Lidl drives corporate social responsibility project and loyalty program with Maya the Bee for the fourth year in a row

Studio 100 Media and one of Europe’s leading food retailers Lidl are delighted to announce that the Zihadielko Playgrounds featuring Maya the Bee and her friends are proving to be a huge hit in Slovakia

The Zihadielko Playgrounds, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project, was launched in 2016 by Lidl Slovakia as a reaction to the lack of safe playgrounds for children. Over 40 modern safe Lidl playgrounds at a cost of approximately 3.5 million Euros have been built since its launch with another 10 attractive playgrounds planned for 2021. The playgrounds are branded with Maya the Bee showing playful and fun visuals of Maya and her friends. The aim of the CSR project is to support health and fitness, enable families to spend time together in the fresh air and aid children’s development with active movement in a fun way.

Cities and towns throughout Slovakia competed for the Zihadielko playgrounds through a national competition set up via public voting on the Zihadielko website (https://zihadielko.lidl.sk/). Since the beginning of the project more than 16 million votes have been garnered in a country whose population is approximately 5.45 million. In the first two months of 2020 there was a new record of more than 5 million votes cast.

The Zihadielko Playgrounds project goes hand in hand with a broad loyalty campaign taking place in the Lidl stores now for the fourth year in a row. Every year a new item of tableware designed with Maya the Bee and her friends was offered – so far there have been mugs, bowls, plates and this year a set of cutlery is also available to Lidl customers. Thus several million licensed products of Maya were given to Lidl customers as loyalty premiums.

Tomáš Bezák, Head of Corporate Communications at Lidl Slovakia said, “We started this project in 2016 to provide safe playgrounds and thus to support children ́s healthy development and families throughout Slovakia. We are very happy that this project is such a huge success and delighted with what we have achieved so far. Also, the project has greatly helped Lidl to increase its brand awareness. For example, Lidl has spontaneously been perceived as the most responsible company in Slovakia on the basis of the latest representative FOCUS survey.”

Peter Kleinschmidt, Director Marketing & Brand Management at Studio 100 Media, says: “As rights owner of the popular and classic global children’s brand, we are delighted that Maya is the perfect friend to support the Zihadielko playgrounds and its loyalty program with Lidl. As an active part of the game elements contained within the playgrounds, Maya is not only entrusted to improving the environment for children and offering huge benefits to society but is also entrusted to share the values of nature, health and fitness, exploration, adventure and fun.”