You are Chancellor
Issue 11 | July 2009
Creative Team
Creative Director: Thomas Tatzl, Art Director: Jan Belik, Copywriter: Timo Bidla, Daniel Irsigler
Production Team
Herbert Weber
Other Credits
Account Director: Elvira Weidinger, Account Assistant: Lukas Weigerstorfer
Date
September 2009
Background
Politics in Austria seemed to have become a game for the politicians. Kurier, Austria’s leading newspaper, decided it would invite the citizens of the entire country to play the game as well.
Idea
People were invited to apply to be elected as Chancellor and change the country by going online, where they could design their own pawn, choose a name for themselves and post up their election pledge.
The pawn device was because all the creative executions talked about the game of politics using “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” (alias Ludo in the UK) with the four key pieces being in the colours of the principal parties and bearing the faces of their leaders.
The message was, “The Game, The Players And The Rules - Everything about the election, daily in the KURIER”.
Results
5.559 people created their online Chancellor and posted a pledge; about 20 online platforms have discussed the campaign/game. There were 84,681 votes cast and 930,200 contacts on the microsite in only 25 days.
Circulation of the paper increased by 6% in the four weeks leading up to the elections, with 678 new subscribers.
Our Thoughts
What’s interesting is to compare and contrast this with Times of India’s campaign last year, “Lead India”. Here we have, quite clearly, a campaign intended to sell newspapers rather than to engineer change. It demonstrates a knowing awareness of both the electorate and the political parties after their votes. Perhaps I am being unfair on “Lead India” by suggesting it was, ultimately, the more cynical of the two campaigns, especially because there is an evident weariness with politics and politicians in this fascinating idea from PK Proximity.