Title	LIDL – LIVE LIKE IT'S THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER
Brand	LIDL
Product/Service	LIDL
Entrant	FOLK FINLAND Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation	FOLK FINLAND Helsinki, FINLAND
Media Placement	VIRTA HELSINKI, FINLAND
Production	DIRECTORS GUILD Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 2	JAMES POST Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 3	HUMINA Helsinki, FINLAND

Name	Company	Position
Tommi Laiho	Folk Finland	CEO
Kimi Issakainen	Folk Finland	Art Director
Tommy Mäkinen	Folk Finland	Creative Director
Lasse Paasto	Folk Finland	Copywriter
Pia Dahlman	Folk Finland	Account Director
Johanna Murtomäki	Folk Finland	Project Manager
Miika Hyvärinen	Folk Finland	Production Artist
Ville Varesvuo	Director's Guild	Executive Producer
Juha-Matti Nieminen	Director's Guild	Producer
Teemu Niukkanen	Director's Guild	Director
Joel Noel Mustonen	Director's Guild	DOP
Mikko Löppönen	Director's Guild	Editor
Tutsa Huuhka	Director's Guild	Casting Manager
Timo Anttila	Humina	Sound Designer
Juri Seppä	Humina	Music
Petteri Linnus	James Post	Producer
Eetu Niininen	James Post	VFX Artist & Online Editor
Mari Ollila	Virta Helsinki	Account Director
Sini Reunala	Virta Helsinki	Digital Strategist
Annika Hokkanen	Virta Helsinki	Planner
Päivi Saarinen	Virta Helsinki	Planner
Lauri Sipponen	Lidl Finland	CEO
Timo Hansio	Lidl Finland	Commercial Director
Seppo Niemelä	Lidl Finland	Marketing Manager
Christian Saukkola	Lidl Finland	Advertising Manager
Meeri Lehto	Valve	Junior Producer
Axel Auvinen	Valve	Frontend Coder
Reetu Mönkkönen	Valve	Backend Coder

The Campaign

Dark, cold weather surrounds us Finns 9 months a year. We’re always waiting for the short summer period and the expectations get sky high. When the summer season finally comes, we worry that it ends soon – our biggest fear during the summer time is the constantly glooming long dark winter that is just around the corner. The Finnish weather has impacted our states of mind and our nation has become a bit bipolar. In winter people are glum and tend to seclude from the society. In summer, we try to maximize the happiness by overemphasising the corner stones of Finnish summer: BBQ and summer cottage. This summer Lidl wanted to take away the Fear of Winter and tell Finns not to worry about the past nor the future. Lidl wanted to encourage Finns to live and enjoy right here, right now – because tomorrow it could be too late.

Creative Execution

Films were the core of the campaign. The story takes us to the near future, to Fall 2017 – a sudden snowstorm has taken everyone by surprise and one particular family is stuck at their summer cottage. Memories start to grow sweeter with time and everyone seem to remember the summer ending a little bit differently. In Print & OOH we used current themes and events as we reminded people that winter could come at any moment. For Online, we created summer’s Bucket List that inspired and motivated Finns to live their lives to the fullest. We collaborated with Spotify and let people make their own Grilling playlists, depending on the occasion. We even rewrote a Finnish classic and made it to a catchy rap song. It was #1 on Spotify’s viral list for three weeks in a row! People even made their own versions of the song in YouTube.

Lidl’s market share grew by 0,4 % in the summer season. Sales in May–June grew more than 5 % to last year – that means over 20 million €. June 2017 was the best and the most profitable month in Lidl’s history. ‘Live like it’s the last day of summer’ was more noticed than any other Lidl campaign before – spontaneous awareness value was 78 % and aided awareness value was 91 %. The message of the campaign was highly liked. Lidl was the most talked about brand among 18-34 yo. The theme song ‘Grillaa’ was #1 on Spotify’s viral list for three weeks in a row and became a huge earworm – it has been listened over million times and people even made their own mixes of the song. Two Lidl films were the most viewed ads in YouTube in Q2 (584 000 views + 249 000 views).

Lidl’s spot-on multimedia campaign became a talking point and it touched all Finns. The campaign encouraged people to live and enjoy right here right now, because summer could end and winter could come at any moment. The campaign took over the whole summer season in different channels and Lidl spread the message ‘Live like it’s the last day of summer’ across Finland. As a result, the sales went up and Lidl market share grew – and June 2017 was the best and the most profitable month in Lidl’s history.

Retail chains and meat producers have all advertised for the “coming grilling season” for years now. Lidl didn’t want to settle for this self-evidence – they wanted a concept that allowed them to interact with Finns during the whole summer. Usually retail market target groups tend to emphasize women between 25–45 yo., the every-day decision makers. But we knew, that the actual target group was way bigger than that. In order to succeed, we knew that we would have to win the hearts of every Finn, despite the age and gender – we needed to take over the whole summer and big coverage. For Finns, summer is a metaphor for the life – you need to live and enjoy right there and then, not to worry about the future, nor the past. This was the insight we based our whole concept: Live like it’s the last day of summer.