Reclaiming the biscuit aisle with a century-strong commerce strategy

Client: pladis

When McVitie’s Chocolate Digestives turned 100, we faced a challenge bigger than a birthday. Inflation was driving shoppers toward cheaper own-label alternatives, risking our relevance and visibility. To reverse this trend, we wanted to build off the back of our True Originals 1.0 campaign, which reminded the nation that McVitie’s weren’t just the first of many, but the one and only and the ‘True Original’ digestive biscuit. Following on from this, we built a connected commerce media strategy designed to influence shoppers from discovery to conversion.

Working with Capture, we combined retail media, social platforms, experiential activations and data-driven targeting into one integrated system. The goal was simple: make McVitie’s unmissable across the full shopper journey. Across Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons and Co-op, we activated 38 commerce media touchpoints, including a giant digestive-wrapped digital 6-sheet, bold front-of-store takeovers, retailer website placements, social amplification, in-aisle prompts and even car park experiential. Retailer first-party data ensured we spoke directly to the audiences most likely to return to the original. At the heart of the campaign sat a single, compelling promotion: “Win £100 Every 100 Minutes.” Consistently applied across every environment, it turned the centenary into a motivating reason to choose McVitie’s again.