Lidl: #Santaclara, 1

Credits & Description:

Client: Lidl Stiftung & Co. Kg, Stiftsbergstraße 1, 74167 Neckarsulm
Product (Service): Retailer / Supermarket
Agency: Überground Hamburg, Germany
Entrant: Überground Hamburg, Germany
Idea Creation: Überground Hamburg, Germany
Production: Bigfish Filmproduktion Berlin, Germany
CEO: Jo Marie Farwick (Überground Gmbh)
Creative Director: Nikolaus Ronacher (Überground Gmbh)
Art Director: Kathi Walter (Überground Gmbh)
Art Director: Christian Ruess (Überground Gmbh)
Music: Simon Heeger & Christian Vorländer (2wei Music)
Agency Producer: Danilo Klöfer, Ute Ressler (Überground Gmbh)
Director: Nathan Price (Bigfish Berlin)
DOP: Martin Ruhe (Bigfish)
Copywriter: Jana Liebig (Überground Gmbh)
Copywriter: Ramona Schulze (Überground Gmbh)
Art Director: Roman Mitterer (Überground)
Executive Producer: Andrea Roman-Perse (Bigfish Berlin)
Executive Producer: Pacco Nitsche (27km)
Additional: Christmasfilm
Synopsys:
The Campaign
We changed Christmas for the better and came up with the redefinition of Santa Claus. With #SantaClara, a new ambassador of a new kind of Christmas. A Christmas really for everybody. We spread the first ever gender Christmas-message of equality with a huge 360 degree all media campaign including a Viral, a Number One Hit and Chartbreaker in Europe and a new Dance-Style!
Creative Execution
To address this highly relevant social topic and to initiate the viral distribution of the video across 16 markets, it was crucial that paid, owned and earned media worked smoothly together. The client’s owned platforms, especially YouTube, were to host the video and music content while paid media ensured a high reach within the target audience. The earned viral distribution was to be achieved through sharing among the audience. Thus, the selected media had to drive both engagement and awareness. Besides traditional media channels, such as TV, Outdoor and Radio, the media mix focused on digital channels, including video distribution across VOD, social and open web, as well as YouTube search and influencer activations.
With brand awareness across most markets of upside 90% and strong annual Christmas sales peaks, the primary focus of the campaign was on brand visibility, top-of-mind, and participation in the audience’s conversations.
With over 75 Mio. views and 400.000 shares,#SANTACLARA reached 4th place of Most Viral Christmas Ads online (Campaign PR Value 8.5 Mio €,and in addition #1 Spotify Viral Charts) ever.
As Paris Hilton or Eva Longoria twittered their solidarity with #santaclara we knew, the message was understood. PS: for the first time, the main role in the Disney-Christmas movie 2017 is not Santa Claus, but? A woman!
521.000 Social Media Interactions
#2 iTunes Video Charts
1.183.158 YouTube Views
1.231.272 Streams
119.492 Shazams
Radio stations feature the song and bring it to the people for free. The message is spread all over Europe – more than two dozen times a day. Hiplet – our newly developed dance style, mixing traditional ballet with hip-hop– takes the soft revolution of Christmas even further.
Countless dancers around the world feel inspired. #santaclara goes viral – and with her goes our Christmas message of equality.
The #SantaClara campaign had an important message to spread on Christmas 2016. But nobody likes to get a message in a teaching and educational way. So we communicated the idea of #SantaClara in the most entertaining way possible: with a song and a music video that fully hit the zeitgeist and even established a new dance style. Message received!
Think tanks were held in advance to challenge the feeling from the gut, that Christmas makers are female. And we asked the people: What needs to be changed? We came up with the redefinition of a very male Christmas role model – Santa Claus. With #SantaClara, a new ambassador of a new kind of Christmas. A Christmas really for everybody. To spread the message we used a medium people naturally engage with: music. And opened the official backdoor of the brain – people's ears.
The target audience was clear: We wanted to reach everyone in Europe.