Sainsbury’s will kick off its Christmas advertising campaign tonight with a three-and-a-half minute trailer for a new film it has been working on in conjunction with Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald.

Christmas in a Day is a 50-minute documentary aimed at showing how Britain celebrates Christmas. Produced by Ridley Scott Associates and Scott Free London, the film is made up of real footage filmed by a host of people from across the UK last Christmas.

The film follows the same style as Macdonald’s acclaimed YouTube movie Life in a Day, which has received more than eight million views since it was released in 2011.

The new film will premiere on YouTube on 29 November, and in a departure from its traditional advertising, Sainsbury’s will devote its TV spots to a series of trailers promoting the film. The first of these will take up the entire advert break in the middle of Coronation Street on ITV1 this evening.

A further two 40-second and two 60-second trailers will air between then and 21 December.

“For Sainsbury’s, this started out as an experiment that we hoped would reveal something interesting about the way we celebrate Christmas in Britain,” said head of brand communications Mark Given.

“When we saw the film, we realised it had far exceeded our expectations – we believe this film is something very special indeed and I am proud that Sainsbury’s has been involved in this project from the outset. By having the film as our lead Christmas activity, I hope we’ll encourage millions of people across the UK to watch the story of Britain’s Christmas in a day.”

Director Kevin Macdonald said: “I was overwhelmed by the creativity and enthusiasm of the people up and down the country, from every walk of life, who filmed their Christmas and shared it with us. I feel that the finished film stands out for many reasons – it is funny, moving, often beautifully shot and above all truthful. I am immensely thankful to everyone who took part and to Sainsbury’s for making the film possible.”

The retailer will also be running a series of more traditional adverts featuring its own food and drink ranges from next week.

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