A Successful Awareness Campaign: Lidl's FSC-certified Wooden Toys

Lidl France used the launch of its FSC-certified wooden toys before the holiday season to raise consumer awareness of forest conservation and the benefit of FSC labelling. The related social media campaign has been quite a success.

Wooden toys were all the rage during last Christmas season. When the supermarket chain Lidl launched its FSC-certified wooden toys – ranging from jigsaws to pirate ships and doll houses – it decided to highlight its commitment to safe, high-quality toys, using timber from responsibly managed forests.

Lidl is strengthening its policy of sourcing responsibly managed raw materials globally. In March 2019, Lidl France announced it planned to use only 100 per cent recycled and/or FSC-certified materials by 2020 for its packaging, as well as for wooden articles – including toys.

Lidl’s range of wooden toys has for many years been a part of the brand’s sustainable development programme. Almost 100 different toys – for children aged one and upwards – were available in the brand's almost 1,500 supermarkets covering the whole of France. The start of the 2019 wooden-toy range took place on 31 October and 21 November. This responsibly sourced flagship range shows Lidl’s determination to promote products that are respectful of the environment and humans.

Lidl France and FSC France organized an event in Paris to mark the launch. It intended to let children and grown-ups test the toys. The participating social media influencers shared updates on their channels, thus reaching almost 470,000 people. It was an opportunity to show Lidl’s commitment to FSC certification and present its TV advertising campaign to promote FSC-labelled wooden toys.

Lidl also featured the FSC label in a highly successful competition on social media. The game attracted 125,000 participants over an 18-day period. The social media campaign accompanying this competition was Lidl’s second most successful of the year, registering almost 3.5 million hits on social media.

This family-oriented operation is a good way of meeting the expectations of today’s consumers while making parents and children aware of the need to conserve forests and protect the communities relying on them. Wooden toys not only develop imagination and creativity, they also teach children to respect their natural world and to use noble and renewable materials.

Lidl started to revise their sustainable strategy and emphasize on their FSC certification in 2017. This change seems to have been rewarding: since then, the brand has increased their sales of wooden toys by over 30 per cent.

FSC France will continue to support Lidl in achieving its sustainable procurement objectives. The two organizations are planning to organize other market awareness campaigns in the future.