Lidl Case Study

GOLD BRONZE
ADFX
Leisure Media and Entertainment | Retail and Fashion AWARDS
2018
Lidl: How Lidl changed the nation's attitude to
Ladies Gaelic Football by calling for Serious Support
Chemistry
Company Profile
Chemistry’s mission is to transform the commercial fortunes
of our clients.
Transformation is a big ambition, one which is never easily

achieved, but even more so in the communication sector
where the best efforts of competitors seek to prevent it.
As the most creatively-awarded agency in the Irish market,

we use creativity as a weapon, a means to achieving our
mission for our clients. And, as the work of Les Binet and
Peter Field has proven, intelligently and correctly employed,
it is the most effective weapon in the marketing
communications arsenal.
Chemistry | How Lidl changed the nation's attitude to Ladies Gaelic Football by calling for Serious Support 1
Introduction and Background
‘My one wish out of the campaign is that people will put their energies into
supporting not just our sport but women in sport in general’ Helen O
Rourke, CEO of Ladies Gaelic Football.
In 2015, Lidl was experiencing struggles in the battle to win hearts, minds,
and purses of the Irish shopper. Purses might appear like a leading term
to describe the shopper - it’s certainly not a gender-neutral term, but
shopping is not a gender-neutral activity; 70% of grocery shopping is
done by females; their purchasing influence is estimated at 90% (iReach
2014 quant).
In December 2015, commenced a 3 year partnership with the LGFA

(Ladies Gaelic Football Association). We saw this as an opportunity to
engage meaningfully with the shopper and give them a reason to select
Lidl over competitors. This sponsorship was not without its challenges.
The LGFA was established in 1974, it’s the female equivalent of the GAA
(Gaelic Athletics Association, male led) but similarities end there. Men’s
Gaelic games are long established and respected, receiving huge levels
of support.
Introduction and Background
A men’s Gaelic Football or Hurling Championship final sees
Croke Park at capacity and typically receives 1.3 million TV
viewers. It is hugely visible through multiple sponsorships
and advertising. Ladies Gaelic Football enjoyed no such
support. It was largely untelevised and fan turnout is
significantly lower (under 30,000 at Championship Final).
Attitudes to women in sport left a lot to be desired. This led

to a harsh conclusion: not enough people really cared
about Ladies Gaelic Football. Tesco held the sponsorship
for 4 years until 2015 but this went largely unnoticed; a fate
Lidl wanted to avoid.
This case study will show how we created a gold standard

for female sports sponsorship that people would notice with
unparalleled benefits for the sport and sponsor alike.
Marketing Objectives
Establish Lidl as a sports sponsor
This was Lidl’s first significant national sports sponsorship and we would need to
compete against sports sponsors within our category as well as within the wider
national and international sporting context.
Improve brand association with local activity
This was a significant opportunity to dial up local credentials, an important marker for
a grocery brand.
Improve the status of the LGFA
We wanted to increase interest in participation in Ladies Gaelic Football, encourage

more young girls to take up the sport and to increase match attendance YOY (The
championship final attendance was a key benchmark).
Improve purchase intent and shopping behaviour
We saw this sponsorship and building local credentials as a key link in the chain
towards improving purchasing intent and behaviour.
Brand fame
Les Binet and Peter Field have proven the importance of brand fame on effectiveness,
describing fame as getting shared and talked about.
This was the most important objective for two reasons:
1. Fame could help us with the small size of the sponsorship. The bigger and
more important we could make the sponsorship, the more we could get
people involved, the better our chances of fulfilling all other objectives,
including making this niche sport relevant to Lidl’s very broad customer
base.
2. Making the Lidl brand famous for something more meaningful. There is
less scope for brand fame when it comes to the ‘day job’ of shopping:
how many meaningful conversations is it possible to have about the price
of yet another chicken breast? The sponsorship was the opportunity to
make Lidl famous for something other than the expected.
Make a difference
Last but not least, we wanted Lidl’s support of the LGFA to make a real difference.
Encouraging women into sport has a multitude of benefits; an area we would explore
further in year 2. Not enough women are encouraged to take up and to stay in sport,
so getting women and society at large to understand the importance of supporting
women in sport was a core objective.
The Task
‘All we want is to be recognized. You wouldn’t believe how
bad it is. Sometimes we have to pay into our own games’.
Quote from an LGFA player. (Spark research, November
2015).
Our task represented numerous challenges;
Size of the sponsorship: The LGFA had a passionate but

