Situation

Despite Brexit and the rise of extreme right-wing parties, more than half of Germans don’t vote in the European elections.

Brief

Lufthansa’s brand values of an open and connected world are in danger if people don’t vote. Our task was to raise awareness of the 2019 elections and motivate people to vote.

Objectives

Rising election turnout and promoting Lufthansa as a guardian of cosmopolitanism and open-mindedness.

With the #SayYesToEurope initiative, Lufthansa turned magical places into polling stations. Voting ballots became entry tickets to locations that everyone dreams of visiting but never does.

Even though European political parties have the right to campaign EU-wide for the European elections, campaigns still take place through national election campaigns. One reason for the traditionally very low voter turnout in Germany is that the process of voting itself can be very dull. Normally, only government buildings are allowed to become a polling station, constraining the elections to old classrooms and run-down school gyms. Lufthansa decided to tackle this issue and address all Germans that are eligible to vote.

Special locations all over Germany became once in a lifetime polling stations: The stage of Elbphilharmonie concert hall, the locker room of Champions League club Borussia Dortmund, boxing club Zur Ritze, the studio of Who wants to be a millionaire, Lufthansa Aviation Training centre and many more places opened their doors to everyone who brought their voting forms. In a real polling booth, they could then vote on site.

The world’s most extraordinary polling stations created massive awareness for the European elections: 149.9 million people were reached, generating 11.4 million euros in earned media. More than 38,000 people signed up to vote at our locations. As a result, voter turnout was the highest it’s been in over 20 years.