BBH crafts ‘Giant’ campaign to amplify Tesco’s expanded school initiative

London: Tesco has unveiled a new integrated marketing campaign to support the expansion of its Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, doubling its reach from 500 to over 1,000 schools starting September. The initiative aims to further scale to twice that size again next year, reinforcing the retailer’s commitment to community wellbeing and child nutrition.

The campaign, conceptualised by BBH, builds on Tesco’s recently launched brand platform, which reinterprets its iconic “Every Little Helps” through the relatable phrase, “Need Anything From Tesco?”. It reflects the brand’s continued focus on supporting everyday needs of customers and communities.

At the heart of the campaign is a visually rich film featuring a “fruit giant” travelling across the UK with a young companion, Theo. Set to Give a Little Bit by Roger Hodgson, the narrative portrays the giant gradually shrinking as he shares parts of himself with children—symbolising the act of giving. The film was directed by Nick Ball through MJZ, with post-production handled by Untold Studios.

The production of the giant was a significant technical undertaking, involving six months of post-production work. At its largest scale, the character comprises over 105,000 individual pieces of photorealistic fruit and vegetables across 86 varieties, showcasing a blend of storytelling and high-end visual craftsmanship.

The Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, alongside complementary initiatives such as Fruit & Veg Grants and Free Fruit for Kids in stores, aims to benefit up to one million school children across the UK. Customers can also contribute to the initiative, with Tesco committing to donations for every fruit and vegetable purchase made until May 24.

Murray Bisschop, UK Marketing Director, Tesco said, “Every day, children across the UK are missing out on the fruit and veg they need to thrive at school. That’s why our Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme is so important. We’re delighted that we have been able to bring the meaningful work to life in a way that feels very Tesco through the giant campaign.”

Felipe Guimaraes Serradourada, ECD at BBH London said, “A big initiative like this deserves a big idea and this is a huge one. Some would say it’s giant. Helping a million kids is no small feat, luckily we got some help.”

The campaign extends beyond film into a fully integrated rollout, including print, outdoor, and digital channels. High-impact placements feature the giant appearing at key locations such as Piccadilly Lights and the Skylights at Manchester Printworks, one of Europe’s largest LED screens. Social media activations and Tesco’s grocery delivery fleet will further amplify the campaign’s reach.

Additionally, Tesco will introduce a range of fruit and vegetable plush toys inspired by the campaign, priced at £3 each, with proceeds supporting the schools programme.

The nationwide campaign will run across TV, social, radio, print, OOH, and DOOH, with media planning and buying managed by EssenceMediacom and WPP.

CREDITS:

Campaign title: Free Fruit & Veg For Schools

Client: Tesco

UK CEO: Ashwin Prasad

Group Managing Director, Customer: Becky Brock

UK Marketing Director: Murray Bisschop

Head of Marketing: Alicia Southgate

Lead Campaigns Manager: Catherine Benson

Campaign Manager: Nina Flood

Advertising agency: BBH London

Executive Creative Director: Felipe Guimaraes

Associate Creative Directors: Holly Fallows, Charlotte Watmough

Creatives: Khushali Patel, Sarah Millyard

Deputy Chief Strategy Officer: Saskia Jones

Strategy Director: Arabella Saunders

Senior Strategist: Alexi Hall

Client Managing Director: James Rice

Business Lead: Tori Meadows

Senior Account Director: Owen Keating

Account Manager: Imogen Brooks, Ollie Withell

Account Executive: Lula Horton, George Moody-Stuart

Senior Project Manager: Sophie Sanderson

Designer: Miguel Sousa, Keiti Collins, Lucia Volpe, Matthew Manlove

Retouching: BBH Studios – Connor Farrow Guy & Simon Goold

Studio: Toni Polain & Dave Walsh

Agency film producer: Nicole Southey

Assistant agency film producer: Pete Wiltshire

Agency Print Producer: Rachel Clarke

Media agency: EssenceMediacom

Production Company: MJZ London

Director: Nick Ball

Producer: Ewen Brown

Exec Producer: Dickie Jeffares

Production Manager : Daniel Gay

Production Assistant: Spike Elwood

Director of Photography: Ben Fordesman

1st Assistant Director: Ben Gill

Production Designer: Marco Puig

Casting Director: Hannah Birkett

Wardrobe Stylist: Ellie Walker

SFX: Machine shop

Editing Company: Stitch

Editor: Leo King

Assistant Editor: Ruoyu Ou

VFX Studio: Untold Studios

Executive Producer: Tom Igglesden

Producer: Ella Glazer

Creative Director: Jonathan Wood

Animation Creative Director: Tim Van Hussen

Shoot Supervisor: Adam Grint

VFX Supervisor: Christian Baker

CG Supervisor: Hudson Martins Ribeiro

Character Supervisor: Chloe Dawe

Lead Artist: Alex Doyle, Bhaveesh PV, Cyriel Verkuijlen, Phillippe Moine, Sriram Namana

Production Coordinator: Natalie London

Production Assistant: Joseph Wolffe

Concept Artist: Therese Vildefall

VFX Artists: Alex Miller, Aswin Bal, Avinash Savant, Brad Willis, Carlo Carfora, Claudio Quarra Sacco, Deniz Cinar, Dinesh Reddy, Ed Turvey, Emre Samioglu, Faizal Tahir, Giacomo Cavalletti, Greta Kossowska, Henry Affonso, Jayadeep Chandran, Jessica Zanetti, Kanishk Chouhan, Kim Ranzani, Laurie Garnier, Manjunath R, Manoj Ravi, Marcel Ruegenberg, Marta Esteban-Infantes, Mary Doyle, Mohammad Azeem, Upasana Choudhary

Online: Richard Harris

Colour Grading: Time Based Arts

Colourist: Simone Grattarola

Colour Assistant: Tom Matthews, Aiden Tobin

Datalab: Jameson White

Producer: Théa Dagnaud

EP: Dan Kreeger

Audio Post Production – Sine

Sound Supervisor/Designer/Mixer – Phil Bolland

Sound Designer – Frankie Beirne

Audio Producers – Beth Tomblin & Aishah Amodu

Music Composition – SAW Music