297x420_SFA_EUP_Bro 2

ww

w.s-f.com

/europeanagenda

The 2009 European Parliament Election C

ampaign

WH

AT AC

HIC

KEN

CA

N D

O FO

R

EUR

OPE

297x420_SFA_EUP_Bro.indd 28-1


30.07.2009 16:22:08 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:08 Uhr

GA

ININ

G ATTEN

TION

IS NO

T

ALW

AYS A M

ATTER O

F BEAUT

Y

Dublin, M

ay 2009



30.07.2009 16:22:09 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:09 Uhr

ON

THE BIG

GEST

MA

RKETIN

G C

AM

PAIG

N IN

THE

HISTO

RY O

F THE EU

2009 saw the first significant slow

ing of the previously rapid decline in participation; in some

countries there was even an increase in the turnout.

But above all, the cam

paign demonstrated that it is possible to broadly com

municate even

complex political them

es. In this respect many observers saw

the European Parliament’s cam

-

paign for the 2009 European Elections as a milestone in the m

arketing of Europe’s political

institutions. And it m

ay also have been a model for future w

ays of putting across the work of

the Parliament, C

omm

ission and Council of the European U

nion.

In the past, Europe tried to convince its citizens with a rather poor argum

ent: vote in the

European Elections because it’s good for Europe. Regrettably, m

any political parties still use

this approach. But w

ould you buy a computer just because it is good for the m

anu fac tur er?

Surely not, and the same holds true for our political behaviour. If you w

ant to activate people,

you have to tell them w

hy a topic is important. It’s all about personal relevance! A

high voter

turnout requires clear alternatives to choose from. A

nd a loud statement about w

hat is at

stake for us as individuals.

Scholz & Friends w

as chosen by the European Parliament to create public aw

areness for the

significance of the election and the Parliament itself in the run-up to the 2009 European Elec-

tions – in all of the 27 mem

ber states. The result was the largest m

arketing campaign in the

history of the EU to date.

All activities centred on a sim

ple idea: whether you like it or not, Europe is very relevant to your

daily life. Where should our food com

e from? H

ow should w

e respond to the financial crisis?

How

open should Europe’s borders be? All these questions are answ

ered at the European level,

with the European Parliam

ent playing a major role. B

y using your vote, you decide on the most

important issues of your future.

Was the cam

paign successful? One m

ay say so for two reasons. First: the public noticed the

2009 European Elections much earlier and on a m

uch larger scale than in the past. The media

covered many elem

ents of the campaign, explaining the com

petencies of the European

Parliament. It is reasonable to assum

e that the citizens’ interest was aroused, am

idst all of

the national issues the parties discussed in their own European Elections cam

paigns. Second:

114 Television Channels,

Two C

hickens and a Mad

Axe M

urdererThis w

as the first time in its history that the European

Par lia ment had run a uniform

campaign in all countries.

A budget of €18 m

illion was available for reaching out to

375 million potential voters – in other w

ords, five cents

per head. For this reason the campaign relied on PR

and

materials that could be dissem

inated free of charge by the

media: ten poster im

ages in 34 languages, 3D installations

in 88 towns and cities, radio ads in 29 languages w

ith 102

nar rators, 49 TV ads in 34 languages, 128 events, online

videos and advertising, 35 interactive videoboxes and two

giant screens in Brussels.

This all involved 114 television stations, 58 translators, one

lion, one cat, two chickens, four graphic designers, one m

ad

axe murderer, tw

o production engineers, three bank robbers,

four printing presses, 28 racing cyclists, one logis tics com-

pany, one insurance company, one panel-beater, one con-

struc tion workshop, one specialist online agency, three

media agencies, one hysterical actress, 178 em

ployees of the

European Parliament in B

russels and 33 information of-

fices throughout Europe, 16 project managers at the agency,

and a further 229 agency staff in 29 Scholz & Friends of fices

throughout the 27 EU countries – and one astronaut in space.

The N

ew Strategy in EU

Marketing:

Do It for Yourself, N

ot for Europe A

s consumers w

e are all used to taking decisions every day. Do w

e want this or

that, and do we really w

ant to spend money on it? These decisions are based on

the individual image of the objects at stake, but even m

ore importantly on their

usefulness. Brand com

munication is m

ainly about consumer benefit. B

rands and

their products follow a coherent story, at the end of w

hich is a chocolate bar on a

supermarket shelf or a car in a show

room. H

ow the goods got there, and w

hat

happened to them on their w

ay, is of interest only to a tiny minority of consum

ers. The consum

er and the citizen (they are one and the same) w

ant a cohesive image of

the product. The more uniform

a brand’s appearance, the easier it is to establish

a positive image. A

nd similarly, citizens w

ant to know w

hat significance a certain

policy has for their lives.This m

ight explain why European politics have a rather poor reputation. W

hile there

is somew

hat of an increased acceptance of Europe in the wake of the financial crisis,

the reputation of the Com

mission and Parliam

ent has been in decline for years. This effect cannot be ascribed m

erely to the work of the institutions. A

fter all, hardly

anyone understands what is actually going on inside. A

nd, viewed objectively, the

work of the C

omm

ission and Parliament, in term

s of the tasks they face and the

results they achieve, is actually rather efficient and successful. The negative image

of “organised Europe” is much m

ore the result of the way the m

edia puts across

its work.

