CLIENT: Lidl
AGENCIES: BBDO & Sonicville
CREATIVE BELGIUM AWARDS: Silver Radio, Bronze Radio, Bronze Film
THE CASE IN AUDIO
The Brief
In the last couple of years, Lidl had already known a considerable growth. But Lidl had greater ambitions: how to continue and even expand this growth, without investing too much in promotions. On top of that: how doing this in a long lasting, image building way?
The idea was to increase the number of visits, to reach customers with a higher social profile and to put the emphasis on the fresh department of the Lidl Supermarkets. Hmm. Easier said than done.
The Creative Idea
How do you reach a higher social class? By showing glossy food pictures? By using fancy words? Not at all. By thinking the way a mother does.
That's what the creative people at BBDO did, to change Lidl from a coldhearted discounter into a loving, caring and protecting smart discounter. And to summon everything up, they created the baseline: Lidl, for everyone who counts.
What was the creative insight: mothers always want the best for the children. And in terms of food, that means healthy vegetables and homemade cooking. But mothers also realise, that they can’t always be around. Their children will go to summer camps, they will go out to wild parties, they leave home to study in far away cities. Conclusion: it’s better to prepare them a healthy dish now, because later you will not always be there to do so.
The Radio Story
The copywriters at BBDO imagined all kind of situations that proved it impossible for a mother to be at all the places her children hang out to eat fast food. So, what’s the alternative? To shop at Lidl for healthy food and cook decent meals for your children, whenever or as long as you can.
The Lidl commercials are a smart combination of both classical and rare ingredients. Classical is the fact that they tell a story. And as the music suggests: a thrilling story. An urban adventure ! Mom goes out to the local fast food shop or bar and lures the owner into a trap, to be able to exchange the pizza for a healthy vegetable guiche or a pint of lager for a glass of carrot juice.
The rare ingredient is the royal dose of slapstick humour and the “just out of the ordinary” length of the commercials. Although, this is radio, the stories are very visual. Here and there, a spicy detail is illustrated with some fine acting and well balanced sound effect. This is where we come to the execution.
The Execution
The secret of the creative success of the Lidl commercials is the quality and the quantity. Yes, the scripts are funny to begin with. But Lidl, BBDO and Sonicville always take the liberty and the luxury of recording more than needed.
Let’s listen some award winning examples: Bring them to the table this Christmas.
This campaign was in a way the answer to the commercials where the mother cares for her children. In return, for the end of the year campaign, Lidl called upon the grown-up children not to let their parents in the kitchen, but to invite them at the Christmas table. For this “ode to mothers and fathers” lots and lots of situations were recorded and illustrated by sound effects and acting. Only afterwards were they edited into 45” commercials. With only “the best of” takes.
LIDL: MOM VS. FAST FOOD. NOT AGENCY VS. ADVERTISER.
The Internal Kitchen
Why do these commercials work so well? Without any doubt it is partly because of the smooth collaboration with the brand, the agency and the production company. How often does an advertiser follow the ideas of the creatives nowadays? And the agency also lets the production company do its job. Recording sessions can be long and tiresome. Followed by days of selecting, editing and sound designing.
The outcome is often magical. Even if it may be remixed afterwards. And remixed one more time after that. The Lidl story is proof that creative radio is never a coincidence. It is the result of close co-working.
The Credits
AGENCY BBDO Belgium
BRAND Lidl
ACCOUNT TEAM Isabel Peeters, Elke De Witte, Inge Wertelaers, Siham Zerkak
CLIENT Matthias Kympers
AGENCY PRODUCER Nicolas Van Poeck
ART DIRECTOR Frederic Zouag
COPYWRITER Nicolas Gaspart
CREATIVE DIRECTORS Sebastien De Valck, Arnaud Pitz
PRODUCTION COMPANY Sonicville
PRODUCTION COMPANY PRODUCER Patrick Dooms
SOUND Sonicville/Pierre-Etienne Bonnet
STRATEGY Jan Van Brakel
