Woolworths Launches Festive Campaign Across Trans-Tasman

Woolworths' 'Tastes Like Christmas' campaign rolls out in Australia and New Zealand, built from customer responses and paired with a Spotify playlist partnership.

Updated on Nov. 1, 2026 in Holiday Music

Gouache-painted editorial illustration of a trifle bowl and wrapped gift on a cream tablecloth, evoking festive food nostalgia.
Woolworths launched its 'Tastes Like Christmas' campaign across Australia and New Zealand on November 1, built from customer responses and paired with a Spotify playlist. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Woolworths launched its 2026 festive campaign 'Tastes Like Christmas' across Australia and New Zealand on November 1. The campaign turned customer social media responses into an original Christmas carol and is its first major campaign with creative agency partner Droga5 ANZ.

Why it matters

The campaign is Woolworths' first major trans-Tasman campaign, extending its holiday marketing across both markets at once. Pairing customer-generated content with a streaming partnership reflects a broader shift toward participatory holiday advertising.

The only quantified figure is a $500 Christmas shop prize offered to entrants in the customer challenge. No entrant count or campaign spend was reported, and results of the challenge beyond the selected food ideas remain unstated.

The players

Woolworths

Woolworths is a major Australian supermarket chain that also operates in New Zealand, and its festive marketing campaigns are closely watched across both markets.

Droga5 ANZ

Droga5 ANZ is the Australia and New Zealand arm of the global creative agency Droga5, which is part of Accenture Song.

Spotify

Spotify is a global audio streaming platform that offers music, podcasts and personalised playlists to subscribers worldwide.

The details

Woolworths asked customers on both sides of the Tasman to share what 'tastes like Christmas' to them, and selected food ideas such as a trifle and key lime pie were featured in the main campaign, including the TV commercial. The campaign will roll out across free-to-air TV, radio, print, out-of-home, digital, YouTube, subscription TV, social, influencer and in-store channels.

Timeline

  1. Campaign launch: November 1, 2026, across Australia and New Zealand

Holiday Music Landscape

Retailer-sponsored Christmas playlists on streaming platforms have become a recurring holiday marketing pattern, and Woolworths' Spotify partnership extends that approach by linking playlists to individual listening habits through a 'Christmas Cook Profile'. The move places a grocery brand inside the personalised music experience that streaming services now use to reach holiday shoppers.

Shoppers in Australia and New Zealand will encounter the campaign across TV, radio, streaming and in-store channels this holiday season. Spotify users can access the Christmas-inspired playlists and their 'Christmas Cook Profile' feature directly within the app.

The takeaway

Brands increasingly invite customers to shape their holiday messaging, so shoppers who share their own festive traditions may see their ideas reflected in national campaigns. Listeners can also explore personalised holiday playlists that reflect their own tastes.

Further reading

Explore more Holiday Music stories to see how brands and streaming platforms are shaping festive listening this season.

Source note: This article includes information reported by Campaign Brief.

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