Tesco turned insights into action during the festive season

Goal

In the build-up to the festive season, competition is fierce —but so is the opportunity. With the right strategy, brands can cut through the noise, connect with planners, and turn seasonal intent into action.

Tesco set out to do just that—by increasing awareness of their Christmas food products, while also driving consideration for their Festive Menu Helper tool: a digital guide designed to help shoppers plan what to cook and buy for the perfect Christmas dinner.

To align with shopper intent, Tesco aimed to tap into Pinterest’s audience mindset and make the most of the platform’s strengths. This meant harnessing seasonal behaviours, capitalising on trend-led opportunities, and using high-impact formats to reach people where inspiration strikes and decisions are made.

Strategy

Tesco opted for a phased approach, kicking off in early November to prime audiences ahead of peak shopping moments. To keep momentum building throughout the season, they focused on spotlighting festive favourites – from mince pies to pigs in blankets – using a mix of static, video, and interactive Quiz ads.

Looking to drive greater efficiency and deliver creative at scale, Tesco created bespoke Christmas ads and used Pinterest’s repurposing service to adapt them in line with platform best practices. Through updates to sizing, overlays and branding—including the addition of the Pinterest Trends Badge—they streamlined production while maintaining quality.

To amplify awareness, Tesco launched a Premiere Spotlight takeover, while Quiz Ads tied directly into the Festive Menu Helper tool—sparking personalised engagement with shoppers. Adding the Pinterest Trends Badge across their creative brought seasonal relevance, aligning campaign messaging with rising searches and key festive moments.

When it came to targeting, Tesco kept it broad by design —maximising exposure and consideration across Pinterest’s high-intent audience of festive planners and food lovers.

Results

The campaign tickled tastebuds, ignited imaginations, filled shopping baskets—and helped to deliver impressive results.

The Pinterest Trends Badge proved especially powerful, helping Tesco’s content stand out during one of the most competitive marketing moments of the year. Pins featuring the badge saw (CPMs) up to 2.6X lower than non-badged ads, with standout creatives—like those promoting party food—delivering the most effective performance.¹ On average, the use of the Trends Badge drove an 88% decrease in CPMs compared to other campaign formats.¹

Meanwhile, Tesco’s Premiere Spotlight takeover put their festive food front and centre for shoppers—capturing the attention of food lovers nationwide, and driving awareness across the top of the funnel.

The takeaway? In a season where standing out is no easy feat, Tesco met the moment—delivering value, inspiration, and irresistible festive fare to high-intent shoppers on Pinterest. With a smart creative strategy and timely execution, they hit both their awareness and consideration goals—showing what’s possible when performance meets planning, and festive ideas go from Pins to plates.

Resources

Premiere Spotlight

Tesco used Premiere Spotlight to help drive mass awareness and cut through the noise during the peak retail season. Learn how you can also make a splash with full-page Pinterest takeovers.

Creative repurposing

By repurposing existing creative, Tesco moved quickly without compromising on quality. Explore how you can reuse and reimagine your assets, at speed and scale.