This document summarizes a crowdsourcing case study conducted by the grocery store LIDL to develop a new yogurt product. LIDL utilized an online product configurator tool provided by innosabi to engage their large social media community. Over 7,500 community members submitted yogurt concepts over one month. The top ideas were voted on and tested by an expert panel. This resulted in the successful development of a new yogurt product called "Fanghurt" through crowdsourcing. The case illustrates how crowdsourcing can efficiently translate community ideas into viable products by providing a structured online platform for creativity and input.

1. crowdsourcing
case study
1innosabi crowdsourcing case studies
Furthermore, LIDL’s “Fan-Yogurt” stands as a great
example of a crowdsourcing project with a short de-
velopment stage and high target group specificity.
The Yogurt Configurator
In order to integrate the community into a goal-ori-
ented and creative development process, the deci-
sion was made to utilize a product configurator.
This decision allowed for the necessary creative
space for new and – most importantly – personal
creations while following well-defined parameters
meant to ensure the feasibility of any new creation.
Also, the enormous size of LIDL’s social media net-
work needed to be taken into consideration, if the
crowdsourcing project was going to be successful.
The LIDL Fan-Yogurt: A Crowdsourcing Project by Fans for
Fans –Supported by innosabi crowd
This case study illustrates how a firm can effectively
involve its social media community in product de-
velopment, thereby optimally translating their ideas
into realizable products.
Transform an Existing Community
into a Fountain of Knowledge
With over 1.7 million Facebook fans LIDL has an
enormous potential fountain of information about
customer needs and desires at its fingertips. Until
recently this pool of knowledge remained untapped.
The goal of the “Your LIDL Fan-Yogurt” campaign
was to transform this passive group into an active
and involved community of co-developers and lay
the foundation for further crowdsourcing projects.

2. 2innosabi crowdsourcing case studies
Image 3: The voting phase for the top 10 user-created yogurts on
LIDL’s Facebook fanpage
the new yogurt variety. Then, before the end of the
year, the finished product – the “Fanghurt” – was
presented: a yogurt that the traditional product de-
velopment process could probably never have imag-
ined.
Crowdsourcing – Uncomplicated,
Quick, and Effective
The example of “Fanghurt” illustrates how very
large, unstructured communities can be incorpo-
rated into a goal-oriented development process. The
configurator solution from innosabi creates a space
for creative ideas, whose boundaries can be pre-
defined to accommodate all feasibility issues. The
strengths of this particular crowdsourcing method
rest in its uncomplicated implementation, high rate
of automation, and straightforward adaptability for
7,500 Product Developers, One
Month, One Yogurt
The “Fan-Yogurt” project was divided into four phas-
es designed to produce one final, ready-for-market
product concept. The kickoff for the first phase, the
configurator, was in the beginning of December
2013. The co-developers had one week to cobble
Image 1: The Jury at work testing the yogurt creations
together their personal creations from more than
3,700 different possible combinations. By the end of
the week 9,576 ideas had been submitted.
The 50 most suggested variations were pre-
sented to the community in the second phase and,
after a vote, were winnowed down to 10 final varia-
tions. Then, after extensive taste testing, an expert
jury consisting of LIDL employees and food and
lifestyle bloggers decided which creation would be
produced: a winter variation of plain yogurt nestled
between a bottom layer of roasted apple slices and
a top layer of marzipan bites.
In the fourth and final phase, the community was
asked to help determine the name and packaging of
Image 2: The steps of the LIDL Fan-Yogurt crowdsourcing project

3. 3innosabi crowdsourced innovation case studies
Sprechen Sie mit einem Crowdsourced Innovation Experten
Telefon +49 (0)89 1222 807-0 oder Web www.innosabi.com/kontakt
innosabi entwickelt Technologien, die es Unternehmen ermöglichen, ihre Innovationsprozesse
für externes Wissen und kreative Ideen zu öffnen.
Mit fortschrittlichster innosabi crowd Software werden Unternehmen dabei unterstützt, interne
Prozesse gezielt zu öffnen und externe Potentiale nachhaltig für die Entwicklung neuer Produk-
te, Services und Geschäftsmodelle zu erschließen.
Branchenführer setzen auf innosabi Technologie
Image 4: The yogurt configurator options on LIDL’s Facebook
fanpage
w
Image 5: The voting phase for the “Fanghurt’s” final packaging
any number of products and topics. The aggregated
knowledge of the community makes sure that the
result corresponds to the co-developers’ needs and
consumption patters.
Jessica Cortés
LIDL Senior Consultant
Social Media
“The topic of crowdsourc-
ing has been on our minds
and in our meeting rooms
for a long time, but we had
been unable to find any concrete forms in which this
method could be implemented. With innosabi’s con-
figurator solution, we were able to gather our first
useful experience with crowdsourcing and to lay the
foundation for similar future campaigns. The poten-
tial of our customers to become partners in quick,
need-oriented product development should not re-
main untapped any longer!”
More information here:
facebook.com/lidl
innosabi.com/crowdsourcing-software