Das Warten ist VorüBER

At our last Maker Days we asked ourselves: what’s the ultimate challenge? Our head of finance, Marianne Schuler, came up with a good suggestion: creating an image campaign for BER, the uuuuuuupcoming airport in Schönefeld, to bridge the waiting time and finally get people excited.

So, why is this such a challenge? We’re talking about an airport that was planned in 1995. Four opening dates have been announced, and since cancelled: 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Currently, there’s talk of a 2018 opening. Maybe.

The budget has been blown, the costs continue to rise, and the media is filled with articles about corruption, scandal, and wasted money.

We therefore made the assumption that BER’s image is shaky. But, of course, we don’t base anything on assumptions, so we went out and interviewed people on the street.

Three things that come to mind when I think about the airport? Delay, botched construction, non-existent planning.

Some people are angry. Others laugh—in a tragic way. Everyone has lost trust. The bottom line: BER’s image is fatal. So what can be done in cases like this? We looked into books about crisis management, as well as psychology books on what makes people forgive and forget, and the message was clear:

• be open, honest, and keep people informed
• sincere apologies WORK
• manage people’s expectations
• visualize!

The campaign would be targeted at people in Berlin, as they were most affected. Based on our research we decided on a campaign of three phases: apology, transparency, and humour.

1. The apology: a full page ad in all Berlin newspapers Open, honest, and offering a sincere apology, the ad features the names of all residents of Berlin & surrounding Brandenburg.

2. The transparency: an interactive model of the airport Placed at busy places in public, or available in your browser, the model allows you to follow the progress of the construction site—and hopefully create positive expectations!

3. The humour and expectation: a campaign, logo, and concept With the campaign (which translates, more or less, as The Waiting is OBER—it works much better in German, we promise) we experience the waiting from the other side: the employees at BER. For more than 10 years they have been waiting for passengers and planes, and now they’re very much looking forward to receiving YOU!

This was our first shot at an image campaign for BER, created in two days by Heide Frey, James Mckinnon, Marianne Schuler, Eddo Siep, Louise Fuglsang, Anna Maria Ciupka and Jannis Riethmüller.

If you are working at BER and want to do a second iteration, please get in touch. :-)

__Main image by Toshiya Izumo.__