Woolworths NZ, TVNZ and dentsu Aotearoa partner on Santa Tracker Christmas campaign

Woolworths, TVNZ and dentsu Aotearoa have joined forces this holiday season to help ease the stress of the festive season through a bespoke partnership bringing to life TVNZ’s Santa Tracker.

 

The partnership amplifies Woolworth’s Christmas brand storytelling by showcasing its heartwarming ‘Reindeer Story’ TVC, created by M&C, while highlighting weekly specials in the lead up to Christmas Day.

Woolworths New Zealand General Manager Brand and Marketing Abbe Hale says: Christmas is a special time of year, and Woolworths is proud to bring some magic and joy to people: “The Santa Tracker is a kiwi favourite and provided the perfect platform to showcase the products New Zealanders’ love at this time of year, making it easy to find value at Woolworths in your Christmas shop.”

Says TVNZ’s Chief Revenue Officer, Valerie Walshe: “TVNZ’s Santa Tracker has become a household tradition for Kiwi families across the motu as we count down to Christmas each year. We’re thrilled to have teamed up with Woolworths and dentsu Aotearoa to bring the ‘Reindeer Story’ to life as part of our tracker, sharing festive joy with our viewers in a creative and engaging way.”

Dentsu Aotearoa’s media strategy has placed Woolworths’ front and centre of TVNZ’s annual Santa Tracker. The campaign launched on December 8 on TVNZ 1’s Breakfast with a live cross from the North Pole, where Santa reveals a festive “Carrot-Crisis”.

From there, the story unfolds with Santa calling on Woolworths to help save Christmas by fuelling his reindeers with carrots. In the days leading up to Christmas Eve, Santa will appear from his HQ to thank Woolworths and cross live to stores for carrot updates – seamlessly weaving in product-led messages that hero great Christmas deals and help shoppers save at Woolworths.

The campaign will also feature Christmas Specials across broadcast TV and TVNZ+, including 15” Specials TVCs alongside Splash and Ad on Pause formats.

Underpinning the partnership is Woolworths’ weekly specials message, brought to life within Santa’s Merry Command System through bespoke Christmas-themed Price &

Product creative. This will run consistently across all TVNZ environments – broadcast TV, TVNZ+, and Ad-on-Pause – showcasing the great value Woolworths offers to help customers save this Christmas season.

The campaign will culminate on Christmas Eve, with the Santa Tracker providing live map updates on Santa’s journey and weather conditions – and revealing whether Woolworths has saved Christmas by fuelling Santa’s reindeer with carrots.

Says Alex Davidson, dentsu Media Senior Business Director: “Woolworths Christmas campaigns are always a highlight for us. This year’s campaign is all about showing how Woolworths can help to make Christmas that little bit less stressful, even for the big man in red. It’s a great example of how thinking outside of the box can create media moments that truly stand out and elevate existing assets. It has been a joy to work with Woolworths and TVNZ to deliver this little bit of Christmas magic.”

Client – Woolworths
Abbe Hale – General Manager Brand and Marketing
Carmen Smith – Marketing Manager
Nicola Yates – Senior Media Manager
Ben Morris – Senior Marketing Manager
Sam Gujer – Senior Marketing Manager
Lucy Key – Marketing Manager

Media – TVNZ
Rachel Pittman – Business Director

Media Agency – dentsu Aotearoa
Sarah Wilson – Senior Client Partner
Alex Davidson – Senior Business Director
Abel Banda – Senior Planning Director
Olivia McLean – Senior Business Manager
Annabelle Wilkinson – Senior Business Manager
Ollie Whiley – Business Executive
Daniel Ly – Business Executive

Creative – TVNZ Blacksand
Shannon Addison – Lead Creative Director
Varsha Singh – Head of Production
Xanthe Price – Commercial Producer
Will Munro – Editor
Nick Henderson & Brendon Bennett – Motion Designers
Christo Montes – DOP

 

 

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