The m

edia co

nvey the po

litical agenda. T

hey repo

rt what is new

swo

rthy: events,

people, figures, pictures, conflicts and themes that affect people in their everyday

lives or that are relevant for some other reason. The m

ore that these criteria apply,

the more som

ething is reported on.The essence of the EU

, and the secret of its success so far, is that decisions are

reached by 27 mem

ber states. But because the m

edia is mostly interested in conflict

and people, Brussels has com

e to serve national governments as a stage on w

hich

to assert their own interests over and against the interests of everybody else. N

o

wonder then that the citizens perceive the EU

as a place of discord. And because

there are endless numbers of national politicians w

ho need to portray themselves

in their national media as w

inners at every turn of the road, the EU becom

es the

loser again and again. The European Elections are a m

anifestation of this process: electoral participation

is in constant decline, even though the Parliament has been gaining m

ore and

more authority for years. Eighty per cent of the rules that shape our everyday lives

originate from B

russels or Strasbourg, and the Parliament m

akes decisions that

fundamentally affect the key issues of our daily existence.



30.07.2009 16:22:09 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:09 Uhr

DEM

OC

RAC

Y ALW

AYS

STARTS O

N TH

E STREETS

Advertising hoarding im

ages on the subject of: 1

food production

2 security

3 consum

er rights 4

allocation of financial resources

5 m

obility 6

equal opportunities 7

energy 8

market regulation

9 m

igration 10 standardisation

11 The campaign inspired w

eblog-

gers to create their own im

ages (ww

w.puisney.eu/la-cam

pagne-de-pub-

que-vous-ne-verrez-jamais)

Themes becom

e relevant to voters if they affect them directly – in their everyday lives. To speak

to Europeans right in the midst of their daily lives – that w

as the aim of the European Election

campaign. A

nd where can that happen better than w

hile waiting at the bus stop, standing on

the platform, or strolling through a pedestrian zone? A

nd with w

hat can you reach people

best? With topics that im

pact their lives directly: food, energy, education, security. The ten

images on the posters m

ade European citizens aware of the decisions they are faced w

ith.

They conveyed concise, provocative issues from the various policy areas w

hich fall under the

auspices of the European Parliament. W

ould you prefer organically grown apples, apples from

conven tional agriculture or genetically modified fruit? This is a question w

hich should not just

be asked at the supermarket, but also as part of the forthcom

ing elections. After all, w

hether

it’s education, security or the production of food, the 375 million voters can influence the

trajectory of the European Parliament on num

erous fronts. The decision which w

ay to take is

made at the ballot box.

Of course, not every subject is of equal im

portance in every EU m

ember state. Equal oppor-

tunities are not debated with the sam

e vigour everywhere, nor are consum

er rights. That is why

the whole cam

paign was designed to be flexible. Each country could choose the im

ages which

best suited its political landscape. What the visuals all had in com

mon w

as that they involved a

contrast between a strong blue background and colourful objects, so that attention w

ould not

be drawn aw

ay from the statem

ents being made. They also em

ployed the strategy of showing

to the citizens of the European Union the election’s relevance and the available alternatives,

and they did so in a striking and tangible way. M

ore than 30,000 posters in 34 languages and

116 different formats w

ere put up in 65 towns and cities – in those places w

here the decisions

of the European Parliament are part of everyday life.

blog entry

not part of the offi cial campaign

246810

37911

1 D

ublin, May 2009

5



30.07.2009 16:22:09 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:09 Uhr

A EU

ROPE YO

U C

AN

TOU

CH

Installations on the subject of: 1

migration, B

erlin, Germ

any 2

se-

cur ity, Rom

e, Italy 3

migration, Varna, B

ulgaria 4 consum

er rights,

Trnava, Slovakia 5

energy, Stockholm, Sw

eden 6

+ 7

Assem

bling

of the installation on the subject of security, Stockholm, Sw

eden

What does a bathtub m

anufacturer from Storkow

in the countryside of Eastern Germ

any have

to do with the European Election cam

paign? The answer is that he builds, using polystyrene

and fibreglass, giant chickens which are used successfully to create a m

edia image.

