Herzinfarkt – Jede Minute Zählt!

The Impression of Berlin’s Social Marketing Campaign

The first time I was attracted by a social marketing campaign was when I passed by the Berlin East Side Gallery. This campaign was launched by Deusche Herztftung, the German Heart Foundation, which was created in 1979 as a nonprofit organization. Presently, it has over 65,000 members. One of the main tasks of the German Heart Foundation is to fight against cardiovascular disease, to educate patients about the contemporary possibilities of treatment of heart disease.

So what is “Herzinfarkt – Jede Minute Zählt”? The campaign wanted to portray the concept that “Heart Attack – every minute counts”, which means if you have a heart attack or happen to run into a person who has a heart attack, you should immediately call 112. In my point of view, it’s a good way to build brand awareness, because it’s easy to understand, does not have too much things need memorizing. Even I, as a Chinese, who knows nothing about German, still can understand that it is something about heart attack.

Moreover, what’s interesting was the usage of graffiti in the visual design closely matched the environment around it. East Side Gallery, as one of the most famous places in Berlin, is well known for its graffiti. It’s such a wise choice to place the campaign here. Because on one hand, placing the campaign here will attract more audiences, while on the other hand, sharing the same concept won’t make people feel like it pops out from nowhere. And the white background emphasized the core icons of the campaign, which are the red heart and the black eye. This enables people to catch the content in distance.

To some extent, I believe it to be an effective campaign. However, the only weakness it has is the low exposure frequency. East Side Gallery is the only place I saw the campaign, as far as my staying in Berlin, I haven’t seen any other places hanging the same one. According to the theory I learned in my research class, the campaign or the advertisement will only be effective after at least three exposures. So, this heart attack campaign should be placed in more than three places where has the most people passing by, such as points of interests, main train stations and bus stops.

However, compare to China, Berlin did a really good job. First of all, you can barely see any heart attack campaign in public trying to increase people awareness regarding how to self-protect and how to save other people’s life. Secondly, you will never see a non-profit campaign with such inspiring and creative ideas and visual designs.

I think all I need to do, according to an old Chinese saying, is to select the essence and discard the dross.