Romanian shoppers’ loyalty is questionable, as they easily switch between retail formats, looking for the best deals.

LIDL, Romania’s main discounter player, needed more returning shoppers and a way to keep them engaged with the brand, in order to limit shopping visits to competitor stores. LIDL was caught in the midst of a fierce loyalty battle, with top 6 retailers accounting for 72% of the modern retail sales.

All except LIDL had loyalty programs.

With main competitors already sporting a solid presence on the loyalty app scene, the launch of LIDL Plus app was facing a strong challenge: breaking the clutter of loyalty programs in order to convince shoppers to install the app. The launch had to avoid the plain old story of getting better deals and expect people to pay attention. It needed to trigger immediate interest on top of the promise of better management for the grocery budget.

Romania has earned a reputation for being a hacker breeding ground, both for those who break into systems and steal information, as well for those trying to stop them. Hacking has slowly become a national brand asset, with Romanians famously breaking into the Pentagon or Hillary Clinton's email.

LIDL Plus, the new loyalty app from LIDL, could easily fit into the hacking narrative.

Presenting PLUS, a new Romanian hacker that took down all Lidl’s digital accounts in a staged cyber-attack. He cracked into the retailer’s database and used the pricing system for his own advantage. When people started wondering what’s his secret, Lidl finally revealed that hacking prices is now easy and legal for all Romanians, with the launch of the new loyalty app. All you have to do is to download the app and go in-store to unlock secret offers and get discounts on top.

Romanians are very frugal. They are always on the lookout for a better deal.

But their trust in promotional offers has reached an all-time low due to monthly fake Black Friday-like deals and price manipulation, pushing consumers to count on their resourcefulness in detecting truly valuable discounts.

LIDL Plus had only one shot to position itself as the best way for shoppers to access offers. So, LIDL decided to position the app as a legal hack – one that gets you full access to exclusive deals, and then frame the launch as a breach in the system provided by a trustworthy whistleblower.

The hacking narrative was the perfect fit: Lidl staged it's own cyber attach, the news spread out immediately and fans started tracing hints from PLUS until finding the big news: everybody can be a hacker, all safe and legal with the new Lidl PLUS app.

On September 29th, every piece of LIDL's owned media channel was "hacked". The Instagram and YouTube accounts, the Facebook page, the web platform. The CRM was breached as every customer in the database received an alert about the brand takeover. And media outlets spread the news.

In less than 24 hours, almost 4 million Romanians have witnessed a new hacking episode: LIDL was hacked by Plus.

Everyone's attention turned to the Romanian hacker who called himself Plus, with Lidl fans embarking on a mission to uncover his secret.

While Lidl was on radio silence, Plus used the brand’s online communication to drop hints and even direct message fans pointing out for secret offers. LIDL eventually issued a statement to reveal the launch of LIDL Plus, the new loyalty app that turns hacking prices into something easy and legal for all Romanians.

For 2 days, the Plus hacker character turned the launch of a loyalty app into a national cultural phenomenon. With a free media exposure estimated at 1.5 million euros, the hacking campaign turned LIDL Plus into a trending app both on Google Play and App Store.

Within the first week, Lidl Plus overtook all the big-name giants in the App Store. The app surpassed not only main competitors’ apps in the category, but also all online retailers’ apps in the country.

Lidl Plus ranked 1st for over 26 weeks, turning 1 in 3 urban Romanian households into LIDL hackers' dens.

More results for the jury only.