Scholz & Friends put four of the ten cam

paign images into the public arena in the form

of

three-dimensional installations. Including their bases they reached a proud four m

etres in

height. A total of 60 exhibits of this type toured sim

ultaneously through all of the European

Union’s m

ember states – a significant logistical challenge. They stopped in 88 European tow

ns

and cities, giving the campaign a highly visible profile. European political them

es you can

touch, right in the marketplace: it had never been done before.

As w

ith the posters, each country could choose the images w

hich best suited its national pol it-

ical situation. Berliners, for instance, m

arvelled at an installation on the subject of migration

which involved a castle w

all and a hedge, while the people of M

adrid were confronted by giant

hens representing the theme of consum

er rights. These installations were received so enthu-

siastically by Europe’s citizens that some people even w

anted to take them hom

e with them

.

When the giant chicken w

as being dismantled in Ireland, a passer-by asked w

hether she could

take the plastic hen back home to decorate her garden. A

Latvian rock band actually wanted

one of the chickens to star in its new m

usic video.

The 3D installations w

ere also very popular as urban climbing fram

es – fortunately they had

been built strongly, so they put up with a lot. The sculptures w

ere very popular with photograph-

ers, too; not only did tourists gather around, the media illustrated reports on the European

Elections with chickens, hedges, w

arning triangles and power sw

itches.

2346

57

1 B

erlin, May 2009



30.07.2009 16:22:12 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:12 Uhr

BY THE PEO

PLE, FOR

THE PEO

PLE

1 G

iant screen, Brussels, Belgium

2 Screen show

ing question about

energy inside the Choice B

ox 3

Man answ

ering questions inside the

Choice Box

4 H

.-G. Pöttering, then President of the European Parlia-

ment, inside the C

hoice Box 5

Choice Box on a public place, Valletta,

Malta

6 G

iant screen, Brussels, Belgium

7 C

hoice Box in the streets

of Lisbon, Portugal 8

Choice B

oxes ready for distribution, Aschers-

leben, Germ

any 9

Delivery of a C

hoice Box, Glasgow

, United Kingdom

The form in w

hich Europe should generate its energy in the decades to come is quite clear to

Julia of France: “The future belongs to renewable energy.” Like this young lady from

Grenoble,

around 1,600 other Europeans made use of the opportunity to put on record their ow

n per-

sonal statements about the m

ost burning issues of European politics in what w

as known as

the Choice B

ox.

Not o

nly were cam

paign them

es such as security, energy and eq

ual op

po

rtunities up fo

r

discussion. In the interactive multim

edia studio, people were allow

ed to say whatever they

thought was im

portant about the EU. The videos w

ere broadcast on location, on the YouTube

website, and on tw

o giant screens in Brussels. This initiated a political dialogue that w

ent

beyond all borders. Furthermore, m

embers of the European Parliam

ent were able to gain an

impression of the them

es which occupy the people they represent in B

russels and Strasbourg.

Scholz & Friends designed the C

hoice Box especially for the European Election cam

paign. It was

a genuine high-tech achievement, and its softw

are was program

med in 32 different languages.

This enabled the interactive box to be understood without difficulty by the citizens of the Euro-

pean Union. A

total of 35 boxes toured through 66 European towns and cities. B

y the end of

it all, the drivers of the transport company w

hich carried the mobile m

ultimedia studios had

covered a total of 200,000 kilometres. There w

ere some stories to tell, too. For exam

ple, one

delivery in Luxembourg arrived in the m

iddle of the night, so that the Choice B

ox could not be

set up in its proper place at first. So they parked it for a while in the garden of Luxem

bourg’s

most fam

ous waffle baker (w

ith his permission, of course). It is not know

n whether the W

affle

King m

ade a statement him

self. What is certain is that the C

hoice Box opened up com

pletely

new w

ays by which citizens could com

municate w

ith the European Parliament.

2578

34

69

1 B

russels, May 2009



30.07.2009 16:22:13 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:13 Uhr

DEC

ISION

AT THE G

ATES

Giant gates on the subject of:

1 m

igration at Brussels Airport, Brussels,

Belgium

2

market regulation at B

russels Airport, B

russels, Belgium

3 +

4 C

eiling hangers on the subject of consumer rights and standard-

isation at Brussels A

irport, Brussels, B

elgium

5 C

eiling hangers on

the subject of security in the European Parliament, B

russels, Belgium

More than six m

illion people visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris every year. The French capital’s

trademark tow

er is one of Europe’s most popular tourist attractions, and it pulls crow

ds day

in and day out. The numbers are im

pressive – but they are nothing against the 18.5 million pas-

sengers who em

bark, disembark and transfer at B

russels Airport every year. A

lmost 12 m

illion

of them are citizens of the EU

. The airport is a major European transport hub, and also the

best place in Brussels to reach out to m

ultipliers. That is why the European Parliam

ent com-

missioned Scholz &

Friends to brand the interior of the European Terminal w

ith large-scale

images from

the election campaign.

