Establishing an unexpected brand appearance, that is truly useful for the target group at the world's biggest heavy metal festival: The "Moshpital" – a unique promotion area at Wacken Open Air, where metalheads got what they needed most during four days of excessive headbanging: A FREE RELAXING NECK MASSAGE! ...and plenty of information about the BARMER GEK health insurance as well – thanks to the placement of massage chairs right in front of displays with activating brand messages!

The promotion started with an awareness-grabbing teaser trailer on YouTube, that became a viral hit weeks before the festival – linking to the "Moshpital"website with information and health tips for festivals. Followed by a unique promotion area at the 'Wacken Open Air' (29/7 - 1/8/2015). Here, 75.000 fans were offered, what they needed most during four days of excessive headbanging: a free professional neck massage! Well, not exactly for free: every 'patient' had to hand his contact address and the permission to be contacted by BARMER GEK to the promotion team first... During the relaxing 10-minute-massage, the eyes of the patients were forced to rest on activating brand information – thanks to the placement of displays right in front of the massage chair's face cushions. Directly after the massage, the metalheads were photographed in a headbanging-pose by a professional photographer, in order to post and share these 'mosh-portraits' on facebook.

Less neck pain for fans = more fans for BARMER GEK! More than 1800 qualified addresses were generated at the Festival. The "Moshpital" led to an extensive reporting in the media – in TV, Music Magazines and Newspapers. During the promotion period, seven times more young people visited the microsite www.moshpital.de compared to the target group´s average traffic on the brand website. On social networks and blogs alone, more than TWO MILLION contacts were generated among the attractive target group for health-care providers – scoring 92% positive comments. And all this with an overall-budget of less than 150,000 Euros!

With a temporary promotion area at Wacken Open Air and an overall budget of just 150,000 euros, The BARMER GEK "Moshpital" created nationwide awareness among a target group, which is normally not interested in health insurances at all. It offered a unique and surprising brand experience that generated millions of contacts, visits on BARMER GEK information platforms and permissions to be contacted. It was the perfect door-opener to get into an intensive dialogue with attractive target groups in order to convince them of a change to a health insurance that understands the special needs of young people.

While the target audience (= young job entrants, students and trainees in Germany) is allowed to choose their 'own' health insurance for the first time, they don´t concern themselves with these kinds of topics. Mostly because a majority gets insured by their parents automatically. This means, that they need to be told about the possibility to change their current health insurance and furthermore find a new one which fits their needs and service requirements better. To really get in contact with the target group, the BARMER GEK went, where no other health insurance dared to go before: to the world's biggest festival for heavy metal music. Not just because 61% of young Germans between 18 and 34 like to visit music festivals regularly, but also because the unique spirit of 'Wacken Open Air' creates awareness and is spread throughout the country and all media year by year...

The problem: marketing budgets of statutory health insurances in Germany are strictly limited by law. With an overall budget of just 150,000 Euros, the BARMER GEK wanted to create a surprising brand experience that guarantees nationwide public awareness among young target groups, millions of contacts, a wide media coverage – and finally new clients.