Lidl Belgium will be forking out an unexpected €200,000 to feed the poor this Christmas after its offer to trade chicken dinners for dedicated tweets went viral on Monday (10 Dec).
The discount retailer’s Twitter campaign launched in Belguim offered five four-course dinners to food banks for each tweet containing the hashtag '#luxevooriedereen', Dutch for “luxury for everyone”.
The Schwarz-Group owned retailer had only expected to hand out 1,000 of the €20 dinner packs and stopped the campaign after 24 hours when tweets spread like wildfire, topping the 1,500 mark. The retailer will now be delivering 10,000 dinners to the poor this Christmas.
The dinner packs will include tomato soup, vol-au-vents and chips, and ice cream cake and chocolates, according to a Lidl spokesperson.
The consensus on Twitter is that Lidl underestimated the power of the Twitter-sphere. “A Lidl less conversation a Lidl more action please” Geert Spieesens tweeted, with Belfast Biker adding, “Lidl- surprised at success of hashtag food bank free food campaign, honour costs and go one step further. Respect.”
Lidl is remaining tight-lipped about the possibility of repeating such a campaign next year, “ We've learnt quite a few lessons over the past 48 hours, to say the least,” a spokesperson said. (13 Dec)
© 2012 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
