Anyone who has won one of the six prizes in the competition for a creative and sales-promoting campaign involving cheese undoubtedly has an "insane appetite for cheese", summarised Thorsten Witteriede, editor-in-chief of the trade magazine Käse-Theke and host of the industry competition Kreativ Award. Among them were three REWE stores from the West, which now adorn their service area with a Kreativ Award trophy and can count themselves among the best cheese counters in Germany:

REWE Düsseldorf-Flingern: Cheese brunch The successful men and women from Düsseldorf-Flingern were delighted.

The team led by first-time employee Afrodita Ferati treated customers to a cheese brunch on Whit Saturday, with admission costing 25 euros and proceeds of over 1,000 euros going to a children's charity in the neighbourhood. After a total of two months of preparation, a bistro made from Euro pallets and an amazing buffet were set up in the market. Whether candy bar, soups or desserts - everything was based on cheese. When did the team think about the project? "Before work, after and during. On the bike. Always, actually," says Ferati. And colleague Samira Ibramovic even at night: "The idea of building a buffet out of pallets came to me in a dream". Apart from that, everything else was simply teamwork.
It was the first time Afrodita Ferati and her team had applied for an external award. She hadn't expected to be among the winners straight away, but has now caught fire: "To be continued!"

REWE Centre Neuwied: Hay milk museum The creative minds from the REWE cheese team in Neuwied had a short journey to the award ceremony.

Under the motto "Shop, experience, learn", the team at the REWE Centre Neuwied spent around two months setting up an entire world of hay milk in front of the cheese counter. Haymilk is the more memorable term coined in Austria for "silage-free raw milk": the cow eats grass, herbs and, in winter, hay instead of silage feed. This results in high-quality raw milk cheeses, especially in the Alps. The team created stations throughout the market with interesting and entertaining information and a variety of tastings around the raw material, hay milk. Children were also the centre of attention. There was the self-built model landscape "Mini Alpe", fresh hay, haystacks, plush cows and much more about the mountain world. "The customers were very enthusiastic. They have actually been studying the topic of hay milk for a long time and their interest is still alive," says team member Iris Andrä.

REWE Niederdollendorf: Promoting young talent The ingenuity was rewarded: the successful team from Niederdollendorf.

Put the kids in charge - or at least at the cheese counter. That was the idea of the team led by department manager Sebastian Dreesbach and Sarah Heuter when they organised the Kids Days at REWE in Königswinter-Niederdollendorf (near Bonn). "We were less concerned with revenue than with the children, creativity and fun," says Dreesbach, whose own offspring kicked off the event with the question: 'Dad, what do you actually do for a living?

On several Kids Days, herbs were sown, cream cheese was made and refined, Gouda cheese was inspected, tasted and made into bratwurst - the proceeds of which went to the local volunteer fire brigade. The creative award was given for the ingenuity - and for the fact that the cash register rang even without a declared intention: "It was primarily fun and we sold the children's creations. The twelve per cent increase in sales came all by itself."

The silent helpers

What stood out was that all of the winning counters had enlisted expert support for the preparation and realisation of the campaign in order to be able to manage it alongside their actual work - sometimes with very dedicated assistance from the specialist consultant or the area manager. Sometimes it was a benevolent "go for it" from the boss..