Title	#SANTACLARA
Brand	LIDL
Product/Service	CHRISTMAS
Category	F01. Excellence in Media Insights & Strategy
Entrant	LIDL Stuttgart, GERMANY
Idea Creation	ÜBERGROUND Hamburg, GERMANY
Media Placement	MEDIACOM Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Production	ÜBERGROUND Hamburg, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Jürgen Achenbach	LIDL Stiftung & Co. KG, Germany	Vice President International Marketing
Martin Alles	LIDL Stiftung & Co. KG, Germany	Strategic Planning
Maciej Magdziarz	LIDL Stiftung & Co. KG, Germany	Buying International
Jakob Denjakin	LIDL Stiftung & Co. KG, Germany	Senior Consultant / Marketing International
Jo Marie Farwick	ÜBERGROUND GmbH	CEO
Nikolaus Ronacher	ÜBERGROUND GmbH	Creative Director
Christian Ruess	ÜBERGROUND GmbH	Art Director
Kathi Walther	ÜBERGROUND GmbH	Art Director
Kari Jackson-Kloenther	MediaCom Agentur für Media-Beratung GmbH	Managing Partner Media Consulting | International
Christiane Illy	MediaCom Agentur für Media-Beratung GmbH	Group Head Media Consulting | International
Magdalena Riether	MediaCom Agentur für Media-Beratung GmbH	Senior Media Consulting | International
Sascha Schneeweiß	LIDL Stiftung & Co. KG, Germany	Agency Coordination

The Campaign

Christmas is fun but also hard work and very stressful. Making Christmas special means cleaning the house, preparing food for guests, buying presents for everyone. A recent Nielsen study revealed that for an average of 43% of the population across markets, Christmas has become a rather stressful than enjoyable time. This figure is even higher when it comes to women (up to 70% in some markets), since most of the responsibility is their duties. And yet, Christmas is all about men; Father Christmas and Santa Claus. That’s why we changed Christmas for the better and came up with #santaclara, a new ambassador of a new kind of Christmas. A Christmas really for everybody.

Creative Execution

On November 23rd, the video was posted on Lidl’s local Facebook and YouTube channels. The video distribution specialists Unruly and Teads spread the video on relevant websites to reach the target audience. To ensure best user experience and boost sharing, native players were used, allowing features like share buttons directly linking to Facebook, Twitter and other relevant platforms. Four days later, all other media was rolled out to establish high awareness and engagement. Facebook and YouTube primarily delivered against reach and engagement objectives via views and shares, while Teads and Unruly were briefed to deliver against qualitative KPIs, such as the view through rate. Bloggers and influencers included the video in their communication, helping to broaden reach. Finally, traditional media used combinations of image and product visuals to support the video and help drive store traffic and sales. The campaign ran until December 24th to cover the entire holiday season.

The campaign was 2016’s most successful European viral video by achieving over 100 Mio. views (vs. the objective of 30 million). A VTR of more than 55% smashed expectations and internal benchmarks, proving the interest of the audience in the more than two minutes long video. #santaclara was widely covered by news outlets, generating earned PR worth 8.5 million Euro. Within social media consumers interacted 521k times and voiced their opinions in 34k comments and 96k shares. Across the web the campaign became one of 2016’s most shared Christmas ads (2016 Unruly ranking) by generating 304k shares and 119k Shazams. The song achieved top positions on Spotify and iTune charts. Despite heated arguments over the topic of gender equality during Christmas, the overall campaign sentiment was highly positive (spot check of 4k comments, 67% positive). Finally, we drove consumers into the store and increased sales by more than 7% YOY.

Global discount retailer Lidl spread the first ever gender Christmas-message of equality with a huge 360 degree campaign and managed to become the talk of the continent, by using a combination of social platforms and video-on-demand across 20 markets to deliver its bold message. The Christmas campaign #santaclara openly addressed gender stereotypes by celebrating women as true heroes of Christmas and successfully became part of the population’s social discussions, making Lidl one of the most talked about brands during the holiday season.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our Santa Claras were ambassadors and symbols for every woman: fresh, modern and self-confident. Our core message was that Christmas can be less stressful and more fun if everyone is supporting each other. Santa Clara would be a role model for equality, encouraging a joyful Christmas where everyone contributes. A branding video, showcasing how Santa Clara organised Christmas, was our key campaign asset. In addition, an original song was released to reinforce the message with its strong lyrics. Owned platforms hosted the video and music content, while paid media ensured high reach within the target audience. The central team coordinated video seeding, Facebook and YouTube. The local teams complemented central activations according to the markets’ requirements with TV, Outdoor, Radio and POS as well as search, PR and influencer activations. Earned media was generated via viral sharing, thus completing the campaign ecosystem across all media types and platforms.