Where, after all, do you have m

ore time to reflect on European politics than w

hen you are

waiting at the boarding gate? O

r, when you’ve said everything there is to be said on your

mobile phone? M

ore than half of the passengers at Brussels A

irport are travelling alone. And

for those travelling in company but w

ithout much to talk about, the branding offered a topic

of discussion. Giant gates confronted travellers w

ith a choice: “How

open should our borders

be?” By choosing the left-hand entrance you supported the “European Fortress”, and by going

through the right-hand gate you indicated your advocacy of open frontiers.

The campaign visuals also hung in large form

ats from the ceilings of the airport buildings.

As w

ell as the subject of migration, the gates and hangers posed questions to passengers on

the subjects of financial market regulation, standardisation, food production, consum

er pro-

tection, security and power generation. The branding at B

russels Airport is a good exam

ple

of precise group targeting. No one w

ho passed through the European Terminal betw

een April

and June 2009 could have missed it.

235

4

1

Brussels, A

pril 2009



30.07.2009 16:22:15 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:15 Uhr

TOIR

MISC

FEAR

TIOM

ÁIN

T FEITHIC

LÍ

AR

LAETH

AN

TA SEAC

HTA

INE

*

*That w

as Gaelic. B

ut perhaps you would prefer it in H

ungarian? Hétköznapokon tilos az

autózás. These sentences are from the European Election cam

paign’s television ad, and they

both mean the sam

e thing: driving cars is banned on weekdays. The m

arketing film w

as pro-

duced by Scholz & Friends in 34 different languages: in the 23 official languages of the m

ember

states, and also in regional languages such as Catalan.

Radio w

as also used throughout Europe to call on the electorate to vote. The radio ad was

broad cast in 29 different languages, for which 102 narrators w

ere employed. The television

and the radio ads both followed the sam

e basic idea: whoever votes today is not just voting –

he or she is shaping the news of the future. C

itizens across the EU saw

and heard fictitious –

and sometim

es very provocative – news in the ads. For exam

ple, a little Spanish girl in a tele-

vision studio announced that driving cars was forbidden on w

eekdays. A young m

an informed

viewers that Europe had decided to turn to nuclear pow

er in order to halt climate change.

And a C

zech worker announced that the EU

had closed its borders to imports w

ith the aim of

safeguarding jobs. The ads finished with the slogan: It is you w

ho will decide w

hat tomorrow

’s

news w

ill be.

More than 800 hopefuls from

all over Europe took part in the casting for roles in the mar-

ket ing film. In the end 74 actors w

ere chosen, and in some countries they w

ere supported

by celeb rities. In Germ

any, for instance, three-times W

orld Goalkeeper of the Year O

liver Kahn

played a part. Thirty-two interpreters w

ere used during filming to assist the director in talking

to everyone involved.

Scholz & Friends designed the television and radio ads to be flexible so that they could be

adapted to the political circumstances of the various m

ember states. The T

V spot was film

ed

114 broadcasters donated attention

Acasa R

omania, A

lpha Greece, A

lter Greece, A

ngers 7 France, Antena G

reece, Antena 1 R

omania, A

ntena 3

Rom

ania, Antenna 3 Italy, A

ntenna 2 Italy, AN

TI T

V C

yprus, AR

D G

ermany, A

RV

Austria, B

TV

Lithuania,

Canal 26 France, C

anale 10 Italy, Cham

ber TV

Luxembourg, channel 1 Latvia, channel 2 Latvia, C

hannel Z1

Czech R

epublic, City C

hannel Ireland, CN

C P

lus TV

Cyprus, C

YBC

RIK

1 Cyprus, C

YBC

RIK

2 Cyprus, D

K 4

Denm

ark, DR

1 Denm

ark, ET

1 Greece, E

T 3 G

reece, ET

V Estonia, E

TV

2 Estonia, Halozat T

V H

ungary,

Kanal 2 Estonia, K

anal D R

omania, K

anal Kobenhavn D

enmark, Latvian Televission Latvia, Latvian Tele-

vission Latvia, LCP

Parlem

entaire France, Lietuvos ryto TV

Lithuania, Mega G

reece, Motors T

V France,

MT

V G

ermany, M

TV

1 Hungary, M

TV

2 Hungary, N

antes 7 France, NET

Greece, N

ET T

V M

alta, NET

TV

Maribo Slovenia, O

NE T

V M

alta, OR

F 1 Austria, P

BS M

alta, Polsat Poland, Prim

a TV

Rom

ania, Pro 7

Germ

any, Pro TV

Rom

ania, Realitatea T

V R

omania, R

TE Ireland, RTL G

ermany, R

TL 9 France, RTL A

ustria

Austria, R

TL2 G

ermany, R

TP

Portugal, RT

V38 Italy, Sat 1 G

ermany, Sat 1 A

ustria Austria, SIC

Noticias

Portugal, SIGM

A T

V C

yprus, Skai Greece, Star G

reece, STV

chanel 1 Slovakia, STV

chanel 2 Slovakia, Super 3

Italy, SuperRT

L Germ

any, T1 C

zech Republic, T

2 Czech R

epublic, T24 C

zech Republic, Telecentro Italy,

Telenantes France, Telessonne France, Telesubalpina Italy, Trc Telemodena Italy, T

