New York, Toronto, Mumbai and now Hamburg – thanks to media activity by Edelman Deutschland, Global Citizen is now more popular in the Hanseatic City and throughout Europe than ever before. In the form of the Global Citizen Festival on 6 July 2017, the evening before the G20 Summit in Hamburg, the world’s most influential heads of state and government were called upon to meet their responsibilities towards the poorest of the poor. Stars such as Herbert Grönemeyer, Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, Pharrell Williams, Shakira and Andreas Bourani supported the festival with free appearances and lent their voices to the campaign. The communicative challenge? The majority of the 9,000 tickets for the festival in Hamburg’s Barclaycard Arena could only be earned through political involvement: during a total of three campaign phases, Global Citizens had the opportunity via social media, mailings and telephone campaigns to actively address the ruling elite in the G20 nations, thereby committing themselves to a fairer international future – entirely in line with the motto #Tuwas (Do something).

From March to July 2017, Edelman Deutschland was responsible for strategic activities concerning the festival and was in charge of accrediting the national and international press representatives on the evening of the concert. In an effort to permanently anchor Global Citizen within public perception, the team also positioned management personnel at Global Citizen, political dignitaries and artists in opinion-leading media – with success! Within the first 72 hours of the announcement of commitment by Global Citizen in Germany, more than 900 publications had already been achieved in print, on the radio, TV and online.

On account of Global Citizen’s prior unfamiliarity, the communication activities aimed at creating media attention for the festival and encouraging people to participate in the respective campaigns, breaking down prejudices and explaining the mechanisms of the campaign. To this aim, the team collaborated closely with media partners from dpa, WELT and Hamburger Abendblatt as it launched exclusive announcements on the festival, interviews with management personnel at Global Citizen, artists and contributions by political dignitaries.