Waitrose The Perfect Gift
This Christmas, Waitrose introduced 'The Perfect Gift'- a first of its kind romantic comedy ‘short’ celebrating the supermarket’s 2025 festive offering, led by a first-of-its-kind four-minute film. Shaking up the structure of a traditional seasonal marketing campaign, the content is being released the same way you would a blockbuster festive romcom; repositioning Waitrose from ‘another supermarket brand’ to a ‘food entertainment brand’.
Waitrose’s 2025 Christmas film brings back Joe Wilkinson’s Phil from last year’s campaign. After a chance encounter with his long-time crush, Keira Knightley, at the cheese counter, the two form an unlikely romance built on Sussex Charmer and a shared love of food. When Phil spots a mysterious gift to Keira from “Mark,” he panics, until his mum reminds him that “cooking for someone is love.” Inspired, he declares his feelings by recreating her nan’s turkey pie, mirroring the Waitrose No.1 Festive Turkey Pie and celebrating food as the ultimate expression of love.
The festive short received the ultimate seal of approval, as romantic comedy royalty Richard Curtis, who counts Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones, Love Actually and About Time as just some of his writing and directing credits, has labelled it, “sweet as pie”.
Directed by Molly Manners, who directed the popular Netflix romcom, One Day, the campaign pays homage to some of the UK’s much-loved romantic comedies, providing viewers with a sense of comfort, calm and magic. The film was produced by Biscuit Filmworks.
The film is supported by 60 & 30 second films running across TV stations, social and digital platforms. Designed as ‘movie trailers’ to generate excitement and intrigue around the main event, the trailers will run in programmes such as Coronation Street, Gogglebox and 1% Club.
Beyond the brand film, product films were released where Waitrose food plays a starring role, supported by OOH, press, radio and digital display. Each one demonstrates how you can show your love and care to family and friends at Christmas.
Further building on Waitrose’ mission to behave more like a food entertainment brand, Joe Wilkinson and Keira Knightley featured in individual episodes of the Waitrose Dish Podcast shared on 12th November & 17th December respectively, and were interviewed by content creator Max Balegde in press junket-style content for social. The campaign was also further supported on social with BTS edits and paid influencer support, as well as on radio, in store via POS and romcom inspired T-shirts for Partners, via paid media and through PR.
Inspired by the brand’s festive short film The Perfect Gift, in which Joe Wilkinson’s character won over Keira Knightley with a homemade turkey pie, the PIEMAX activation used major film-launch tactics to extend the story into the real world. For two weeks, the iconic IMAX featured a giant in-camera shot of a homemade pie across its 1,734m² façade, alongside pastry-letter taglines such as ‘The Perfect Gift’ and ‘Love at first bite.’
The stunt reinforced Waitrose’s ‘food as entertainment’ strategy and invited the nation to ‘say it with food.’ Fans were also able to buy the Waitrose No.1 Festive Turkey Pie, crafted in the spirit of Phil’s heartfelt creation.
