Stop & Shop, a neighborhood grocery store for more than 100 years, partnered with customer agency C Space to launch an above-the-line advertising campaign titled “You Got It.” Looking to bring customers into its newest creative in an authentic way, Stop & Shop eschewed traditional advertising agencies for C Space because of the agency’s deep experience in customer relationship-building and insights. Rather than actors, the documentary-style ads feature real customers filmed amidst the happy chaos of their daily lives. Designed to embrace the reality of their busy routines as they juggle kids and work, the campaign offers a genuine look at how Stop & Shop helps them get it all done so they can spend more time with their families.

“We wanted to connect directly with our customers in a meaningful way with this campaign – and to let them know that we really understand and care about them,” said Whitney Hardy, SVP, CMO of Stop & Shop. “Our customers are at the core of the change that’s underway at Stop & Shop, and everything we’re doing from our creative to new in-store features is centered around making things easier for them so that they can enjoy what matters most.”

C Space developed a tool they call the “empathy engine,” which was used to inform the campaign, and includes a community of several hundred Stop & Shop customers available 24/7 to offer real opinions and insight. Insights around the changing needs of Stop & Shop customers (from Stop & Shop’s own robust research and C Space’s empathy engine) were not only used to shape new advertisements, but were also the driving force behind larger scale changes for the brand as Stop & Shop unveiled a fresh new look and enhanced store format at 21 stores in Greater Hartford this week.

“Stop & Shop wanted to do something unexpected. We’re not an ad agency. We’re a customer agency. Real life is what we do best. So that’s what we gave them,” said Franco Bonadio, Chief Creative Officer at C Space. “We believe that the customer experience encompasses everything – from in-store to ads. Stop & Shop is forging an emotional connection with their customers by choosing to partner directly with them as opposed to advertising AT them.”

With plans to update all of its 400+ stores across the Northeast, the brand is committed to reshaping its entire shopping experience around the customer as it repositions for future success.

Stop & Shop’s new campaign will launch on TV, radio, online video and out-of-home starting October 5th in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.