Creative Spotlight: Warburtons

What happens when a national treasure meets a national pleasure? Add an entertaining script, strong production and brilliant acting, you get a great ad. Warburtons and Olivia Colman have delivered our ad of the month for May with the expertly executed Crumpet Heist.

This is one of three humorous radio ads in which Olivia Colman denies involvement in a crumpet heist. Theatre of the mind transports the listener to a secure location where Colman is “allegedly” holed up with three and a half tonnes of Warburtons’ finest crumpets which she has, “also allegedly”, sequestered during an inspection of the Warburtons’ factory. Despite her insistence that the accusations are preposterous, the sound of police banging on the door, and Colman putting on a Scottish accent to claim “she’s not here at the moment,” suggests otherwise.

The campaign is a powerful example of maximising the multiplier effect of radio alongside TV using consistency of storyline and voice and with the brand at the heart of the drama.

Creative agency: Joyful & Triumphant