CASE STUDY Pfizer's PR campaign „Openly about sex“ - PRO.PR

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Germany How to win a national election The election campaign 2005 of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany) . Angelika Wagner, CDU headquarters Berlin The campaign of the centre-right party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), for the elections of the German Bundestag (parliament) in the year 2005 was special for various reasons. Firstly, the general election took place one year before time. This caused a challenging situation for our party regarding the short period of time to prepare a national election campaign. Secondly, the CDU was glad to present for the first time a woman to run a candidacy in the history of Germany - Angela Merkel. Thirdly, despite the short period of time we introduced some new campaign elements. Initial situation After several federal state elections throughout Germany in the years 1998 to 2005 the CDU took over or participated in 13 out of 16 state-governments. With May 22nd 2005, the counterpart to the CDU, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), lost the election in one of the largest federal states, North Rhine-Westphalia, after almost 40 years of leadership. This was to become the turning point regarding the national elections. In the evening of May 22nd the German chancellor, back then Gerhard Schröder (SPD), decided to call for early elections. Regional states in Germany After this regional election, opinion polls showed that the German government, at that time a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and The Green Party (“Red and Green”), did not have the support of the majority of voters anymore. Referring to those developments a constitutional process was initiated that resulted in the decision of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Köhler, to suspend the German Bundestag and to hold early elections in September 2005. Campaign structure The CDU divided the short time span of 119 days between May 22nd and September 18th 2005 - a total of only 17 weeks - into three periods. The campaign started with a two-month period called “Pre- Campaign”, where we selected the main topics for the CDU-party platform and nominated the candidate for the Chancellor’s office: Angela Merkel. During the second phase of the election campaign the main goal was to mobilise as many voters and supporters for the CDU as possible. The last three weeks of campaigning are called the “Crucial Phase”, since a lot of voters make up their minds in the very last days before Election Day. Die Bilanz von Rot-Grün: Alle 15 Min. eine Firmenpleite. Deutschland braucht den Wechsel Herausgeber: CDU-Bundesgeschäftsstelle · Marketing und Interne Kommunikation · Klingelhöferstraße 8 · 10785 Berlin · Bestell-Nr.: H251 posters and bilboards: „Every 15 minutes a company goes bankrupt.” „Take advantage of Germany’s chances. CDU” „More economic growth. More jobs. CDU” Communication strategy Even though the Social Democrats seemed to have lost majorities, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a person was still very popular. Therefore, it was necessary for the CDU to point out the failures of the Red and Green government to support the public request for political change and to prevent Gerhard Schröder from benefiting from his status of the incumbent chancellor. As it is known, it is more likely that the government will be voted out rather than the opposition party being voted in. Consequently the communication strategy of the CDU was based on three pillars: First pillar: attacking the government with facts without attacking Gerhard Schröder personally, second pillar: pointing out what CDU would do better and third pillar: linking the promises to the candidate Angela Merkel. The main argument was the failing of the coalition of Red and Green, shown by the grave economic situation in Germany. The inefficiency of the government was substantiated by numerous facts regarding the economy, unemployment rates and public debts. The tonality of the key messages concerning the promises was kept authentic, optimistic and honest. The main topics were how to initialise the growth of the economy, establish more jobs, provide a more secure environment and consolidate the state budget. The key statements or promises of Angela Merkel implicated that she stood for a change of politics and that she would present more reliability and provide new confidence to the German citizens. Campaign elements There were a couple of different elements to transport our slogans. In addition to traditional campaign elements, such as billboards, posters, brochures, Giant poster next to the motorway Volunteers of “teAM future” at the General Party Conference in Dortmund, 28th August 2005. Advertisement of VIP campaign “Angela Merkel has our support” Angela Merkel at the inauguration ceremony in the German Bundestag 22nd November 2005. PROPR winter 2007.