very small following. Media coverage, match attendance
and online mentions were very low. This was not a salient
sponsorship, and so risked remaining invisible - which
would affect overall awareness.
Poor depiction of women in sport: A bad attitude to women

in sport existed as demonstrated by a simple Google
search for “Top Athletes” compared with the results found
when you add in the word “female.”
We conducted research with LGFA players & Lidl shoppers

and found perceptions of women in sport were troubling.
The Task
Players felt completely unsupported and badly treated. They spoke of unattended
matches and poor amenities. Young girls and their parents had conflicting ideas
about women in sport. There was a sense that to be good at sport, you had to cede
femininity.
‘I don’t like the way Serena (Williams) has to be a man to win,’ Lidl shopper (Spark
Research Nov 2016).
Our research showed a dearth of female sporting role models. Social media listening
revealed low interest and negative commentary which cast aspersions on the skills of
LGFA players:
‘Women’s football = disabled sports’ (Twitter)
Niche relevance: To create relevance with Lidl’s shopper base, our sponsorship would
need to resonate with all women, even if they didn’t have huge interest in the LGFA or
sport. A key task was to make the majority of shoppers care more about LGFA than
they already did.
Multiple audiences with different viewpoints: Players, Lidl shoppers, Mums (Lidl core
target audience), School audiences, pupils and teachers, fans, the LGFA, Lidl staff.
The Task
Upsettingly low support for the LGFA and its players: Support, match attendance and
participation rates were low, we needed to generate higher levels across the board.
Cluttered sports sponsorship category: We had to ensure that we stood out against
more established sponsorships in Gaelic Games e.g. AIB, SuperValu and other big
tickets sponsorships e.g. Heineken, Guinness and Vodafone all supporting rugby. We
would need to maximize Lidl’s investment beyond ATL by generating significant
earned media.
No precedent existed: We were constantly uncomfortable; no female sponsorship

existed that came close to delivering on the ambitions we set.
The paradox of targeting women shoppers, when women are not the obvious
candidates to speak to about sport: Women don’t play sport to the same level as men,
and the drop-out rate for women is much earlier and much higher. As we would learn
when we conducted a quantitative survey in year 2, by age 13, 1 in 2 young girls will
have stopped playing team sports.
The Strategy
Women’s sport was seen as a bit of a joke. Our strategy
needed to upend this prevailing attitude. We wanted to
change the status quo and show why supporting the LGFA
and celebrating women in sport was something to be
taken seriously. Our strategic thinking had to be rooted in
sport but have broader relevance to capture the
imagination of all women. The first thing we did was outline
the audience to remove any barriers to maximizing our
impact.
Our insight needed to have relevance to women whether

they played sport or not. In building our insight we looked
at sports brands and brands in general and how they
communicated with women. There were some excellent
cases e.g. “This Girl Can” from Sport England; this showed
a more complex, intelligent and ultimately triumphant
image of womanhood. A less intelligent view was sadly
more widespread. Just 3 years before we launched, Bic
launched a pink pen for ladies. It wasn’t a joke, they were
serious.
The Strategy
We conducted research to craft our insight. We explored 7 territories to understand
what provoked interest, with a cross-section of all audiences including dads.
Probing the territories led to rich findings but one area commanded agreement from
all, the playing field just wasn’t even when it came to women in sport. This resonated
far beyond the pitch; women didn’t enjoy equality in sport or in life. We had an
insight that could talk about sport but act as a broader canvas to create widespread
relevance.
We recognized that a traditional approach to launching this sponsorship wouldn't

