A New Year’s Wish
Similar Work
The best way to get a teenager to do something? Tell them not to do it. That was exactly the thought that ran through our head as we were asked by the Berlin Fire Department to develop a campaign to reduce injuries from fireworks on New Year‘s Eve. For those who have never experienced it, New Year‘s in Berlin is like a war zone, and most of the battlefield injuries occur from and to teenage and young adult males.
It was clear that we couldn’t address the problem head on. So instead we focussed on the positive side of New Year’s as a night of celebration and good intentions. And then we made a game out of it. For 50 days people could sign up, make a wish for the coming year and try to get as much support as possible for them and their wish. The wish candidates with the most points at the end got their wishes fulfilled up to a value of 1000 euros.
The game setting was a kind of fairytale world and the players were helped by New Year‘s fairies. Contestants could get votes from other candidates but also by playing various mini games. For example they could try their luck with a lead melting game (based on a German New Year‘s tradition) or try to shoot the fairies with champagne corks. And there was a daily cracker quiz with questions about fireworks safety. These could only be correctly answered if the player read the firework handbook.
At the end of the 50 days we had over 24,000 website visits, over 650,000 page impressions, a thriving online community, and an army of unintended fireworks safety experts on the streets of Berlin come New Year’s.
31 October 2011