When politicians make the wrong decisions, youth must take things into their own hands. Accordingly, we called upon young thinkers around the world to find new solutions to unresolved world problems and to attend the global One Young World Forum in Zurich. Under the slogan 'Make Leaders Followers' we developed a campaign conveying the concerns of young people worldwide: conventional supports such as posters and advertising, PR endorsement by prominent patrons such as Kofi Annan and Bob Geldof, and an unusual social-media experiment.

The Result: Followers became leaders. Youth from around the world developed 81 innovative proposals that already started changing the world as we know it. And leaders became followers. Political heavyweights such as U.S. President Barack Obama, Canada’s Prime Minister and Australia’s Premier responded and follow us on Twitter.

It is not only neccessary to give the young generation a voice in general but also to encourage them to formulate their own visions for the world of tomorrow and develop possible solutions for today’s global issues. Their proposals need to be presented to the world’s key politicians and decision-makers. With the help of journalists and the media.

We invited young people from around the world to an XXL congress in Zurich. Under the patronage of prominent world leaders such as Desmond Tutu and Bob Geldof, young people attended 3 days of lively debates on the world’s most urgent problems. PR work as well as conventional and digital advertising reinforced the intrinsic news relevance of the event.September 2010Switzerland - Launch of an interview series with the CEO of the agency reponsible for hosting the event.May 2011Zurich - Bold outdoor advertising in and around Zurich with our key message.Aug 2011Zurich - Tactical print advertising focusing on the solution-orientated approach of the One Young World Forum.

Worldwide - Launch of social-media project 'Time Change Mind Change'.September 2011Zurich - Event takes place at the Cogress Center.Oct 2011Worldwide - Change to winter time rings in final phase of the social-media project.

– Some 1,300 delegates from more than 170 countries attended the event.– They presented 81 innovative solutions followed by more than 2,300 companies worldwide via live streaming. Plus 13,234 people from 156 countries in 2473 cities. 6 resolutions adopted. 'Declaration of Zurich' issued.– Users from over 80 countries took part in 'Time Change Mind Change'.

– Political heavyweights such as U.S. President Barrack Obama, Canada’s Prime Minister Harper, Australia’s Premier Gillard as well as Norway’s Crown Prince and Princess follow our projects on Twitter.– The One Young World Youtube channel had more than 31,000 views from more than 26,000 people in less than 9 days.– Total print and broadcast impressions: 1,340,784,348. Total online impressions: 1,756,305,79.– Total media reach globally: 3,097,090,137 impressions, 188m people.

'Make leaders followers' was established as the overarching message to be conveyed through a variety of different activities, each of them with news value or viral potential. Central 'hub' of the campaign and tangible point of reference for press reporting was the One Young World Forum held in Zurich.

Today, the world’s youth feel ignored and out of touch – they are not part of the decision-making process. Only the old guard has a voice. And if the young people get media coverage like those in Cairo and other cities in 2011, it would be fear, uncertainty and frustration that is driving attention instead of their hands-on ideas on how to change things.