V 4 Sw

eden, TV

Markiza

Slovakia, TV

Nelonen Finland, T

V N

ova Czech R

epublic, TV

Poznan Poland, TV

Prim

orka Slovenia, TV

Puls

Poland, TV

Slovenia Slovenia, TV

14 Estonia, TV

3 Estonia, TV

E Spain, T

VI Portugal, T

VL France, T

VN

Poland, TV

P Poland, T

VR

1 Rom

ania, VC

O A

zzurra TV

Italy, VIVA

Germ

any, YLE Finland, Yvelines Prem

iere

France, ZDF G

ermany

in several parts which could be com

bined with one another. The result w

as that the ad hit the

political nerve of each country, and was received enthusiastically by broadcasters. 114 tele vision

channels broadcast the television ad. The airtime added up to a total of 24 hours – entirely free

of charge. It was a m

essage which cam

e across throughout Europe.



30.07.2009 16:22:16 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:16 Uhr

366 ratings

294,842 views

http://ww

w.youtube.com

/watch?v=tlP

5ekdGw

ik&feature=channel_page

1 Scenes from

the viral video “At the polling station #

01/03” 2

Scenes

from the viral video “A

t the polling station #02

/03” 3

Scenes from

the viral video “At the polling station #

03/03” 4

“At the polling sta-

tion #01/03” featured in the G

erman new

s broadcast “Nachtm

agazin”

and on the Spanish television channel TVE 1

5 R

eport on the viral

videos on the website of N

RC

Handelsblad

6 R

eport on the viral

videos on the website of Le Figaro

7 R

eport on the viral videos on

the website of La Libé ration

8 Em

bedded viral video on the website of

Germ

any’s major tabloid “B

ild” 9

Blog entry about the viral videos

on ww

w.viralblog.com

An attractive blonde runs scream

ing into a polling station, gets her ballot slip, makes a cross,

and stuffs the slip hurriedly into the box. Then she runs off still screaming. A

few m

oments

later a masked m

ad axe murderer enters the sam

e room …

and votes. This tongue-in-cheek

horror film w

as one of three viral videos posted on YouTube and MySpace, w

hich quickly

spread all over the Internet. Scream Q

ueen, bank robber on the run, racing cyclist – in the viral

videos, all of them w

ere able to spare a few m

inutes to vote. What the videos w

ere saying was

that “don’t have the time” is no excuse for anyone. W

ithin three weeks, the short film

s pro-

duced by Scholz & Friends had clocked up 300,000 hits on YouTube.

In France the horror video reached number one in the Politics section of the YouTube charts.

A lively discussion ensued betw

een users in the comm

ents forum of the Internet video portal.

Aside from

a few Eurosceptic voices there w

ere many enthusiasts: “O

h my god, the eu is not

just important, it is funny!”, “Freakin’ good com

mercial” and “bad, funny – that’s w

hy it’s so

good” – just three examples. The video achieved 4.5 out of a possible five stars in the ratings.

The Scream video w

as also very popular among bloggers. 168 Internet authors linked it to their

own w

ebsites. One of them

entitled it on his weblog: “W

hen good marketers get aw

esome.”

But these viral videos w

ere not only popular on the Internet. Many T

V stations showed them

on their news program

mes. N

ewspapers from

all over Europe also reported on the viral videos.

Germ

any’s Federal Chancellor A

ngela Merkel m

ust have been one of the video’s most fam

ous

fans: she posted the racing cyclist clip on her Facebook profile.

