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22 Mar 2024

Rob Brown, co-director of Dalby Forest Cycle Hub, a not-for-profit hire scheme has been nominated for the Tourism Superstar 2024 award, run by VisitEngland.

21 Mar 2024

ACS (The Association of Convenience Stores) and the Federation of Independent Retailers (The Fed) have both welcomed a new report published by the Association of Police and Crime...

21 Mar 2024

As reported by Healthstores UK, new data contained in the 2024 Soil Association Organic Market report shows that independent retailers delivered an impressive 10% growth in 2023, with...

21 Mar 2024

An independent bottle shop and bar in Cheltenham has been named as the UK's Independent Beer and Wine Retailer of the Year 2024 at the Drinks Retailing Awards. 

21 Mar 2024

A number of organisations, including Bira (the British Independent Retailers’ Association), other trade associations, BIDs and unions have met with officials from the Welsh Government to...

21 Mar 2024

The British Independent Retailers’ Association (Bira) has reacted to data released by PwC and the Local Data Company exploring the state of the UK retail landscape.

8 Mar 2024

Daniel Blackham, editor of industry magazine BikeBiz, has been writing about his experience of completing the Cytech technical one qualification at training provider Spokes People in Milton...

6 Mar 2024

Cytech partner Activate Cycle Academy, the largest and most recognised training provider of bike maintenance and technical training courses to the UK’s cycle industry, recently welcomed a...

6 Mar 2024

The Greeting Card Association has reacted to a BBC Panorama programme lifting the lid on Royal Mail management prioritising parcel delivery over letters, which it says are in contradiction of...

4 Mar 2024

Pop star Kate Bush has been announced as an ambassador for this year's Record Store Day, on 20 April.

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How Aldi's social media is rallying customers against competitors

Posted on in Business News , Cycles News , Creative News

Aldi'sCake social media is famed for its playfulness and tongue in cheek banter. Marks and Spencer recently announced that it would be taking Aldi to court over the budget brand's take on its famous Colin the Caterpillar cake. See how Aldi launched their defence via social media with their #freecuthbert campaign, driving social media engagement and brand sentiment.

#freecuthbert

Cuthbert is a caterpillar, and also a cake. He lives on the shelves of Aldi in the bakery aisle. He happens to look a lot like another caterpillar called Colin. Colin is also a cake. He lives on the slightly more refined shelves of Marks and Spencers' bakery aisle. As Colin enjoys what might be perceived as more luxurious residence, his presence at birthday parties has a higher price tag.

Marks and Spencer have alleged breach of IP and Aldi have taken to Twitter to launch their hilarious defence. And actually Marks and Spencer's social data have responded in an equally well humoured way.

Over the course of the last few days Aldi has posted a string of #freecuthbert related tweets which are capturing the public's imagination. They've also called in Caterpillar Cake cousins Cecil, Wiggles, Curly and Clyde, from Waitrose, Sainsburys, Tesco and Asda as back up.

Aldi have approached Marks and Spencer with the offer of a charity donation from the sale of every Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake, including to one of the M&S supported charities, and while M&S are open to dialogue, no one is backing down.

 

What impact has #Freecuthbert had on Aldi's social media engagement?

Aldi's social media engagement has increased by over 10,000% since the #freecuthbert campaign started.

The have only created an additional 69 pieces of content on the week previous, but engagement has gone through the roof.

 

Key takeaways

Aldi is known for its good natured and entertaining social media content and engagement. Legalites and verdicts pending, both brands have handled the social media narrative exceptionally well, though Aldi have the edge. However it pans out, it is heartening to see big brands having fun with each other, and having a public dialogue over an issue which is usually handled stuffily and behind closed doors. Both will benefit from the increased social media engagement, and fingers crossed, charities will benefit too. 

 

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