work – given the low levels of interest in the game; we decided to be confrontational
and developed a three phase strategic plan to ensure maximum interest.
The Strategy
Phase 1 – Agitate - Make the audience receptive before launch by getting them
involved in the debate on the uneven playing field for women.
Phase 2 – Launch - Launch the sponsorship at scale to a receptive audience who have
taken part in the debate and could appraise the LGFA and Lidl’s sponsorship from an
active viewpoint.
Phase 3 – Support - Continuously find ways to support LGFA at all touch points from
the championship finals through to in-store activities for communities, where
shoppers could influence donations of kit and bursaries to their local LGFA clubs.
The Idea
We had a robust, active insight that would appeal to people’s sense of fairness.
Women in sport were not on level footing and we believed there was a role for Lidl
to correct this by showing their support and calling on everyone else to join them.
From this we developed our big idea
This idea felt challenging, bold and unapologetic. These athletes are 100%
committed and play with everything they’ve got. They train as hard, are just as
competitive & committed; take pride; feel every blow; every loss and every win.
They are just the same as every other athlete except for one thing, support.
The Strategy
We had a strong insight and platform but to get people feeling as vexed as the
players were (and by now, us too) we created a little mischief with a stunt designed to
provoke conversation about women in sport.
Phase 1 – Agitate:
We confronted the negative attitudes that prevailed and compelled people to feel
outraged. We created a spoof product called ‘Ladyball’ which was made from all the
negative attitudes we had found about women’s sports, forcing our audience to
confront them and voice their opposition. This was done as though real, carrying no
Lidl branding.
The stunt provided a lightning rod for conversation around the topic of women in
sports. We used some ATL activity to promote ‘Ladyball’ but the main area of focus
was social media: getting people talking and sharing this story. This meant that
before Lidl launched its sponsorship, people were actively engaged in the attitudes
to women in sport.
The Idea
The Idea
A critical part of our strategy was to gather a large pool of prospects so that we could
reveal Lidl as the creators of ‘Ladyball’ and use this to announce Lidl’s sponsorship.
‘Ladyball’ would provide a deliberate contrast to Lidl’s pledge to take women’s sport
seriously and provide support for the LGFA.
The Idea
Phase 2 - Launch of Serious Athletes Deserve Serious Support
At launch, we harnessed the energy we created with ‘Ladyball’ and used it to demon-
strate why LGFA players deserve “Serious Support”. A mix of outdoor and TV were the
key media for launch, supported with digital and Lidl’s own communications such as
website, leaflet and instore.
In direct contrast to the girlish pink of ‘Ladyball’, Serious Support showed players in
gritty yet epic realism, making their case about how they are no different to any other
athlete, all they need is support.
The sport lacked a serious platform to-date and we wanted to end that. We used
media that would create stature, using a mix of high impact outdoor and TV, which
launched with 60 seconds allowing us to shine a light on how passionately and seri-
ously women played Ladies Gaelic Football. We carefully selected programmes that
would match the stature of the creative and launched with prime spots during the
Rugby 6 Nations.
The Idea
The Idea
The Idea
Phase 3 – Support
Lidl continued to deepen the story of Serious Support throughout the year and into
the following year of the sponsorship with a considerable level of support at
grassroots level.
The Idea
Extending our campaign
The platform was strong and motivating and gave us the

perfect opportunity to create or join conversations when
female-related events or news items arose.
When Beyoncé played in Croke Park, bespoke copy was

developed bespoke to reflect how strong women played in
the stadium.
When the Irish women’s football team had a public fight

with the FAI over poor conditions, we communicated our
solidarity, saying all women in sport deserved support.
In year 2, we commissioned research into the affect sport

has on young women and proved that there was a huge
difference in mental health, confidence and happiness
between girls who play sport and those that don’t.
The Idea
We created an emotive documentary highlighting the
issue, showing how 1 in 2 girls drop out of sport by age
13 because they are not given the support to stay in
sport, despite its many benefits. We partnered with INM
to run in-depth features and reports about females and
their relationship with sport ran over a number of weeks.
The Results
Results for Lidl’s sponsorship of the LGFA didn’t just smash records; they created new
and very high records for any sports sponsorship and has set a new precedent for
female sports sponsorship.
Establish Lidl as a sports sponsor.
Lidl became the most recalled sports sponsor in Ireland. Just 9 months into the
sponsorship, Lidl outperformed all other sports sponsors achieving the highest recall
for any sports sponsorship in Ireland. (Coyne Research)
Lidl’s LGFA sponsorship saw it become the brand most associated with any Gaelic
sports event by a significant amount. Despite our rival SuperValu holding a GAA
sponsorship for over 8 years, we surpassed them within 8 months. (Coyne Research)
Outside of Gaelic Games, we still came out on top. Lidl achieved more than double
recall for its sponsorship of LGFA versus the next highest sponsor, Heineken which
has a long and very well established association with rugby.
The Results
Improve brand association with local activity
Our objective had been to double Lidl’s association with local. We almost tripled this
score. (Spark Research)
And, in the first year alone, over 1 million Lidl shoppers supported 147 schools in
getting €250,000 worth of kit, rejuvenating the sport amongst young girls.
Brand fame:
We wanted to get people sharing and talking about LGFA, the campaign has proved
very strong for fame and earned media, the value of which is estimated at over €1
million.
Campaign content had a reach of over 8.5 million through social media
• 116 publications globally reported on the negative issues raised
• Trended in Ireland within 1 hour of launch almost consistently for the 2
day duration of the Ladyball activity
• Despite being active for just 2 days, 1 in 4 were able to recall it nationally
(Spark Tracker, May 2016)
The Results
The Results
Our Serious Support campaign reveal connected with the public
Reveal content received engagement almost 9x higher than brand norm

