It’s official. Our PR drive for Aldi has resulted in the supermarket achieving top status within TNS's low-down of brands that have delivered the most impressive media coverage to date. And when you consider this puts them alongside Apple and Nintendo in terms of column inches (trust me, without their PR spend), it’s no mean feat.
The Guardian reported the news on Sunday 13th October 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/12/supermarkets-news-coverage and the whole team here at Kavanagh Communications is, quite rightly, thrilled as it comes off the back of The Times reporting that Aldi has turned itself into ‘a slick PR machine’ http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article4629789.ece
So how did we achieve this incredible result and get the media waxing lyrical about ‘Aldi, King of the Discounters’, our favourite headline to date from The Daily Telegraph? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/2795479/The-rise-and-rise-of-the-discount-king.html.
We developed a PR driven campaign that sought and achieved approvals from media channels, spanning print, radio, TV and online.
Helping customers understand the saving message
To kick-start the consumer campaign, we identified a unique and impressive figure that was to spearhead the activity - Aldi Saves The Nation £1million a day. Using the Aldi MD as our spokesperson, we explained the savings with interviews and secured coverage within media such as: The Daily Mirror, The Guardian, Channel 4 News and ITN News.
Getting customers to endorse Aldi to each other
To create online dialogue and to personalise the communication to everyone across the nation, we developed a microsite to explicitly show everyone just how much money they could personally save if they made the switch to Aldi. Within the microsite, we had a ‘tell a friend’ option to make the calculator interactive and help it go viral.
Driving the quality message
Quality is key, as customers need to be reassured no compromises are made when they make the switch to Aldi. We have challenged the nation to trial Aldi against well-known brands such as tomato ketchup and crisps, to prove it delivers in our ‘Taste the Nation’ activity and these findings have been picked up across all Aldi’s trading areas and national media including The Sun and The Daily Mail.
Proving Savvy Shoppers Shop at Aldi
To prove that intelligent, ABC1 customers understand the offer, we conducted an IQ test to prove those that shop at Aldi are smarter. Activity was issued to media, resulting in coverage within The Sun plus 10 radio interviews with a professor in retail.
RESULTS
Here are five things we are really proud of:
- Aldi is the fastest growing retailer with a market share of 2.9%, up from 2.6% in last 12 weeks
- Sales are up by 44% yoy
- Media cite ‘the Aldi effect’ as means of explaining customer buying behaviour during the credit crunch
- We have secured coverage across every media channel including TV: Channel 4 News, Dispatches, ITN 6.30pm News At Ten, Sky News, BBC Working Lunch; Radio including BBC Radio 4 & 5 and countless regional radio; Print with over 200 pieces of print coverage and over 30 hits across national press that includes The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror; Online with thousands of postings advocating Aldi
- OTS has been half a billion
Can you afford to forgo stellar PR; today, in the run up to Christmas or in 2009? Call us today to hear what we can do for your brand. T: 01483 238 840.