Charlie Bigham’s celebrates its commitment to freshly-prepared meals in a “next level” TV initiative

A charming animated 30-second spot titled Meet Charlie Bigham sits at the heart of the campaign, introducing Charlie’s story and following his hands-on involvement in creating the dishes which grace the dining rooms, living rooms and kitchens of homes around the UK and have made Charlie Bigham’s a category-leading brand.

Featuring the illustration of Emily Sutton, who designs Charlie Bigham’s packaging for Big Fish, the film was directed by award-winning animation director Isabel Garrett of Blinkink, and shows Charlie picking ingredients in the market and designing new recipes in the tasting kitchen. Voiceover for the TVC is provided by Charlie himself and by Richard Osman, who has previously voiced Charlie Bigham’s audio campaigns.

The campaign challenges preconceptions of ready meals (the category which Charlie Bigham’s leads) as mass produced products which compromise on quality. Charlie Bigham’s rejects the term for its products as each of their dishes is handmade, freshly prepared and never frozen.

The new trail introduces Charlie to TV audiences for the first time, with the voiceover pointing out that: “You couldn’t make him up, even though most people think that we have!” It goes on to tell the story of Charlie’s travels 25 years ago which inspired him to create prepared meals with high quality ingredients, and how this grew into the much-loved brand.

Pippa Glucklich, CEO of Electric Glue commented: "This is a historic moment for Charlie Bigham's as it looks to go to the next level of reach to tell the story of the brand using TV, BVOD and YouTube as well as OOH, radio and social."

The campaign will run in the UK from today until 15 March and will appear across multiple touchpoints including TV, audio, D/OOH, organic and paid social on YouTube, Pinterest and Meta.