Grocers usually use social media to indicate off what they carry to consumers’ tables, from seasonal merchandise to contemporary meals.
On the finish of the day, although, most grocers’ social media pages find yourself wanting like adverts on platforms which can be primarily meant to entertain.
Aldi determined to attempt a brand new method. For the reason that begin of this yr, the discounter has been testing a customer-centric technique that takes the main target off the Aldi model. Whereas among the firm’s social posts nonetheless showcase the Aldi colours, brand and different marquee parts, many now merely riff off social media tendencies and culturally vital moments to draw viewer consideration, Aldi U.S. Advertising Director Katherine Sodeika mentioned in an interview.
Sodeika mentioned the shift started when management requested her forward of this yr if she was doing what she needed to be doing with the corporate’s social media content material.
“The reply was ‘No. I’m doing what I feel the corporate desires us to be doing and what I’ve been advised is a precedence, nevertheless it’s probably not social first, and it’s not buyer first,’” Sodeika mentioned. “And that’s the place we determined to make the pivot.”
This method additionally included pulling again on spotlighting Aldi’s declare to fame: low costs. Solely displaying off low costs on Instagram and different social media platforms wasn’t paying off for Aldi, Sodeika mentioned, including that the corporate already has pricing data available for consumers by different channels, corresponding to its weekly advert.
Regardless of much less apparent showboating on Aldi’s half, this new social media technique is permitting the discounter to face out from its opponents. Whereas most grocers showcase their non-public label assortments and in-store options, Aldi is garnering the eye of hundreds by bringing a playful voice to its content material and tapping into viral moments.
“Having that engagement, constructing that affinity with clients, it’s not simply enjoyable, it’s actually driving in direction of enterprise goals and driving gross sales,” Sodeika mentioned.
A more in-depth take a look at what’s working for Aldi
Aldi primarily posts content material on 5 completely different social media platforms: Fb, Instagram, TikTok, X (previously Twitter) and LinkedIn, Sodeika mentioned, with Fb and Instagram serving as the corporate’s greatest focus. The corporate’s new technique has led to double-digit development in engagement up to now this yr on Instagram and TikTok.
Aldi is seeing increased engagement throughout prime platforms.
% improve of attain or impressions yr over yr within the first half of 2025
Focusing much less on Aldi as a retailer and extra as a persona has allowed the corporate’s social media crew to lean into tendencies and culturally related moments.
“I feel the place we actually discover success is after we are well timed in cultural moments,” Sodeika mentioned, noting again in January when Aldi rapidly joined the discourse across the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration banning the bogus coloring Crimson No. 3. Aldi took to social media to indicate off that it had banned artificial colours a decade previous to the FDA’s request, however did so with out flashing the Aldi model.
The discounter’s Instagram put up is easy, displaying two side-by-side bowls of multi-colored cereals. Beneath the picture is the assertion, “Considered one of these ditched artificial colours again in 2015… And nobody needed to inform us to.” It’s not till viewers pay attention to the account behind the put up that they see it’s Aldi USA. Aldi carries its playful voice into the caption, which offers particulars on its historical past relating to banning artificial colours from all its unique merchandise.
The put up garnered greater than 60,200 likes on Instagram, whereas the same put up on Fb acquired over 10,000 likes.
However this isn’t even Aldi’s hottest put up from this yr. That put up, which got here simply forward of St. Patrick’s Day, took the identical inconspicuous method and mirrored a well-liked meme pattern.
The put up reveals a burger patty with an unamused face and textual content under studying, “When he nonetheless hasn’t requested you to be his patty for St. Paddy’s Day.” The put up amassed greater than 606,000 shares, almost 522,000 likes and over 650 feedback, together with from Instacart, H&R Block, Crimson Robin and Aldi Eire.
To supply some context on simply how viral this put up was, Grocery Dive in contrast grocers’ most-liked Instagram posts up to now in 2025:
All of those Instagram posts have been created in partnership with not less than one influencer or celeb.
As well as, primarily based on a Grocery Dive evaluation of all of Aldi U.S., Kroger, Albertsons, Complete Meals and Lidl US’s Instagram posts up to now in 2025, Aldi’s common like-count on the social platform is within the hundreds, whereas these opponents’ common like-count falls within the double- to triple-digits.
“We’re having a model second, and this model second’s not going anyplace. We’re placing our foot on the fuel. The extra we be taught, the more durable we’re leaning in,” Sodeika mentioned.
Behind the Scenes
Aldi has not undergone any personnel adjustments to make this shift in its advertising technique, in accordance with Sodeika.
The social crew consists of a supervisor and two associates, and this trio works with the remainder of the advertising crew or different firm departments, Sodeika mentioned.
“[The social team is] simply cranking out superior content material, they usually have the assist of the broader division, feeding concepts and likewise at all times integrating it with what our wider market goals … of buying new clients and rising the journeys and the spend of our present clients.”
The social crew retains Aldi’s content material constant throughout all U.S. divisions as a way to stay environment friendly, Sodeika mentioned, noting Aldi’s social accounts put up a number of occasions every week on common. The crew additionally juggles planning content material weeks prematurely whereas being prepared to leap on related tendencies as they occur.
“What the social media technique shift taught myself and taught the broader group is, in the event you lean into how clients are partaking with channels and also you develop the inventive in a means that’s complementary to that, you’ll be extra profitable,” Sodeika mentioned.
