About

GAIL’s set the last few decades aflame with their artfully wholesome bakeries in London, Oxford, Brighton and beyond. And then came COVID-19 and the world changed forever. Despite social distancing, restrictions and loss, there were moments of joy, many of which were experienced in our home kitchens. Christmas 2020 might have been cancelled but GAIL’s were determined to share the joy of baking with all.

Challenge

GAIL’s introduced their largest Christmas product range to date that included seasonal bakes, hampers and their first ever homeware collection.

In the age of social distancing it was vital that GAIL’s encouraged customers to safely visit their local bakery and make online gifting easy for those isolating at home. Against a backdrop of a Covid Christmas, GAIL’s wanted to spark joy in the windows of every bakery, sprinkle sugar over online shopping and make shoppers smile in-store.

Approach

The phrase 'All Wrapped Up' was our starting point for hand crafting an illustrated Christmas campaign focused on giving.

Uncertain times calls for certain measures and we drew on the classic Christmas colours of red and white to fire up a seasonal streamer that was familiar, comforting and wonderous.

Inspired by the flowing nature of ribbon, with its’ rich symbolism of gifting, our hand drawn pattern wrapped a beauteous bow around sixty Gail’s bakeries, biscuit boxes, POS displays and online banners.

The undulating ribbon doubled as a ski track motif which introduced a much-loved new mascot, Alfred the polar bear. Alfred could be spotted skiing from Pimlico to Wimbledon, merrily feasting at every GAIL’s bakery in between. Sometimes Alfred was found hiding behind the last spoonful of cake or next to your favourite GAIL’s biscuits.

For Christmas at GAIL’s we created something truly special. From the small details of using GAIL's flour as snow in Alfred’s ski track to the big picture of ensuring that the pattern was unique to every product and could expand to fit 60+ different sized bakery windows.

Outcome

The polar bear stole the show. Alfred became the talk of town and Instagram’s coldest influencer. Ho ho ho.

Our hand drawn ribbon pattern invited customers into the bakeries and raised awareness online of the new Christmas range that was expanded from previous years.

Despite Covid restrictions GAIL’s saw an increased average spend per customer compared to the previous year.