Neighbourhood Campaign
PENNY
Issue 55 | June 2020
Agency
Serviceplan
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Christoph Everke Creative Directors Moritz Dornig, Matthias Schuster Senior Copywriter Alessia Coschignano Senior Art Director Rebecca Labiner Junior Art Director Johanna Köhler
Production Team
Senior Digital Producer Helena Mertig
Other Credits
Account Director Frederike Striegel Account Manager Julia Leibetseder Junior Account Manager Rabea Sinnreich
Date
March 2020
Background
PENNY are conveniently located, neighbourhood supermarkets in Germany. As early as March 1st, when the total number of cases of Covid-19 was 129, Germans were stockpiling food and other goods. ‘Hamstering’, as it is called in Germany, was putting severe pressure on Penny’s staff.
Idea
Using material that was shot before the pandemic, PENNY wanted to thank the unsung heroes in their 2,200 supermarkets across Germany. This included the logistics team who were doing everything they could to provide sufficient supplies each day.
Results
Unknown
Our Thoughts
This is interesting because PENNY chose to use broadcast media to publicly thank their staff. Even though they ran a separate campaign aimed at their customers, thanking them for being couch potatoes, this is still aimed at shoppers. It’s easy to forget now but in the early days of Covid, panic-buying led to shelves being stripped of everything from pasta to paracetamol, not forgetting toilet paper. PENNY even asked students who couldn’t go to college to help stack their shelves before the daily rush. This is not just about raising staff morale but an implicit message to customers to be more reasonable.