ALDI

Consumer: Meet ALDI In The Middle - Sera Bunca, Chase Vincent, Fanta Sylla, Kyra Benzing-Plourde

The Community Engagement team set out to broaden the ALDI customer demographics, by exploring a new relationship with Gen Z. Their plan, ALDI U.

ALDI holds the title of the most sustainable grocer, a title they wear proudly. Additionally, it’s a value Gen Z cares about- making the perfect match between the two. ALDI U. brings the ALDI experience to large college campuses with thousands of students who are potential customers for the brand.

ALDI will brand a sustainable bus that carries its famous middle-aisle products. They’ll circulate colleges during their busiest times such as move-in, midterms, or homecomings. The vision will come to fruition at colleges in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, and Texas- setting up an entirely new generation of consumers for the brand to become lifelong shoppers.

Creators: ALDI Connect - Lila Delaronde, Isa de Oliveira, Leena Hanson, Caroline Johnson, Tim Sievers

During this team’s visit to an ALDI store in Falls Church, they learned about different customers’ perspectives of the ALDI brand. One thing that stuck out was that these customers valued sustainability, but were unaware of most of ALDI’s achievements. The team also noticed that most ALDI-related content on popular platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube was generally from third party creators. From there, the team set out to create a streamlined way for ALDI to collaborate with independent creators to produce relevant content, particularly with a focus on ALDI’s sustainable practices and a Gen Z audience.

The team created ALDI Connect, an online application-based creator hub for digital creators and influencers to connect, share content, and allow ALDI to easily collect user generated content all under the umbrella of sustainability. ALDI Connect will encourage participation in different social media challenges, which all correlate with the different pillars of ALDI’s sustainability mission.

Local Divisions: ALDI Style - Lucas Torregrossa,

Margo Flanagan,

Meron Washington

Our ALDI Style campaign encapsulates a dynamic and innovative approach to marketing tailored specifically for ALDI's local divisions. Targeting the demographic of young professionals aged 23-34 residing in both urban and suburban areas seeking inventive solutions for their home needs, our campaign's primary objectives were to heighten awareness of ALDI's sustainability initiatives, foster engagement through social media platforms, and captivate potential consumers through entertaining content. 

The Research, Innovation and Outreach Analysts decided to tackle the local ALDI connection and produced a plan for a viral ad campaign.

The ads would be a “social experiment style” and would feature a taste test of a regionally classic meal and its ALDI-made counterpart. At the end of the ad, a QR code would lead to a pop-up site. The website extension has three major features: a recipe card, a store locator, and information about the sustainable benefits of cooking at home. Each of these aspects would be altered to fit the region in which the ad was aired. For example, the mock ad that RIO produced was aimed towards ALDI’s Central Valley division, which includes the city of Philadelphia and the classic Philly cheesesteak. Therefore, the website’s recipe card gave instructions on how to make the cheesesteak in the video and the store locator was already zoomed in on the Central Valley division.

The goal of the viral campaign is to raise regional awareness of ALDI’s quality products and sustainable approach by targeting locals’ favorite hometown foods.

Corporate: ALDI: Making the Mission Possible -Allison Schnur, Destiny Maguta, Samantha Hiergesell, Taylor Murray, Gustavo Machado Filho                                   

Inspired by a customer who shops at ALDI to supply her meal planning service, this team designed “Making the Mission Possible,” a competition to give ALDI consumers a voice to tell the stories of their experiences with the brand.

Using a website that compiles all judging criteria and information for the competition, including a video tutorial, customers are encouraged to submit their ALDI stories to our website to share how the company helps them achieve their missions.

Whether through community-serving nonprofits, providing healthy meals for their family, or hosting creative events, ALDI wants to know - how you use ALDI products to carry out your missions. The competition winners would be featured on ALDI’s social media, not only awarding visibility to the submissions but also helping the brand towards its goal of becoming an evoked brand in sustainability, community service, and social impact.