Premium ready meals supplier Charlie Bigham’s is to launch its biggest marketing campaign to date.
The £4m campaign – ‘Handmade in Charlie Bigham’s kitchen, cooked in yours’ will premiere on Channel 4 this evening (15 January), during Michael Mosley: Secrets of Your Big Shop at 8:45pm.
It will also be shown during other Channel 4 programmes including The Great Pottery Throwdown, Gogglebox and Jamie Cooks the Mediterranean.
The campaign, timed to coincide with shoppers dining more at home during January, aims to challenge the preconceptions of the ready meal category by “highlighting its founder’s food philosophy and commitment to fresh, quality handmade food in every single dish”, according to the brand.
Voiced by Charlie Bigham himself, alongside author and TV presenter Richard Osman, the creative sees the brand’s illustrated packaging come to life.
It depicts a cartoon version of Bigham creating his meals, from picking ingredients in the market through to designing recipes in the tasting kitchen.
The ad also tells the story of how the company started 25 years ago, when Charlie’s travels in a campervan across Europe and Asia inspired him to create preprepared meals with fresh, high-quality ingredients at the heart.
“This is a significant moment in our mission to increase brand awareness amongst consumers who are looking for a freshly prepared alternative to home cooking,” said Charlie Bigham’s CEO Patrick Cairns.
“Our recent advertising has demonstrated that our audience identify with Charlie’s passion for food… This new campaign is the next step on our brand journey and we are confident it will drive sales in 2024.”
The campaign will run across radio and OOH nationwide, while TV ads, VoD and social media activity will be seen in London and the south.
It comes after the category-leading chilled ready meal brand saw a 2.1% decline in volume sales last year, according to NIQ data [52 w/e 9 September 2023].
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