Dive Brief:

• Save A Lot has launched a music video and advertising campaign aimed at highlighting the chain’s remodeled stores and low prices, according to a news release Thursday.
• The campaign, called “Like, A Lot A Lot,” is headlined by a music video shot by veteran director Drew Kirsch that features pop, hip-hop and rap stylings from three emerging artists. 
• Save A Lot is purposely moving away from conventional grocery advertising in an effort to reach more consumers. “The first thing we had to do was to stop acting like a grocery store,” said Teddy Stoecklein, creative director at VIA, the agency that organized the creative campaign for the grocer.     

Dive Insight:

Save A Lot’s new ad campaign and music video put a modern spin on grocery store marketing. The headline song, which the company will play in TV spots and digital ads, is fast and energetic, and the video features a diverse cast of characters, from dancing shoppers to scooter-riding senior citizens and even a marching band. 

Kirsch, who won an MTV VMA Award for directing Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” shot the video in a St. Louis Save A Lot store. The spot features emerging singers like Leon Evans, Sarai and Tamara Bubble, who also has a song featured on Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

Along with its low-price messaging and catchy lyrics, the spot aims to liven up the company’s logo, the “Lot Dot,” by making it a colorful, interactive part of the show, according to the news release. This approach will carry across the company’s print, digital and TV ads.

Save A Lot, which has struggled against competitors and a large debt load in recent years, hopes the creative push will reach new customers and also show off its newly remodeled stores.

"This new campaign further builds on our current efforts of modernizing our stores and breaking out of the sea of sameness that's taken over the industry as of late," said Tim Schroder, senior vice president of marketing at Save A Lot, in a statement.

Other grocers have recently attempted to break away from the industry’s advertising tropes. This includes Lidl, which has run offbeat ads, including a recent one highlighting its “suspiciously low-price groceries,” as well as Whole Foods and its “Whatever Makes You Whole” campaign focusing on low-key humorous moments.

Save A Lot has stepped up its store remodeling efforts recently as it sells off corporate-owned stores and transitions to a wholesale model, with plans to touch-up all of its branded locations by 2024. But the company will have to press forward without the CEO who launched these efforts, Kenneth McGrath. He recently announced he's returning to competing discounter Lidl, where he'll be deputy chairman of that company's international business.