in emotional resonance and celebratory optimism. Supported by a tightly coordinated multiplatform strategy, the campaign blends episodic TV storytelling with activation through ITV’s Tasty Gossip breaking-news spoof—fronted once again by a celebrity anchor for added mainstream energy—and extends into digital touchpoints from TikTok to Meta, as well as major print and radio placements, ensuring wide demographic reach and sustained pre-Christmas buzz. Significant for its use of FORMAT#8—Ongoing Characters or Celebrities, as recognized by Clapboard’s creative taxonomy, the approach capitalizes on preexisting audience affection and narrative investment in the carrot family, demonstrating how long-term character franchises now offer retailers an asset on par with branded mascots, enabling seasonal marketing that is both instantly recognizable and flexibly contemporary. McCann’s creative builds momentum with participatory social content—most notably, competitions featuring Kevin and media segments where real couples offer relatable relationship advice—effectively turning engagement with Aldi’s brand into a ritual for UK families and reinforcing the message that the little moments of togetherness, not just transactional value, anchor Aldi’s position in the lives of its customers. The campaign earns 71/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. In demonstrating how an ongoing character platform can evolve into a full cultural partnership across earned, owned, and paid channels, this Aldi campaign sets a new bar for narrative depth, multi-format synergy, and emotional recall in holiday retail advertising.
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