Pandemic, war, economic crises - 2022 has cost people a lot of strength. To show that the German health insurance company BARMER is a strengthening partner in turbulent times, a PR campaign was to be developed that would emotionally charge the new claim "We make you strong".

In order to reach as many young people as possible, BARMER decided to take a path that one would not expect from a health insurance company: it relied on the power of music. Together with the musicologist Dr. Volkmar Kramarz and the well-known German singer Loi, who deals a lot with the topic of mental health, BARMER developed an innovative formula. According to this formula, you can write a song that demonstrably empowers people.

To connect with young demographics we needed to communicate in an unexpected and unconventional way. That’s why BARMER’s message was delivered through one of the most popular and powerful emotional drivers: music.

Music stimulates brains in a unique way. It awakens or intensifies emotions, relaxes, or activates - and influences how people see the world and how they act.

Worldwide, 70% of Millennials say that music is central to their mental health. With 21 hours of music consumption per week, Germans are particularly music-savvy by global standards, with demand growing strongly in 2022.

So BARMER asked the question: “What if we could actually use our health expertise to uplift people’s moods and increase their resilience against everyday troubles with popular music?”

"Gold" aka "The song that makes you strong" is the first song in the world that has been designed with the help of science in such a way that people are demonstrably strengthened by it.

A special formula was developed, based on the perfect interplay between key, melody, tempo, metre and rhythm, which produces this effect.

But a strong song also needs a strong voice, that of shooting star Loi.

Together with the singer, BARMER managed to empower numerous people and also to be the first health insurance company ever to place a hit in numerous European airplay charts.

"Gold" not only had a measurably empowering effect on the experimental subjects in the laboratory and created a search uplift for the brand by 267%, but also turned out to be an international hit: number 4 in the official German airplay charts, number 6 in Austria, 5 in Switzerland, and number 2 in Poland. Over 12 million streams on Spotify alone and more than 152 million impressions on social media within a few days ensured that BARMER, together with Loi, achieved its most important goal in addition to a lot of positive PR: to give people an empowering feeling in turbulent times. Additionally, an increase of enrollment applications among the target group under 25 years of age was measured in Q4 – 39% more than in the same quarter last year.