TLDR
Coles' 2026 Christmas campaign, 'Take the Credit This Christmas' via Smith St, tells shoppers its Own Brand food is good enough to pass off as their own cooking. It lands days after Woolworths launched its first Christmas campaign with Droga5, and builds on a Coles survey in which 73% of Christmas cooks said they would rather spend less time in the kitchen.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The campaign
Coles has launched its Christmas campaign, 'Take the Credit This Christmas', through Smith St, the bespoke agency within Omnicom Oceania. The idea is that Coles' Own Brand festive food is good enough for shoppers to claim the meal as their own, with Coles happy to stay in the background.[2]
The hero film, set to Buster Poindexter's version of 'Zat You, Santa Claus', follows hosts going to increasingly elaborate lengths to hide their shortcuts, from intercepting delivery drivers to hiding packaging before guests arrive. It runs across paid, owned and earned channels.[2]
"At Christmas, people want to spend less time stressing in the kitchen and more time with the people who matter most," said Kate Bailey, general manager of brand and marketing at Coles. Smith St executive creative director Giles Watson said: "There's a special kind of joy in getting away with something."[2][3]
The range behind it
The line comes straight from Coles' October range launch. "Customers can add their own finishing touches, put something impressive on the table and take the credit," chief executive Leah Weckert said then.[1]
Coles and Liquorland have 371 exclusive Christmas food and drink products this year, 158 of them new, and more than 200 are priced at $10 or less. The premium Coles Finest Christmas range has grown 40% to 49 products.[1]
The campaign is built on Coles' own research. In a Coles Circle survey of 8,339 members in September, 73% of people preparing a Christmas meal said they would rather spend less time in the kitchen and more time with family and friends, and 80% said they were happy to use time-saving shortcuts as long as quality and taste held up.[1]
Against Woolworths
The launch follows Woolworths' Christmas campaign, its first major work with Droga5, which turned customers' Christmas food into a carol, as Prompt the Market reported.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
