Winners & Shortlists

THE DIAMOND CAMPAIGN

TitleTHE DIAMOND CAMPAIGN
BrandCDU
Product/ServicePOLITICAL PARTY
Category D03. SPECIAL BUILD
Media Agency 2 INITIATIVE MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY
Entrant Company INITIATIVE MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY
Media Agency INITIATIVE MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Maren Kahl Initiative Unit Head Client Service
Michael Denker Initiative Group Head Client Service
Ellen Schmitt Initiative Chief Value Officer
Jörn Illing Initiative Unit Head Innovations
Lukas Brocks Initiative Innovations Executive
Christian Rind Itworks Project Manager
Nicola Lechtenberg Itworks Project Manager

Execution

2013. Economic and Euro crises heavily affected Germany's inhabitants. A general feeling of powerlessness let to rising querulousness in politics. But while Germans increasingly lose trust in parties and politicians, Angela Merkel enjoys sustained great popularity and creditability. Regardless of all political tribulations, continuously over 70% wanted her as Chancellor. Throughout Germany, Merkel is appreciated for her thoughtful and grounded manner which she regularly empathizes by a typical hand gesture with an own name: 'Merkel Raute'. For 2013 elections, Merkel's governing party CDU is facing a decreasing trend despite her popularity (34% in 2009 vs. 38.5% in 2005). To turn this trend we needed to awaken interest for politics and to increase trust for CDU. 'Germany's Future in Good Hands' was the idea to create a huge symbol of solidarity by unlocking the power of Merkel's personal hand gesture, demonstrating her huge creditability and inspire people to talk about politics. CDU supporters were activated to show their solidarity and trust in Chancellor Merkel by performing a personal 'Merkel Raute' picture. At the end, 2,400 pictures built a big poster literally demonstrating 'Germany's Future in Good Hands'. The support of Chancellor Merkel was so huge, that the poster turned out to be Germany's biggest election poster ever: 2,378m² - installed right in Germany's center of political power between Berlin Central Station and government quarter. It had to be installed by 14 mechanics, weighed over 1.2 tons and was illuminated by over 120 spotlights. The poster as a grand gesture of Merkel's personal gesture became a big huge symbol of solidarity- a giant-sized meme of a meme. Due to its size and symbolic power it not only demonstrated the huge support of Merkel and her creditability but soon got the planned attraction to photograph, create own interpretations and share. Due to it exposed location, the poster itself created 4.5 million contacts. Due to its size and its unique design the poster additionally created massive media coverage on top: Over 24 million additional contacts in classic media resulted in a ROI of factor 2. Furthermore, the 'Merkel Raute' became viral star of the social media landscape. Google search request for 'Merkel Raute' skyrocketed. Additional 5.7 million impressions on Twitter and over 300 blog articles resulted in an overall reach of 35 million contacts. And most importantly: CDU received 41.5% of the votes and won the 2013 election.