on social channels
Over 470,000 views on Facebook video content during the launch

weekend alone (without paid support)
The #SeriousSupport hashtag reached over 1 million users on Twitter
Lidl’s research into young women in sport in year 2 made news headlines, helping to
sustain interest and provide a new reason why women in sport need support
The Results
The brand became much more meaningful to shoppers and is cited as a key reason
for selecting Lidl over competitors. (MCCP & Coyne)
The shopper base is predominantly female and Lidl is now seen as the only brand
promoting equality in sport. (Spark tracker)
The sponsorship campaign also helped Lidl’s reputation to soar, becoming Ireland’s
most reputable supermarket in 2016. (Reptrack)
Improve the status of the LGFA:
Lidl drew the nation’s attention to Ladies Gaelic Football and created national interest
in it. More than half of all adults and almost 2/3 of those who saw the TV ad claim to
now be more interested in Ladies Gaelic Football. And almost 1/3 are interested in
participating in the sport – delivering on one of our key criteria for the sponsorship.
(Coyne Research)
Serious Support struck a chord and has become the hashtag of choice at matches,
reaching over 1 million users on Twitter. It has become the language of fans and
pundits alike.
The Results
Overall the campaign outperformed on all scores and promoted a stronger, positive
and more differentiated view of the Lidl brand amongst shoppers.
‘The advertising campaign surpassed all norms with over half of people claiming to
have a positive/ much more positive opinion of Lidl since the LGFA campaign.’ -
Coyne Research Oct 2016
Improve purchase intent and shopping behaviour
The sponsorship itself drove strong purchase intent but this rose to even higher levels
for those who saw the campaign. (Coyne Research)
Later in 2016, Lidl was to embark on a new main shopping campaign. However, the
LGFA campaign launched 4 months before this. Although this campaign was not
directly tasked with driving sales, the increased claimed likelihood to shop more in
Lidl appears to have translated into actual behaviour with Kantar reporting a +1.5%
increase in market share during the launch period.
In 2016, a quantitative survey conducted by Coyne showed that more people claimed
to shop in Lidl monthly in 2016 versus 2015.
The Results
In 2017, a large piece of quantitative research was undertaken to understand different
drivers for shopping with Lidl, with local support (which was driven by the LGFA
sponsorship) being cited as one of the key drivers for those who main shop in Lidl.
(MCCP)
The Impact
Every person who worked on the sponsorship feels immensely proud of it. It has
become much more than an advertising campaign, it has fundamentally changed
how the sport is perceived and most importantly how it is supported.
A new precedent for female sport sponsorship
All sports need sponsors to create tangible support. By creating a gold standard for
women in sport, we have raised the bar and the interest for female sport sponsorship.
This has been reflected in the awards and the interest it has created nationally and
internationally - as a case study for female sports sponsorship and even sports
sponsorship generally. Lidl won 3 awards at the European Sponsorship awards,
including the top prize, European Sponsor of the Year.
Increased support
Specific behavioural objectives were to increase interest in participation in the LGFA,

encourage young girls to take up the sport and to increase match attendance YOY.
Prior to our sponsorship campaign, attendance at Ladies Gaelic Football

