German supermarket EDEKA is well known for its great variety of products. But in order to make a statement against racism they stopped offering it for one day.
Instead they opened the most German supermarket ever. For just one day they banned all foreign goods and offered products made in Germany only. So that between empty shelves Germans could see for themselves what less diversity really looks like.
Campaign Success
After almost one year of preparation the shelves of one EDEKA market in Hamburg were finally emptied. Just one day later, on the 19th of August 2017, the most German supermarket ever opened its doors.
Customers visiting the market were allowed to take pictures and videos while we were filming their reactions. Thanks to material shared by them the stunt went viral the very same day.
Two weeks later, on the 31st of August, we published the video material shot during the stunt. By then people all over the world had already shared videos and photos on Social Media. News and magazines referred to our experiment and we became part of an on going worldwide discussion about racism and diversity.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
More than 117 articles were published on this subject worldwide. More than 10,000 posts were generated on social media, with an engagement of 328,000 users. Around 9,000 followers were reached on Twitter - around 9 million on Facebook. User shared the content over 30.000 times. Worldwide, the campaign reaches more than 105 million people. After the stunt EDEKA generated 18,000 new followers. We hope that this idea - just a week before the federal election in Germany - will make people think about the situation in Europe and open their eyes that diversity ist important for everyone of us.
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
The case is relevant to Promo & Activation in the segment "guerrilla marketing and Stunts", because this stunt in a supermarket is a good example of an exceptionally and unseen staged idea with a relevant insight that concerns us all.
The EDEKA target group consists a wide range of people. Mostly adults with a regulated income from the upper middle class. The aim was to reach precisely these people, as these also deal with political conflicts. The stunt should therefore take place in a supermarket to reach the typical clientele. In the expectation that the stunt would already virally spread by customers, small sings were placed in the market, to elucidate the event. Of course, everything was filmed by hidden cameras. One week later the online film was planned to go on air. Even before the online film, the stunt was already all over the news worldwide.