When Virality Moves Fast, Brands Need to Move Faster
Sydney Geller, Senior Planning Director, M+C Saatchi Performance tells the story When an Austrian bakery in New York goes viral for charging $60 for a loaf of sourdough,...
Sydney Geller, Senior Planning Director, M+C Saatchi Performance tells the story
When an Austrian bakery in New York goes viral for charging $60 for a loaf of sourdough, and the conversation makes its way to Berlin and back, what is a marketer to do? The story struck a chord across Europe, where high-quality bread is a staple and often available for a fraction of the price. It was a moment not to be missed by Lidl with their cheeky brand tone.
That was the thinking behind a recent Lidl activation that came together in just 36 hours through a collaboration across the M+C Saatchi Group, bringing together teams from Europe and North America.
The viral moment started in Berlin when colleagues across the M+C Saatchi Group were discussing how a $60 loaf of bread had created a viral moment on the streets of New York. The team asked themselves; ‘How could Lidl, a popular European grocery brand, authentically join the conversation?’ The answer was to meet people where the moment was happening and add a layer of ‘on brand’ Lidl cheekiness to ensure the creative hit brand expectations and met the moment with the right tone.
Within 36 hours, the idea became reality with creative and media activation going live. On Saturday morning, as a line formed outside Rye’s bakery in NYC, a billboard truck was conveniently parked directly in front of the store.The message was simple: $60 can go significantly further at Lidl. The backside of the truck reinforced the point, highlighting just how much you could get for that same $60: 122 croissants. The campaign message was playful, timely and most importantly very on brand for Lidl. The media execution simple; right time and right place.
What made the activation particularly exciting wasn’t just the creative. It was seeing how quickly a global team could turn a conversation into something very real. In a day and a half, the teams pulled together contracting, creative, production, videographers and influencers to bring the idea to life.
For example, Influencers were brought into the strategy to bring the story to life, drive reach, engagement and add a viral element, examples of Influencer activity around the Lidl activation can be found here:
The strategy worked, Sherri Lu’s post ensured organic conversations continued across social channels and ultimately drew attention back to Lidl. One post on X from Sam Ro received half a million views in just a few days.
Ultimately what matters is the results, five days after launch, across influencer and brand content, the activation has achieved over 22K shares, 32K likes and 1772 engagements*.
“Watching something go from a conversation, to an idea, to a plan, to an actual truck sitting outside the bakery in New York was incredibly rewarding. Even better, was seeing the reaction to it from real customers, and watching the content come to life was extremely satisfying,” said Sydney Geller, Senior Planning Director, M+C Saatchi Performance.
The takeaway for other brands? You don’t always need to create the conversation. Sometimes, you just need to recognize a cultural moment that’s already happening and figure out how your brand can naturally be part of it. The key part is naturally, force fitting a brand into a moment can sometimes backfire so thoughtful and strategic consideration is vital for success.
For Lidl, a viral $60 loaf of sourdough became an opportunity to show up in the middle of the conversation with a little cheeky humor and simple message.
The activation was a result of integrated teams from M+C Saatchi Group Europe, M+C Saatchi N America, and oursleves at M+C Saatchi Performance in New York.
*Engagements defined as comments, Reposts, Video Views