Championship finals remained under 30,000.
The Impact
In year 1 of the sponsorship, the championship broke
records achieving 34,445.
In year 2 the deeper effects of the sponsorship really

showed with attendance at a record smashing 46,286.
Making the LGFA Championship Final the most attended

female sporting event in Europe for two years running.
LGFA match results are now reported by the national

broadcaster, never done before.
Expert opinion
Sport experts have been quick to seize on the importance

of the sponsorship, calling it a gamechanger and lending
their support to raising the bar for women’s sport.
Newstalk’s Off The Ball praised the Lidl sponsorship for
making a real difference. Other female sport experts have
credited Lidl with creating inspiring imagery and role
models which will attract more women into sport.
The Impact
Making a real difference
The campaign has led to renewed interest in

participation. Almost 1 in 3 people claim to be more
interested in taking part in Ladies Gaelic Football as a
result of seeing the campaign. (Coyne Research) The
LGFA has yet to put an exact figure on the increased
levels of participation but has reported significant
increases across the board.
Greater participation is vital to the growth and health of

the LGFA but there is a more profound societal impact
that should also be considered.
Lidl conducted a significant piece of research around

women’s relationship to sport. There are huge benefits
to the physical and mental well-being of young girls and
women who stay in sport. If we can support more
women to take up and stay in sport, more women stand
to feel better about themselves across the board.
The Impact
The National Youth Mental Health Task Force wants the Irish government to invest €32
million in this area: sport is linked to greater mental well-being and keeping more
young women in sport could have a profound effect on shaping policy around better
mental health in Ireland.
New Learnings
Using negative perceptions and turning these on their head to create a positive
impact has been a real learning. We live in an era where attention is an increasingly
scarce resource, making it easy for people to default to their subconscious biases.
The attitudes and status quo for women in sport sucked. The more confrontational
approach we adopted helped people to let go of their passive views on the matter
and got them to engage actively. Waking up to how uneven the playing field for
women in sport led them to become a nation of supporters.
Summary
Chemistry’s Ladies Gaelic Football campaign for Lidl took a sponsorship of a minority
sport and turned it into an issue of national, and international importance: namely,
that women’s sports are not taken seriously by anyone other than the players
themselves. Our campaign built awareness of Lidl’s sponsorship to the highest in the
entire sports category within just 9 months, ahead of long-established and large
spending sports sponsorships like AIB with GAA and Heineken with rugby. It was
awarded European Sports Sponsorship of the Year in 2016. But best of all, it helps
give the players the acknowledgement and respect that they deserve as the
committed, competitive athletes they are.

Lidl Case Study

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Lidl Case Study

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GOLD BRONZE

Transformation is a big ambition, one which is never easily

As the most creatively-awarded agency in the Irish market,

In December 2015, commenced a 3 year partnership with the LGFA

Attitudes to women in sport left a lot to be desired. This led

This case study will show how we created a gold standard

Improve brand association with local activity

Improve the status of the LGFA

We wanted to increase interest in participation in Ladies Gaelic Football, encourage

Improve purchase intent and shopping behaviour

This was the most important objective for two reasons:

Our task represented numerous challenges;

Size of the sponsorship: The LGFA had a passionate but

Poor depiction of women in sport: A bad attitude to women

We conducted research with LGFA players & Lidl shoppers

‘Women’s football = disabled sports’ (Twitter)

No precedent existed: We were constantly uncomfortable; no female sponsorship

Our insight needed to have relevance to women whether

We recognized that a traditional approach to launching this sponsorship wouldn't

From this we developed our big idea

The platform was strong and motivating and gave us the

When Beyoncé played in Croke Park, bespoke copy was

When the Irish women’s football team had a public ﬁght

In year 2, we commissioned research into the affect sport

Establish Lidl as a sports sponsor.

Reveal content received engagement almost 9x higher than brand norm

Over 470,000 views on Facebook video content during the launch

The #SeriousSupport hashtag reached over 1 million users on Twitter

Improve the status of the LGFA:

Improve purchase intent and shopping behaviour

A new precedent for female sport sponsorship

Speciﬁc behavioural objectives were to increase interest in participation in the LGFA,

Prior to our sponsorship campaign, attendance at Ladies Gaelic Football

In year 2 the deeper effects of the sponsorship really

Making the LGFA Championship Final the most attended

LGFA match results are now reported by the national

Sport experts have been quick to seize on the importance

The campaign has led to renewed interest in

Greater participation is vital to the growth and health of

Lidl conducted a signiﬁcant piece of research around

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