Burson-Marsteller

ruetli.ch – creating a dialog about Switzerland

Client work • 2nd June 2010

Timeframe

April  – September 2009

Markets and practices involved

Digital and Corporate practices in Switzerland.

Brief

Rütli (Grütli in French and Italian) is a mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, in the Seelisberg municipality of the Swiss canton of Uri. Here is where the legendary oath of the Rütlischwur first occurred, a meeting which is remembered as the turning point in the pursuit of independence. Every 1^st August, on the Swiss National Day, the oath is re-enacted to commemorate the forming of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

Land forming the Rütli meadow was bought by our client the Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft (SGG) in 1859 in order to preserve its state and, among other reasons, to prohibit the construction of a hotel at the historical site. This non-profit company turned the Rütli over to the government as an inalienable gift.

SGG is also responsible for the program of the 1^st August festivities on the meadow every year.  As is often the case across Switzerland the celebrations include speeches; at the Rütli it is common for an eminent personality, such as members of the Swiss Federal Council, to speak. Since 2005 Neonazis have abused the event for their cause.  Strict controls to take part in the 1^st August festivities were enforced in 2006 – only people who registered could get a ticket to the Rütli – but for data privacy reasons, the list could not be reviewed by police to identify known radicals.

Since coverage of the incidents, the Swiss media has always focused on the question of whether Neonazis will show up again. The main subjects and topics moved to the background.

In 2009 SGG briefed Burson-Marsteller to get more people to think about their country.

Strategy & Implementation

Burson-Marsteller developed a “digital Rütli meadow” – in the form of the website ruetli.ch. The website features three main areas:

• Historic information about the Rütli and its meaning
• General information on how to get to the meadow, on events and festivities, and so on.
• An interactive section on the theme “Thinking About Switzerland”, with one specific question to all users: “What is your favourite place in Switzerland, and why?”

The core of the interactive section was a Google Maps mash-up which allowed users to set a pin on their “favourite” place and share their story of what this place means to them. The website allowed users to login via Facebook Connect, and we tied in additional social media channels.

Additionally, Burson-Marsteller set-up a collaboration with Switzerland’s second biggest public radio station, DRS 3. DRS 3 broadcasted a summer series based on 20 places of which Swiss people are proud. Every week, DRS 3 included one of the places that people shared on the Rütli website, developing hour long programmes including interviews and background information around these places.

Results

Over a three week period, we collected 1,500 personal stories on the website. Radio Station DRS 3 created highly informative and entertaining programmes around them and as the summer series by DRS 3 was highly popular, a general discussion about important places in Switzerland was sparked. Additionally, the website and campaign grew the SGG emailing and event invitation list by 1,500 specifically interested people.

Images

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