U18

Initial situation

Democracy only works if it is “lived”. But after the 1968 student protests and the squattings in the 1980s young people increasingly lost their interest in dealing with politics. That’s why, in a Berlin youth club in 1996, the idea was born to give children and adolescents below 18 years of age the opportunity to go to the polls nine days before the “real” federal or state elections. By examining party programmes and questioning election promises as well as through direct talks with politicians, they were to experience the ways in which citizens can take part in shaping politics.

Our approach

When we met the U18 initiators in 2005, we were immediately excited by the idea of young people learning how to take part in shaping politics in a democracy through practical examinations of political topics. But we soon learned this excitement was not widely shared. Above all wide-reach media but also parties and politicians hardly recognised U18’s activities. And even fewer people wanted to know about one of the central demands – lowering the voting age to 16. We therefore decided to professionalise the U18 communication. All activities revolved around the website www.u18.org. First it was designed to be more user-friendly and step by step new content was added. Press conferences were organised and invitations to visit U18 poll stations were sent out. Slowly but surely we successfully managed to win over important journalists and other multipliers for the U18 idea. U18 experienced a giant leap in awareness when major youth work organisations became enthusiastic about the initiative. It was the year 2009 when federal politics finally also took notice – following a communications measure that centred around a three-part postcard campaign addressed to all Bundestag members. “Özdemerkel, Müntewelle, Steinhofer und Co.” was one approach to create publicity for U18 in the political circles of Berlin. Another one was thematising the fact that, in four years’ time, millions of young people would be coveted first-time voters and that clever politicians should make an effort to reach them now. The success was sensational: five ministers, 129 Bundestag members and more than 1,100 reports in newspapers, magazines and online as well as 25 TV and 19 radio programmes – and the latter figures were collected without any media monitoring service.

In the meantime U18 has grown into the biggest federal extracurricular education initiative for children and young people. At the U18 federal election in 2013 alone, nearly 200,000 young people participated.

European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation (ECARF)

Initial situation

Until 2013, the European Centre for Allergy Research (ECARF) presented its manifold objectives, activities and offerings on one single website. This website offered a lot of scientific information - however, individual pieces were very hard to find and they were not presented in a user-friendly fashion. Our task was to develop a new concept for the foundation's online presence, to address the various stakeholders more directly as well as to simplify and intensify the transfer of information - also with e-learning tools.

Our approach

In a multistage process we – together with the foundation’s management – developed a comprehensive internet concept, with special attention to optimal usability. At the core is the current website of the foundation at www.ecarf.org. Maintaining the scientific expertise, the catchy website offers everyone interested and those afflicted intuitive and convenient access to the current state of knowledge on the topic of allergies. The service offerings of the foundation’s subsidiary ECARF Institute as well as a consumer portal for ECARF-certified products, services and municipalities and regions were packed into two further websites.

Moreover, with www.klimawandelundgesundheit.de and www.bist-du-auch-allergisch.de there are two new web presences with special training and prevention offers for doctors and medical professionals and pre-school and school teachers respectively. Knowledge transfer is achieved via e-learning tools. All websites were conceptualised, designed and programmed using TYPO3 by united communications. By the way, the further education training at “Klimawandel und Gesundheit” has been officially approved by the Ärztekammer Berlin (Berlin Chamber of Physicians).

Deutsche Tinnitus-Stiftung Charité

German Tinnitus Foundation Charité

Initial situation

Until a few years ago tinnitus was considered a rare disease – many even thought that only middle-aged or elderly people could be afflicted. A grave error, even back then. Current estimates suggest around 11 million sufferers in Germany alone. And young people are increasingly often hit by tinnitus – a disease that can make life for those afflicted unbearable. But still there are hardly any research projects about the causes and possible treatment approaches. One reason for this is certainly the fact that tinnitus is not exactly a big topic in public discussion or health care. In order to change this, in 2011 five founders established the German Tinnitus Foundation Charité, which pursues three objectives: to research the causes of tinnitus, educate the public and alleviate the consequences for sufferers.

Our approach

We have been supporting the German Tinnitus Foundation Charité in all areas of communication since its foundation in 2011. For this, we developed the integrated campaign “I hear something you don’t”. We continuously inform the public about the foundation’s work on its website and its Facebook page. The foundation’s activities, be it congresses – such as the XI International Tinnitus Seminar organised by the German Tinnitus Foundation Charité – or other events are accompanied by PR and advertising from united communications.

The main focus is on the awareness campaign. The foundation devotes particular attention to young people, who run a high risk of developing tinnitus very early through listening to music much too loudly. In order to reach them we have won VIPs as ambassadors and organisers of music events as partners so that since 2012 we have been able to educate visitors to large music festivals such as the Berlin Summer Rave on the spot, directly, up close and personally about this risk.

Also thanks to the sponsors we found the foundation already reaches a six-digit number of young people annually. Besides face-to-face talks with foundation staff and often Charité doctors, the distribution of information material and earplugs, we also use the contact with festival visitors to recruit new volunteers. What is special is that the young people are educated by volunteers of the same age, who are trained for this purpose by doctors of the Charité’s Tinnitus Centre.

More about united communications’ work for the Tinnitus Foundation can be found at www.deutsche-tinnitus-stiftung-charite.de and www.facebook.com/deutschetinnitusstiftungchariteberlin.