Iceland scores a winner with inspired Euro 2016 campaign

It’s been quite the seven days.

Amid all the political drama, there was a football match on. England got knocked out of the Euros by Iceland, a footballing minnow whose strong, energetic and disciplined performance, cheered on by resolute, organised and passionate supporters, only exacerbated the lack of unity going on at home. But riding alongside it with a smile was Iceland Foods.

It’s been a while since Iceland Foods was smiling. It’s been a torrid couple of years for the business. But while Iceland’s marketing has met with a mixed reception in the past, over the past few weeks it has run a brilliant guerrilla marketing campaign to take advantage of Iceland’s first appearance in a major tournament.

Iceland Foods kicked off on 2 June by sponsoring the Iceland football team. Supporters started dressing up in Iceland carrier bags. And the supermarket rode a cheerful wave on social media all the way to what could have been awkward – the now infamous match between England and Iceland. But it kept going. Boss Malcolm Walker appeared in a half-and-half England and Iceland shirt asking people to tweet him who would win (and offered the shirt to one lucky winner). An Iceland store in Leicester was rebranded as ‘England or Iceland’. And when the game was over, its Twitter account kept up the banter. Until Iceland lose to France on Sunday night, it can continue to make the most of it.

The serious question is did it make any difference to sales? According to Kantar it’s already looking perkier than it has for a long time. The latest Kantar figures (12 weeks to 19 June) showed sales up 3.5% and a little bump in market share, making it the fastest-growing supermarket behind Lidl and Aldi.

Those figures cut off before the England vs Iceland game, when the campaign accelerated, but Iceland is on a little roll anyway. Its full-year results, released on 10 June, still showed that sales were down (by 2.7%) but the rate of decline is slowing compared with the year before (when sales were down 4.4%). Its Power of Frozen marketing campaign has been well-received, its ready meal, soup and sauces tie-up with Slimming World (Iceland manufactures the products) has been wildly successful (£61m sales in its first 12 months made it the biggest launch of the year and double that of frozen rival Bisto) and it’s sped up the opening of its Food Warehouse concept (it has 12 and wants another 25 this year).

So Iceland’s comeback, and its enjoyable campaign, makes for a good news story. And right now, the more of those out there, the better.