LONDON, April 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
This makes Lidl
the food retailer with the biggest European Facebook Community
On 27th February, Lidl reached the milestone of 10 million
fans on Facebook as verified in the study "Lidl Now #1
European Food Retailer on
Facebook" recently published by the
social media monitoring agency Socialbakers.
(Logo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120920/562717 )
Lidl began its international social media activities in
September 2011 in 7 pilot countries
(UK, Spain, Ireland, Holland, Croatia, Romania and Finland). Lidl Germany had already previously
set up the company's first Facebook page.
Gradually the remaining countries became active too, and by
April 2013 the final countries
launched their pages. Today, Lidl has 26 Facebook pages and a fan
community of 10.2 million followers. In the countries where it
operates on Facebook, the average penetration rate is around 5.9%.
This means that after approximately 2.5 years of being
internationally present on Facebook, Lidl is the number one food
retailer in Europe and number two
worldwide.
However, Lidl does not just top the rankings list when it comes
to the number of followers. The Socialbakers study also shows that
Lidl is the European food retailer with the greatest number of
interactions, and replies to the highest number of posts on
Facebook. Socialbakers' complete evaluation will be made available
via their blog on Wednesday 23rd April
(http://www.socialbakers.com/blog).
"In the past two and a half years, Facebook has become a very
important platform for Lidl's corporate communications",
explains Andreas Brückner, Managing Director of the leading
social media agency MRM Worldwide. "This success is due to Lidl's
consistent approach and the high level of professionalism with
which it has claimed the social media theme for itself. Instead of
using this channel simply to communicate advertising campaigns,
Lidl uses Facebook to communicate with its customers openly and
transparently through dialogue. In doing so, alongside the
traditional contests and competitions, Lidl also actively
encourages its followers to become involved. Products have already
been jointly developed with the communities (crowd sourcing) and
fundraising campaigns carried out (crowd funding). The followers
are also actively involved in shaping the product range. In a few
countries, the followers have been able to decide which products
from the Lidl range should go on special offer in store.
"Lidl takes what its followers think very seriously. In my
opinion, that, as well as innovative content, is one of the main
reasons why the engagement has been so successful", Andreas
Brückner continues. "Facebook activities in the future will also
focus on innovation, customer loyalty and transparency".
Lidl UK launched onto Facebook in March
2011 and quickly built up a loyal fan base. By January 2013, Lidl UK had 250,000 Facebook fans
and by November 2013 this figure had
risen to half a million fans. Today, Lidl UK has over 600,000
Facebook fans and a very impressive average response rate of 97%.
Innovative Facebook activities being carried out in the country
include apps and competitions such as the recent Easter Rally,
where players were able to win £50 of Lidl vouchers.
Notes to Editors
About MRM
Creativity, technology, performance - MRM is the agency for
interaction between consumers and brands. The agency works on
developing strategies and campaign concepts, ideas for social media
and mobile marketing and implements platform-neutral applications,
online portals and CRM activities, as well as IT solutions and
coordinates international campaigns.
With offices in Frankfurt,
Düsseldorf and Berlin the agency
has over 200 employees from 28 countries and is part of McCann
Worldgroup. From the very start, MRM Germany has been the lead
agency for social media for Lidl International.
About Lidl UK
Lidl's history goes back to the 1930s, when the company was
founded in Germany as a grocery
wholesaler. Today, Lidl is one of the largest grocery retailers in
Europe.
The first Lidl stores were opened in 1973 and by the 1980s Lidl
was a household name throughout Germany. During the 1990s Lidl started to open
stores outside Germany and today
Lidl stores can be found in nearly every country in Europe. Lidl is now well established as a
major European food retailer.
Lidl takes pride in providing top quality products at the lowest
possible prices to all its customers across Europe. Its stores are operated by a network
of dedicated store staff, helping to establish and further develop
the success of the company. Lidl will continue to play a major role
in the exploration of new markets in Europe and beyond.
Since establishing itself in the UK in 1994, Lidl UK has grown
consistently and today has more than 600 stores, and there are
plenty more to come.