The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2014–2015
Edeka turns a spoken-word song into 'Supergeil' — a 20M-view viral phenomenon
A supermarket hires an unknown Berlin performance artist to sing 'supergeil' about its own-label products; the film passes 4M views in days.
Edeka · Jung von Matt
What it had to solve
Edeka, Germany's largest food retailer, wanted attention for its private-label products without big media budgets; agency Jung von Matt's idea was to build the campaign around an unknown, eccentric artist.
How it works
In February 2014 Edeka, Germany's largest food retailer, released a three-minute YouTube film for its private-label campaign. A white-bearded man in a suit and mirrored sunglasses dances through a supermarket singing, in a smoky voice over a minimal electro beat, that the own-brand products are 'superfruchtig, superlecker, supersmooth — supergeil'. The man was Friedrich Liechtenstein, a Berlin performance artist known until then mainly in the city's theatre scene.
The idea came from Hamburg agency Jung von Matt, as an Edeka spokesman confirmed. Instead of expensive production and paid placements, Edeka took a risk on an eccentric, virtually unknown ambassador and let the video travel on its own — the standard bet of viral marketing, where the only real danger is that nobody is interested.
The bet paid off: within days the clip passed four million views, and by 2019 it had almost 20 million views on YouTube. 'Supergeil' entered the language as a national catchphrase, parodies and remixes spread across the web, and Edeka revived the character in follow-up campaigns in 2015 and 2019 — though none matched the original's reach.
Why it lands
- It traded product claims for absurdist joy, so watching the ad felt like discovering something, not being sold to.
- The eccentric messenger gave the film talk value — people shared it because of Liechtenstein, not the products.
- A single low-cost video replaced paid placements, making the campaign's economics almost pure upside.
- The catchphrase became reusable cultural currency, giving the brand free recall long after the film.
What it did
The clip passed four million views within days of its release on February 20, 2014, and reached almost 20 million views by 2019; parodies and remixes spread, 'supergeil' became a national catchphrase, and Liechtenstein went from Berlin-only cult figure to celebrity.
What you can take
An eccentric, risky messenger can outperform a polished one: when the audience shares the joke instead of skipping the ad, the media budget becomes zero — the risk is only that nobody cares.
Since then
Supergeil became the reference point for German viral marketing: the most successful YouTube ad video of its year, with the song even entering download charts and Liechtenstein becoming a household name. Edeka brought him back in 2015 ('Mann zieht blank') and again in 2019 ('Supergeile Priese'), and the campaign is still cited as proof that an odd, low-budget idea can outperform polished advertising — even as the follow-ups never quite matched the original's viral reach.
Sources
- Edeka-Video 'Supergeil': Ein Video wie ein Virus
- Friedrich Liechtenstein Is Back at EDEKA Where the Offers Are 'Supergeil'
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