123458

67

9

THE M

ESSAG

E

BECO

MES C

ON

TAGIO

US



30.07.2009 16:22:17 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:17 Uhr

THE BITS BITE

1 Facebook profile of the European Parliam

ent (ww

w.facebook.com

/

europeanparliament)

2 N

avigator 3

EU Tim

e Machine

4 W

eb ban-

ner on the subject of consumer rights on the G

erman W

eb portal T-On-

line 5

Web banner on the subject of m

arket regulation on the Web

portal Yahoo! 6

Web banner on the subject of consum

er rights on

MySpace

7 W

eb banner on the Bulgarian Web portal w

ww

.sladur.com

Can you be friends w

ith the European Parliament? Profiles on the M

ySpace and Facebook

social networking sites m

ean you can. Around 55,000 C

omm

unity mem

bers linked themselves

to the Parliament on the sites. A

s well as using conventional advertising m

ethods such as Web

banners, which w

ere posted in more than 2,000 different form

ats, the European Election’s

online campaign created by the digital com

munication agency aperto m

ade good use of inter-

activity. The MySpace w

ebsite offered users a range of Web 2.0 applications. For instance,

they could declare their allegiance by creating buttons containing political statements. U

sers

could post their portrait in a frame incorporating the star logo and the statem

ent “I use my

vote!”, and in doing so became activists in the cam

paign. The buttons and the photograph

could be incorporated into people’s profiles, allowing people to share their political enthu-

siasm w

ith others. Links joining the European Parliament’s M

ySpace page with the YouTube

video platform and the Flickr photo gallery com

pleted the Parliament’s debut on the social

media scene.

Another elem

ent of the online campaign w

as a virtual tour which presented the European

Parliament’s w

ebsite to Internet users. And in the “EU

Tim

e Machine” there w

ere two digital

living rooms – one furnished in 1970s style, the other to m

odern tastes – where people could

find out what the European Parliam

ent has achieved over the past decades. But aside from

all

the fun, these Web appearances also conveyed hard facts: a N

avigator guided the curious

from W

eb banners to the most im

portant information about the European elections – from

background knowledge about the institutions, all the w

ay to ten good reasons why you should

make use of your right to vote. The European Parliam

ent pioneered new territory w

ith this

comprehensive Internet cam

paign.

1346

25

7



30.07.2009 16:22:18 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:18 Uhr

27 HO

ME G

AM

ES

1 A

dvertising hoardings at the rugby match Featherstone R

overs

vs. Halifax R

LFC, U

nited Kingdom

2

Roadshow

, Toledo, Spain

3 B

randed double-decker on Eyre Square, Galw

ay, Ireland 4

In-

stallation on the subject of recycling, Norw

ich, United K

ingdom

5 B

randed tower, G

irona, Spain 6

Roadshow

, Valencia, Spain

7 Installation on the subject of recycling, Edinburgh, U

nited King-

dom

8 Public event, Enschede, the N

etherlands 9

Citizen’s forum

,

Grenoble, France

10 Event for first-time voters, Targu M

ures, Rom

ania

11 Schuman Parade, W

arsaw, Poland

12 Poster for a sporting event

in Tallinn, Estonia 13 Instal lation, Berlin, G

ermany

Brussels didn’t have to score any aw

ay wins in its European Election cam

paign, since the

European Union is very m

uch at home in all of its m

ember states. B

ut although most citizens

are favourably inclined towards a unified Europe, the m

ajority are not very interested in the

European Parliament Elections them

selves.

Hardly anyone looks w

eeks or even months ahead to find out w

hen they will be going to the

polls so that they don’t miss out. Few

people look for that kind of information actively, w

hich

is why the cam

paign had to give a helping hand. It went to the places w

here regular people go:

British rugby stadium

s, for instance. The 24-metres-long signage around the field, in place for

13 matches, reached a total audience of a m

illion.

The orchestrated overall campaign gave a form

and a direction to the activities throughout

Europe. But, in order to reach even m

ore people in the various mem

ber states, there were

another 87 special projects specific to particular countries. It was they that m

ade the Euro-

pean Election campaign into a series of hom

e games. The national activities ranged from

discussion events, to press seminars and student parties, to a roadshow

in which a branded

truck carried information m

aterials around Spain. There were a total of 128 roadshow

stops

and events in Europe as a whole. The national cam

paigns placed special emphasis on the

east ern European mem

ber states, because participation had been especially low there in the

last European Elections. In Estonia, for example, the European Parliam

ent became the sponsor

of a seven-kilometre run, a sporting event w

hich is a big family attraction in Tallinn. Electoral

partici pation in the Baltic republic rose by around 17%

, from 26.83%

in 2004 to 43.9% this

time around. It w

as a great success for a united Europe – in one of its newest m

ember countries.

235712

46

89

13 1011

1

Featherstone, April 2009



30.07.2009 16:22:19 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:19 Uhr

GO

OD

IDEA

S BOO

ST MED

IA C

OVER

AG

E

You can buy attention with m

oney – or you can generate it with pow

erful ideas. If a big budget

is not available for a campaign you have to get creative. Strong ideas m

ean more efficient com

-

mu nication. The installations used in the European Election cam

paign were one such strong

idea. In many countries they becam

e the media im

age of European Election reporting, and

they adorned numerous front pages. The big G

erman national daily Frankfurter A

llgemeine

Zeitung, for instance, showed one of the chickens on its front page and asked, “B

reast or leg?”

