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Background
Lidl is one of the largest discount grocery chains in Europe, but in Belgium, it isn't yet the market leader. The brand is working to grow its share there while bringing its local advertising in line with its global communication guidelines, a shift that means fewer local creative decisions and closer adherence to work coming out of global headquarters.
Lidl ran a global spot in Belgium, localized for the market, and came to Behavio to measure how it landed.
Pain Point
For a brand of Lidl's size, the hard problem isn't awareness; it's movement. Big, well-known brands already sit high on salience, and pushing that number any higher is difficult. A large brand can run a technically competent ad and see the needle barely move.
There's a second, quieter risk: branding. A large advertiser can put out an ad people enjoy and remember, yet fail to make them connect it to the brand paying for it. Average branding on a big-budget spot is wasted reach.
“Behavio’s post-test showed us not just that the spot performed, but why: broad reach, strong branding, and one clear message. That’s a read we can carry into future campaigns, whether they’re developed globally or locally.”
Behavio's Insight
The spot was measured with a post-test, which reads how an ad actually performs with its audience after it runs, and the impact it may have had on brand metrics like salience. The results were strong across the board, and unusual for a brand this large.
Reach was the standout. Far more people saw and remembered the ad than with most spots Behavio has tested, putting it well above the norm.
Combined with strong branding, clear category communication, and positive emotion, that reach drove a +5pt lift in salience across the total population, and a 7pt+ lift among category buyers.
Lidl already had a salience score so high that most brands would struggle to move it. Yet the ad’s broad reach translated into a meaningful increase in mental availability.
The spot also did something many ads struggle with: it communicated one clear message. When an ad tests well, a common recommendation from Behavio is to cut down to a single message. This one already did. There was little left to fix, and that was the key finding: the execution worked, and the brand came through clearly.
Outcome
The post-test confirmed that Lidl's current strategy is working and gave the team evidence to keep going with it.
Rather than change course, Lidl now has a clear read on why this ad performed: high reach, strong branding, and a single message, executed well.
Testing with Behavio turned a good creative instinct into something the team can point to and repeat.
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