Spar store profile: Julia

Following the revamp, the Spar has been able to significantly enhance its range to include more oven-ready ‘Fresh For You Later’ products “I wouldn’t have been able to make such a big investment into the shop if I didn’t have such a strong team working with me,” says retailer Padraig Broderick

the way we did it, but I’m so glad we did.”

Working on the project was builder and Croom local, Matthew Daly, who “was so meticulous in his work. He really got involved in every aspect of the job,” and architect Ken Keays, who Broderick says is “an absolute magician. The way he engaged with the team and took on board everyone’s ideas was phenomenal. Between them, they really created what I believe is the best store of its size in the country.”

Broderick also thanks his Spar area manager Colin Power “who we consider to be part of our team”, for his support, as well as “Aoife and Linda from the BWG Fresh food team, who have made their mark all over this store.”

Fresh, new look

In Broderick’s words, the new shop features “a fresh, modern, new look, with sweeping high ceilings and exposed steelwork. It creates a look more reminiscent of an artisan deli in New York than your average store. Every day I walk into the shop and am amazed with how it turned out.”

Through the years, the butcher counter has been the backbone of the business. With the revamp, they have been able to significantly enhance the range to include more oven-ready products. They also fully revamped and expanded the deli to offer more fresh offerings.

Customer response

But it’s the new bakery that Broderick says is the real jewel in the crown. “Every day we see people come through the door and they’re just hit with the scent of fresh baking. It’s changed the whole dynamic of the shop. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Across the board, Broderick says the response from customers has been phenomenal. “They’ve been so supportive throughout the whole redevelopment process, and we couldn’t be happier with the way they responded to the finished product.”

Social media

The team at Spar Croom have developed something of a reputation for posting playful videos on social media. While social media can be a valuable tool for promoting in-store deals, Broderick takes a different approach: “We’ve been putting out these videos and it’s a great way to put a smile on people’s faces. For us, there’s no real selling in it. We put out a lot of feel-good videos. There’s a bit of humour, a bit of fun, and a lot of our videos indirectly show off our shop, which is a nice plus.

“During lockdown, we did a lot of our videos outdoors, so were showing off a lot of Croom,” he says. “We’d get customers telling us how their children who had emigrated were watching the videos and loved seeing the beauty of Croom in the background. It was great to hear and that encouraged us to keep going with the videos.”

After working for many years in the business, what does Broderick consider to be the secret to running a successful store? “The people,” he says. “It’s all about the people. And the team we’ve got here at Croom are second to none. It’s been a long journey to get the store to where it is today, but I can say for certain that none of it could have happened without our team.” ■

“Every day we see people come through the door and they’re just hit with the scent of fresh baking. It’s changed the whole dynamic of the shop. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Marketing the Christmas cheer

T h e r e l e a s e o f t h e b i g r e t a i l e r s ’ C h r i s t m a s a d s h a s b e c o m e a b i g p a r t o f t h e C h r i s t m a s s e a s o n , w i t h e a c h t r y i n g t o o u t d o t h e o t h e r s b y p u l l i n g a t t h e h e a r t s t r i n g s w i t h e m o t i o n a l l y c h a r g e d C h r i s t m a s m e s s a g e s o f f a m i l y , h o p e a n d l o v e . T h e b e s t c o m p l i m e n t t h e m a k e r s o f t h e a d s c a n r e c e i v e i s t h a t t h e a d b r i n g s t e a r s t o p e o p l e s ’ e y e s . F i o n n u a l a C a r o l a n t a k e s a l o o k a t s o m e o f t h e a d s r e l e a s e d t h i s y e a r t o s e e i f t h e y ’ v e g o t w h a t i t t a k e s t o b e c o m e a c l a s s i c

The budgets have increased year-on-year and the ads are more akin to short films as the retailers endeavour to outdo each other on sentimentality and Christmas spirit overriding all else. We all love a good emotionally charged Christmas ad showing families coming together amid adversity or a child experiencing Christmas magic at its best with of course a killer sound track.

The most well-known Christmas ad worldwide has to be Coca-Cola, Holidays are Coming released in 1995. For many people, the arrival of the Coca-Cola truck on our television screens is the first sign that Christmas has arrived and the jingle tends to linger in your head all day. A much-loved Irish Christmas ad from the archives is the ESB’s Drivin’ Home for Christmas featuring Alan Hughes with his mammy rushing around baking bread and putting on the emersion in anticipation of her son’s arrival home for Christmas.

And we can’t forget to mention the timeless classic that is the Guinness Festive Snowflakes ad. In 2011 they produced this gem where a man walking his dog on Christmas Eve encounters the first festive snowflake. The music was produced specially for the commercial by composer Kevin Sargent and is instantly recognisable and associated with the most wonderful time of the year.

So are any of this year’s newcomers worthy of a place in the Christmas ad hall of fame? Let’s have a look at the contenders.

SuperValu: Share the Magic

Top of the charts this year has to be SuperValu’s Share the Magic Christmas ad, featuring Deermuid the Deer and nine-yearold Penny Lynch as Aoife. It had a lot to live up to after last year’s tearjerker where the little boy wished for his grandfather to visit for Christmas. Musgrave has certainly upped the ante in recent years.

This year’s ad captures the true belief and magic of Christmas. Aoife wakes up early one morning to find a wounded deer in her back garden. She sees the importance and urgency in getting the deer nursed back to health so that he can resume his normal duties of helping Santa.

Deermuid is finally able to magically take flight with the encouragement of Aoife and the neighbouring children and make his way back to Santa while the adults watch all agog.

According to SuperValu’s retail marketing manager, Shane Lynch, the ad is sure to make an impression. “We hope that viewers across the country can connect with and find moments of belief and joy in Deermuid the Deer, little Aoife and the community of children that support them. The advert demonstrates that there is always magic to share at Christmas and I’m confident that this will certainly win the hearts of the nation.”

The ad was made in Wicklow town in October and directed by Ben Liam Jones, who has worked on ads for Cadbury, Land Rover and Centerparcs. Jones said: “It is a dream of mine to make an Xmas movie one day and I suspect this is the closest I’ll ever get!”

Lidl: Big on a Christmas you can Always Believe In

Lidl GB’s futuristic Christmas advert for 2021 shows what our future Christmases could look like in decades to come. Lidl has gone for funny over sentimental this year and has done it well by encouraging people to look forward rather than dwell on the past.

It begins in the present day, showing a family sitting down for a traditional Christmas roast with the sounds of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree in the background. The advert then cuts to show exactly the same Christmas scene – but this time it’s set in the future. With the same dining table set-up, we see a carving laser knife being used to cut the turkey and find out one family has moved to the moon.

Then, in the third scene, we see an even more futuristic Christmas dinner with the same family. From talking dogs to levitating plates, it highlights that no matter the decade, Lidl will ‘always be great on prices’.

It features Lidl’s festive food range, including Christmas turkey, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings, and bottles of champagne.

According to Claire Farrant, marketing director at Lidl GB: “After a challenging couple of years, the nation wants to look forward not back, which is why we’ve set our light-hearted ad decades in the future.

“Given our commitment to always be big on quality, Lidl on price this year we wanted our Christmas advert to show that we really do mean always, no matter what the future has in store for us!’