TV and radio spots CDU included new elements such as, for example, special poster placements like giant banners, truck rears and giant posters next to the motorway. The aim was to reach as many people as possible. The internet is a very important platform for communication - especially in a short-time campaign. With our CDU campaign website we were able to inform interested users of all our news and activities. The campaign website www.cdu.de gave access to special websites for our target groups such as senior citizens, women up to the age of 45, German expatriates and young people in their twenties and for information on the political opponent. To promote our campaign website for the first time we placed internet banners on websites of companies like AOL or media websites like the big German magazine “Der Spiegel”. Also the CDU headquarters produced a podcast of the Secretary General and campaign manager, Volker Kauder, which was called “iKauder”. In this diary-type podcast he informed listeners of the latest news and developments concerning the election campaign. These audio files were especially made to attract and inform young people. In addition to this, young people were invited to send us text messages with their ideas for future politics. This interactive campaign tool was called “your vote counts” and was promoted with free postcards in bars and with a special website. Volunteer campaign We wanted to mobilise as many people as possible, not only traditional CDU-voters, but also supporters of Angela Merkel and people who wanted political change in Germany. Therefore, a special grass-roots organisation was founded: the so called “teAM future”. The two capital letters A and M stood for An- PROPR winter 2007. Herausgeber: CDU-Bundesgeschäftsstelle · Marketing und Interne Kommunikation · Klingelhöferstraße 8 · 10785 Berlin gela Merkel. Other than that, it was intended to not include the CDU-signet or anything linked to the CDU, only the CDU corporate identity colour, orange, was used in addition to the German flag. Of course party members were allowed to join, but the main purpose was to encourage volunteers outside the CDU to commit to change and to Angela Merkel. A great deal of promotional material was produced, for example orange T-Shirts, pins and buttons. In the CDU headquarters in Berlin worked a small group of volunteers, who were responsible for organising the whole teAM future campaign. Via internet and e-mail they established a network for volunteers in the different federal states, regions and cities throughout Germany. In total they coordinated 254 team leaders and 32,000 supporters with their grass-roots campaigning. Their main tasks were to support the candidates in the constituencies, for example, to help put up posters or spread flyers and information sheets. The teAM future went along to rallies and supported Angela Merkel with banners and big placards showing: “Angie” and “Vote for change”. During the TV debate between Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel volunteers all over the country organised “watch parties” for family members, friends and colleagues. VIP campaign “Angela Merkel has our support” We were delighted that more than 100 celebrities from sport, art, science, economy, media and entertainment took part in our VIP campaign and mobilised voters with their commitment to Angela Merkel. In the internet gallery of the VIP campaign website many celebrities published a statement of why they supported Angela Merkel. They also supported the CDU election campaign through advertisements and media statements. „Angela Merkel hat unsere Unterstützung.“ Bei der Bundestagswahl am 18. September steht viel auf dem Spiel: Es geht um die Zukunft unseres Landes, es geht um Arbeit, Wachstum und Sicherheit. Wir wollen ein Land der Chancen und der Zuversicht für die Menschen. Deshalb unterstützen wir Angela Merkel. Freya Klier, Autorin und Regisseurin Christian Thielemann, Generalmusikdirektor Münchner Philharmoniker Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann, Eisschnellläuferin © Bayreuther Festspiele Thomas Stein, Medienmanager Uschi Disl, Biathletin Karl-Erivan W. Haub, Gesellschafter Unternehmensgruppe Tengelmann © A. Zedler Jürgen Strube, Manager Charles Huber, Schauspieler und Schriftsteller Peter Neururer, Fußball-Trainer © Public Address © Jürgen Schulzki Justus Frantz, Dirigent und Pianist HA Schult, Aktionskünstler Ezard Haußmann, Schauspieler © osicom © Rainer Unkel Joachim Fuchsberger, Schauspieler Claudia Pechstein, Eisschnellläuferin Dietmar Hopp, Gründer des Softwareunternehmens SAP © Sven Simon Isabell Werth, Dressurreiterin Ralf Moeller, Schauspieler Christiane zu Salm, Medienunternehmerin Herausgeber: CDU-Bundesgeschäftsstelle · Marketing und Interne Kommunikation · Klingelhöferstraße 8 · 10785 Berlin Bild am Sonntag, 11. September © Reitsport Waldhausen © Mayk Azzato The last days of the campaign The tool of direct communication is essential to reach voters. As we have approximately 61 million people in Germany who are entitled to vote, it is important to meet different interests and to have the right media mix. Therefore CDU sent 1.5 million mailings, 4 million e-mails and 500,000 text messages in the last week before Election Day alone. Moreover, the employees of the CDU headquarters, as well as our candidates in the constituencies and volunteers in 74 German cities, worked for 24 hours straight, answering phone calls, writing e-mails and letters or text messages and doing canvassing in restaurants and bars, providing cab drivers and shift workers at night with coffee or tea. The message was clear: the campaigners of CDU work hard for success and maintain their activities until polling stations close. Outcome of the election The CDU won 35 percent and the SPD reached 34 percent of the votes. In comparison to the last national election this meant a loss of votes. But we reached the aim of the campaign: the CDU became the strongest party in parliament and built a coalition under the lead of the first female Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel. In retrospect it became clear that the decision to focus on the mobilisation of voters and volunteers was the right strategy. In particular, the popularity and success of the volunteer campaign “teAM future” exceeded all expectations. Furthermore, it was the well-balanced mix of traditional campaign elements (billboards, TV and radio spots) combined with new elements (podcast “iKauder”, internet banner, direct communication, VIP campaign) that brought the CDU back to power.
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CASE STUDY Pfizer's PR campaign „Openly about sex“ - PRO.PR

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