By selling the dream of Berlin rather than the cheap Berlin Lufthansa wanted to grab an emotional advantage on the competitive Stockholm-Berlin Route.

Playing off Swedes love for the city, we offered up one free new life including a one-way ticket, a prepaid apartment and everything you needed to start fresh. The catch? You had to prove your dedication by legally changing your name to Klaus-Heidi, a gender-bender double name fit for the modern Berliner.

The challenge was launched through an integrated campaign with digital, direct and PR, but no bought media. Klaus-Heidi made headlines in The Economist, Spiegel, Huffington Post, Russia Today, Fox and many others: reaching over 240 million impressions. During its peak it stood for 25 % of mentions of Lufthansa’s brand in social media globally.

42 Swedes changed their names. 41 had to settle for a VIP Lufthansa Silver Card. The winner Klaus-Heidi Andersson got an official welcome from Berlin's Mayor, who coincidently, is named Klaus.

The goal was to become the preferred airline to Berlin offering something else than the same old cheap ticket.

Working with a budget that was slim to none we needed to offer up something that itself could be entertaining enough to pass along to a friend, while also driving sales and tying back to the Lufthansa brand and personality.

We needed people to get behind the campaign and become ambassadors for it.

The goal was, simply put: to turn a minimal marketing investment into relevant and fun content that set Lufthansa apart from the competition on the fiercely competitive Stockholm Berlin-route.

A simple dare that according to the Economist sounded like “a bar bet” became an international success. Lufthansa sold out an Airbus 319 based on sales from the site.

1100 people downloaded the name-change-application.

42 Swedes changed their name to Klaus-Heidi.

41 got a VIP Lufthansa-card with 60 000 miles, the winner got a welcome from Berlin's Mayor, a free food sponsor in German food chain Kaiser and more.

The campaign got 240 million impressions, made the news in over 30 countries and was a re-occurring topic on Swedish national TV.

During its peak it stood for 25% of Lufthansa’s mentions in social media globally and was the main driver to Lufthansa.com behind Google.

Magnus Engvall at Lufthansa summarized the campaign like this: "We brought the two nations of Sweden and German closer to each other. An ultimate goal for any airline - especially for Lufthansa”.

The campaign was launched through an integrated campaign led by promotion, PR, direct and digital.

At the heart of the campaign is a PR-driven idea consisting of one simple question, and a silly one at that: Do you love Berlin enough to change your name?

The campaign-site featured a promotional film, selling the dream of Berlin and declaring the dare. At the site the viewer could check out his or her new life in detail, grab a discount to Berlin or simply download a legal name-change-application and apply directly to become Klaus-Heidi.

The site sold the dream of Berlin and invited the consumer to step into Klaus-Heidi’s shoes. The site was supported by direct, digital and more but was first and foremost a PR-vehicle for the competition and ultimately for Lufthansa’s flights to Berlin.

Nobody knows Berlin like Lufthansa does, but in Sweden the airline is bottom-of-mind.

On a competitive market where everyone offers the same comfort to the same price, we needed something different entirely. So instead of talking to the wallet we talked to the heart, and created a challenge that the recipients own name and identity in the wager.

What is a new life in Berlin worth? This was the simple question at the heart of the direct campaign. By providing one daring Swede with a whole new life Lufthansa became the enabler, the spark, the inspiration and the topic.

On a competitive market that consists of pretty much the same message and the same offer from all the airlines, we wanted to do something radically different in order to give Lufthansa an edge and turn their German identity into a perk rather than a disadvantage.

Instead of talking about our low prices again, we went the other direction and sold the dream of Berlin in a personal, quirky, inspirational and fun challenge which put Swedes love for Berlin to the test: for real. Do you love Berlin enough to change your name? Well if so, a whole new life enabled by Lufthansa might be right around the corner.

The strategy was to primarily aim for the heart, instead of the wallet. The imagery and new life in Berlin proved Lufthansa’s own love for, and knowledge of, this great destination. In essence, Klaus-Heidi was Lufthansa’s love-letter to Berlin.