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.
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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.
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