The Berlin transport company BVG has been causing a stir in Berlin and even beyond since 2015 with great humour, cool videos and innovative PR stunts. Frank Büch, Marketing Director of the BVG, about a calculated loss of control, self-mocking retaliation and the allure of camouflage-look products.
Mr Büch, most transport companies have a well-behaved and generally speaking rational positioning. That is not so in the case of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe. What encouraged you to change tracks?
Frank Büch: When laying down the positioning every company is faced with the same question: Do we want to talk about our product or reach people emotionally? Most transport companies opt for the first alternative, advertise their company using classic product promises such as modern equipment, clean trains, punctuality and a good frequency. However, the customer experience is often totally different. We transport 1.5 million people a day.
So, how could we seriously claim that everything is clean everywhere at all times?
Frank Büch: That is why a few years ago we decided to opt for an emotional communication. So, you offered the people of Berlin a declaration of love… The campaign was based on the idea that the BVG has existed for over 100 years, which means we can look back on a long relationship with the people of Berlin. And how does one frequently react when in a relationship? During the first weeks and months one sees things through rose-coloured glasses and finds one’s partner exceptionally good. Then the glorification gradually fades, the view becomes more realistic and over the course of the years, there are more and more things that irritate one about each other. Some pairs separate, others consciously decide to stick together. We wanted to give the Berliners a kind of new wedding vow, which resulted in the slogan “Because we love you”. That is why we transport you from A to B, all hours of the day. One of our first motifs was correspondingly a sleeping man sitting on the underground wearing women’s clothes, accompanied by the phrase: “Not even your mum picks you up at 4.30 in the morning.”
Transport companies are popular items of hate, because the buses and trains often arrive late, are crowded and dirty. Amid this backdrop, the BVG turned up and claimed: “Because we love you.” How much courage does it take to do something like that?
Frank Büch: Of course, we had a hunch that our campaign wouldn’t woo the public straight away. In this respect the loss of control was taken into account up until a certain degree. However, we certainly hadn’t reckoned on the extent of the shitstorm. Nevertheless, we stuck to our guns, because we had internal backing and were collaborating closely with a very good social media team at our agency, which always communicates at eye level.
What form does such a communication at eye level take on?
Frank Büch: It is self-mocking, witty, no doubt also slightly cheeky, but always respectful. For example, if someone writes: “You’re such a son of a bitch company,” we counter with: “That is not quite correct, we are a son of a bitch institution under public law.” And when people complain that meth recipes and the price of cocaine are discussed on the underground even before 8 o’clock in the morning, the BVG’s answer is: “Well, one mustn’t forget we do only charge 2.70 for a trip.” Many people advised us at the time to draw up an editorial plan detailing which themes we were going online with when. However, together with our agency, GUD, we decided against this. Because in this city something is always happening that one can react fantastically too. And precisely this spontaneity is what our passengers appreciate. As well as our humour, which beats every polite phrase hands down.
How did you manage to turn the public round?
Frank Büch: A few months after the start of the campaign we produced the spot “It’s all the same to me” with Jung von Matt. It shows the rapper Kazim Akboga dancing around in Berlin underground trains as a conductor and on his travels, he meets up with many curiosities, including a man on a pony, a lady grating cheese, a robot with mustard. The message: “We are the only ones who love you the way you are,” and if you pay for your ticket, we will put up with everything. It wasn’t actually easy to have the message approved internally, but the spot swung the whole situation around externally. Millions of viewers watched the video and all of a sudden, the BVG was cool. The campaign is very strong on the social media channels.
Frank Büch
Are there offline campaigns too?
Frank Büch: We make sure that the campaign doesn’t get diluted. There always has to be a message that is directly connected to us and which surprises the community. A good example of this was U2’s live concert with the lead singer Bono and guitar player, The Edge, at the German Opera underground station. This cross-promotion with Universal Music and U2 worked well because we have an underground line with the same name. The label was thus able to push its new album “songs of experience” and we surprised our customers once again.
What benefit has the “Because we love you” campaign brought the BVG so far?
Frank Büch: The number of complaints has fallen. There has been less graffiti too, which in turn brings a costsaving of around 3.8 million Euros to have it removed. Based on our regular image evaluations, we know that our image has improved by 0.3 in terms of school grades. That doesn’t sound very spectacular at first. However, when one realises how difficult it is to change an image, then this improvement is really good. What’s more, in the meantime we are also using the tone of the image campaign for other advertising purposes, i.e. to advertise ticket sales or subscriptions. This increases the acceptance and the advertising is even shared. For example, we were able to win over around 20,000 subscribers more than usual within two months with the last subscription campaign. With an average run-time of 6.5 years, the campaign is thus money wellinvested.
You launched a sneaker together with Adidas at the beginning of the year, which was a limited edition of 500 pairs and which served as an annual ticket for the local transport means in Berlin. How did the idea for this special touchpoint come about?
Frank Büch: If brands want to increase their strength, they have to collaborate with other strong brands. When we heard that Adidas found the covers of our seats cool, that was what initially sparked off our cooperation. The first draft was a complete shoe in camouflage-look. However, to ensure better wearability the pattern gradually faded into the background. We thought about the measure for a long time, because a limitededition shoe doesn’t express an awful lot in itself. Finally, our Area Manager came up with the idea of the integrated annual ticket. That made the story hit the roof and caused a sensation worldwide – from the USA, to China, through to Russia. We were also featured on the daily news. That was pure media work.
With U2 on the U2: Lead singer Bono and the guitar player, The Edge, rocked the U2 in Berlin. The BVG comment on Facebook: “These darned underground musicians”.
The pattern of the seat covers is also being implemented large-scale for the new merchandising collection, which is available from the online shop and from several selected BVG sales outlets. How did the idea for this collection arise?
Frank Büch: The idea was more or less dropped at our feet. People kept posting photos on Instagram of them wearing clothes on the underground that they had sewn from the seat cover material. We adapted this idea for our recruiting motif “You live our style. You take the underground. You should start working for us.” This resulted in us receiving numerous enquiries as to where one could purchase such garments. So, we produced a collection, including swimming shorts, mobile phone cases, spectacles cases, neck pouches, coffee cups, leggings, umbrellas, socks, gym bags and much more. We even use the pattern for our business reports. For all fully-bred BVG fans, we punched out glasses, a moustache and a bow-tie on the cover of the 2016 report.
Which products make it into the shop?
Frank Büch: Because they are mostly give-aways or souvenirs, the items have to be affordable and should ideally cost between 4 and 6 Euros. Furthermore, many of the items have a seasonal association. Our small BVG heart is of course always on board as a label.
What is in your opinion the advantage of implementing merchandising products?
Frank Büch: We believe that with a streamlined selection of products and a significantly reduced design we can achieve a similar effect to Transport for London. The red ring with a horizontal bar on top has become a world-famous distinguishing feature, which is depicted on numerous fan items that are sold in every merchandising shop in London. Our aim is to develop something similar for Berlin. Films are a strong medium for emotionalising people and kicking off a specific train of thought. Haptic advertising enables memories to be kept alive, i.e. of a film, of a campaign or a special experience with the BVG.
// Andrea Bothe spoke with Frank Büch.
Photos: BVG; @overkill; @PhilippGladsome