Conventional m

edia such as newspapers, television and radio, m

odern online comm

unication

channels such as blogs – none of them could resist, and they all picked up on the cam

paign

willingly. It just goes to show

that a clever concept can work everyw

here. The elements w

ere

used across all media: m

odified poster images w

ere disseminated on blogs, and the viral video

with the scream

ing wom

an made the evening new

s on Spanish television station TVE 1.

The Handelsblad new

spaper in the Netherlands asked, “W

hat do screaming w

omen and racing

cyclists have in comm

on?” and the Financial Tim

es ran the title “Parliament’s online quest for

excitement”, w

ith the subline “the cool new kid on M

ySpace”, referring to the European

Parliament’s profile in the W

eb comm

unity. The Choice B

ox also found support in the press.

The Scottish newspaper The Scotsm

an told its readers to “Get in the box for Euro new

s”. The

European Election campaign had to reach out to 375 m

illion European voters, and had only

five cents per head to do so. It therefore relied mainly on unconventional PR

instruments

instead of expensive advertising, and offered things to the media w

hich they could use and

disseminate for free. The strategy certainly paid off.



30.07.2009 16:22:21 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:21 Uhr

491m

illion citizens

375 m

illion eligible voters

27 mem

ber states

34 languages

736m

andates

country-specific projects

87

versions of the radio spot

29 10advertising hoarding im

ages

102 narrators for the radio spot

49versionsof theT

V spot

128 events

35 Choice Boxes in

66 cities

114 stationsbroadcast the T

V spot

58 translators

245agencyprofessionals

30,901posters in 116 different form

ats

60 3D

installations in 88 cities

1,600 Europeans

recorded their statements in the C

hoice Box

200,000 kilometres

was the travelling distance

of the Choice Boxes

800 citizens w

ere cast for the TV spot

74 citizensfeatured in the T

V spot

1,357,057postcards

102,400 badges

306,545 notepads

573,900buttons

395,780 pens

16,020 press folders

46,924 U

SB sticks

252,705

bags

168bloggers linkedto the viral spots

54,949 fans of the European Parliam

ent on Facebook

3,110friends of the European Parliam

ent on MySpace

2,100different banner form

ats 24 metres

signage atthe rugby field

85,500 secondsfree airtim

e* on T

V 178 em

ployeesof the European Parliam

ent

1,000,000people saw

the signageat the rugby m

atches

554roll-ups

2,949 w

indow stickers

43.1% voter turnout

5 centsper voter in thecam

paign budget

161,625,000 votes

3,000party lists of candidates

4 election days1 lion

2 chickens

29internationalnetw

orkoffices

* estimate

These figures are not official figures of the European Parliament

EXECU

TIVE SUM

MA

RY



30.07.2009 16:22:22 Uhr

30.07.2009 16:22:22 Uhr

Eurocam

paign is 3D or Tell it w

ith a chicken! P

osted by Radovana JÁ

GR

IKO

VÁ

M

ay 5th, 2009 | 5 responses

3D: D

ynamic, diverse, and dram

atic. Or rather dull, dying, and dreadful?

No, I’m

not going to talk about major attributes of cam

paign for European P

arliament E

lections; I guess it’s impossible to capture the essence in three w

ords (not to mention all

of them beginning w

ith the letter “d”). I’m going to talk about TH

E IN

VAS

ION

OF M

UTA

NT ZO

MB

IE C

HIC

KE

NS

!!!

OK

, no more tabloid language …

These are the chickens interesting enough to be protagonists of my post:

(And their E

nglish postcard version:)

These two G

allus gallus domesticus (i.e. chickens) had com

e to Trnava (quite important w

estern-Slovak tow

n with approx. 66 000 inhabitants) on A

pril 27, 2009. I witnessed their

existence eight days later – and they fascinated me enough to go hom

e and come back w

ith a camera.

So, w

hat are the main pros and cons of having this oversize E

uropean poultry in our town?

Pros (+): 1. Livening up the pedestrian area and bringing a little excitem

ent and change into our everyday lives and everyday routes.2. R

epresenting and promoting the tow

n, as blue and yellow are its official colours, present in all the tow

n and region symbols.

3. Improving people’s lifestyles by encouraging them

by its looks to eat less meat or even becom

e vegetarians.

Cons (–): 1. This m

odern art doesn’t match its surrounding, as the tow

n centre is made up by m

ostly historic buildings and a few pieces of com

munist architecture.

2. It might scare sm

all children.3. It m

ight scare older children, getting back home drunk at night.

And now

the only main and the only serious pro: it w

orks. As it is three-dim

ensional, big, and unusual, it catches people’s attention. It intrigues. It makes people think about it and

about what it represents and w

hy it is there. And that is really good.

