In the Loop – Aldi – Cuthbert is BACK

If there’s one brand that does its social media marketing well, it’s Aldi.

We have all been through the trials and tribulations of Colin vs Cuthbert and it seems he is making a comeback. This week, Aldi has taken to social media to welcome Cuthbert and his ‘totally legal’ new look back. Not only are they welcoming him back to their shelves but they have created some hilarious and highly engaging content to go along with his arrival.

In April 2021, Marks and Spencer filed a lawsuit against Aldi in a bid to remove Cuthbert the Caterpillar Cake off their shelves. They claimed it infringed on their trademark of Colin the Caterpillar cake. Since then, Aldi has basically taken social media by storm. Especially on Twitter, with their witty comments, great humour and engaging campaigns.

Aldi’s first social campaign on the matter was #FreeCuthbert. Within a few hours of Aldi’s first tweet ‘This is not any court case, this is… #freecuthbert’ Aldi was trending at number one on Twitter and making headlines.

According to the supermarket’s data, while M&S’s purchase consideration scores declined by 134% and 2.72% respectively, Aldi’s increased by 8.5% and 6.8% respectively. Aldi also grew its Twitter following by 30%, reached over 35 million people on Facebook and achieved a 15% engagement rate on social. Organic reach equated to over £5m worth of media spend – despite never spending a penny. Now that’s good marketing.

This campaign sparked conversations between, tv personalities such as Judge Rinder, and big brands like BrewDog, all jumping on the caterpillar bandwagon. Aldi really this campaign with a frenzy of tweets, images and comical conversation across social media.

Here are some of our favourite tweets from the #FreeCuthbert campaign.

As well as earning support and love from the public, Aldi also caught the eyes of its fellow competitors like Morrisons, Co-op and Lidl all engaging in the free Cuthbert campaign. If you can get your competitors to talk about you and attract more traffic to your campaign you know you are doing it right.

From #FreeCuthbert, to #CaterpillarsForCancer and now #CuthBack, Aldi sure knows how to take social media by storm. Who would’ve thought a caterpillar cake could bring so much social media attention?

Their latest campaign is all about their caterpillar cake finally being brought back to their shelves after the lawsuit with M&S and they’re getting ALL the brands involved in welcoming back Cuthbert. Iceland, MyProtein, Rowntrees, Gymshark and many more. Somehow, Aldi has the power to just make every brand want to get involved in their campaigns. These brands are further encouraging conversation making their content go viral.

If you want to check out their most recent social activity on Twitter for some witty and comical campaign inspiration, definitely take a look.

Campaigns aside, Aldi does a really brilliant job at running their social platforms and engaging with their audience, jumping on trends and staying relevant. They separate their audience on each platform enabling them to provide a massive range of content that targets almost everyone.

Twitter

Twitter is where their social team excel. It’s their platform for pushing the boundaries, being relatable and funny and creating engaging content. It isn’t their most-followed account, however, it is without a doubt where most of the conversation and engagement happens.

Instagram

Instagram has a very cohesive look, and its content is very much based on the food products they offer. Showcasing their fantastic product photography on Instagram and ensuring every row is connecting all three images connect. Even sometimes connecting image blocks of 6 or 9.

Facebook

Easily their most followed social page with a huge 2,114,249 followers. Facebook, just like Twitter, receives excellent engagement on their posts. This is probably down to their account resharing all the content firstly posted over on their Twitter account. Repurposing content that is already doing amazing, to a platform with an even higher follower count is a no brainer.

All in all, Aldi and their social team deserve a pat on the back. They deliver successful campaigns after successful campaigns. They know how to connect and stir conversation between brands and their target audience. Cuthbert is back and we’re looking forward to seeing what else Aldi delivers over the course of the year. Fingers crossed there are no more lawsuits!

Do you need help delivering social media campaigns for your business? Please contact our social media team or will be happy to make your ideas a reality and bring your goals to life.