To illustrate my point, here’s a part of a conversation of a young S

lovak couple I’ve overheard while taking photos:

She: “Jeez, w

hat is that? Is that alive??”H

e: “It is a part of a campaign.”

She: “W

hat campaign?”

He: “For E

uropean Elections. You can elect m

embers of parliam

ent. European P

arliament.”

She: “I can? A

re you kiddin’? And w

hen?”

If there are any other people who have experience w

ith these new tem

porary inhabitants of a few E

uropean towns and cities (I m

ean chickens, not the couple), please, let us know.

(By the w

ay, I’m really curious about w

hat the chickens are made of; does anyone here have an idea? I didn’t dare to exam

ine the question when I w

as there, people gave me

strange looks just while I w

as taking photos, climbing up there and touching the big dead chickens w

ould disqualify me from

any social life and normal existence on public in m

y hom

etown …

)

http://elections.thinkaboutit.eu/2009/

With m

any thanks to:

Scholz & Friends w

ants to thank the client – the Directorate-G

eneral for Com

munication of the

European Parliament – for the confidence in our w

ork. The agency was selected as a partner

after a Europe-wide tender. Special thanks for the intensive and great collaboration go to:

Clara A

lbani, Sylvie Alen, Lucinia B

al, Ingrid Balthazart, A

lain Barrau, A

dam B

ielan, Maria

Teresa Calvo M

ayals, Luis Cardoso, Elio C

arozza, Daniela C

arvalho, Federica Casassa, M

aria-

Grazia C

avenaghi-Smith, Stephen C

lark, Luigi Cocilovo, Isabelle C

oustet, Alain C

respinet,

Jaume D

uch Guillot, John Edw

ard, Szabolcs Fazakas, Ingo Friedrich, Jean-Jaques Fritz, Tasos

Georgiou, M

arta Maria G

onzalez, Natasa G

orsek Mencin, M

aris Indulis Graudins, Francis

Gutm

ann, Robert H

ajsel, Pekka Hakala, H

enrik Gerner H

ansen, Kadi H

erkuel, Wolfgang H

iller,

Francis Jacobs, Daiva Jakaite, G

eorge Kasim

atis, Björn K

jellström, M

arie-Thérèse Klopp, R

odi

Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Jiri K

ubicek, Paul Joachim K

ubosch, Nikolas Lane, H

élène Lanvert,

Thibault Lesénécal, Klaus Löffler, A

strid Lulling, Michael M

anz, Miguel A

ngel Martínez

Martínez, M

ario Mauro, Edw

ard McM

illan-Scott, Pierre Moscovici, Jan M

ulder, André de

Munter, Jam

es Nicholson, Pekka N

urminen, G

érard Onesta, Franco Panciera, H

ans-Gert

Pöttering, Tereza Ram

anovicova, Francesca Ratti, B

arbara Roffi, M

echtild Rothe, Pierfrancesco

Sabbatucci, Jacek Safuta, Ignacio Samper, Paulo Sande, M

anuel António dos Santos, D

ermot

Scott, Robert Serm

ek, Marek Siw

iec, Søren Søndergaard, Toon Streppel, Zoltan Szalai, Sjerp

Pieter van der Vaart, Julian Vassallo, Zaneta Vegnere, Alejo Vidal Q

uadras Roca, M

ia De Vits,

Anne-M

argrete Wachtm

eister, Diana W

allis and many m

ore.

Many thanks from

all friends working for the Scholz &

Friends Netw

ork:

Picture credits:Sam

uel Zuder: Installation on the subject of consumer rights in D

ublin, May 2009; advertising hoarding im

age on the subject of food production in Dublin, M

ay 2009D

ominik B

utzmann: Installation on the subject of m

igration in Berlin, M

ay 2009©

European Parliament/Pietro N

aj-Oleari: Installation on the subject of security, R

ome, Italy; Installation on the subject of energy, Stockholm

, Sweden; G

iant screen, Brussels, B

elgium; Screen w

ith question about energy inside the C

hoice Box; H

.-G. Pöttering, then President of the European Parliam

ent, inside the Choice B

ox; Giant screen, B

russels, Belgium

; Choice B

ox in the streets of Lisbon, Portugal; Installation, Berlin, G

ermany

©European P

arliament/B

runo Am

sellem: C

itizen’s forum, G

renoble, FranceB

log entry “Eurocampaign is 3D

or Tell it with a chicken!” reprinted w

ith the kind permission of the author R

adovana Jágriková. The post was originally published at the w

ebsite ww

w.thinkaboutit.eu, a project of the

European Journalism C

entre.

The copyrights of all materials in this publication are ow

ned and reserved by the authors, photographers and Scholz & Friends. The m

aterial may not be used in any w

ay or form w

ithout a prior written perm

ission from

the copyright owners and Scholz &

Friends.

THA

NK

S

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