Germany consists of 16 federal states, and the German Railway (Deutsche Bahn) has a special local ticket for each of them. This “Länder-Ticket” (state ticket) is a cost-efficient way for up to five people to explore one federal state with regional trains (Regioexpress). Länder-Ticket PR’s job was to create a campaign that would raise awareness of the Länder-Ticket across a broad German audience, increase ridership, and build positive sentiment for the railway itself.

While most marketing promotes a spirit of unity within the federal states, there is also division. German states and regions often proudly promote their own local character, and whether they like it or not, neighboring states and localities often reduce each other to stereotypes. Some take the form of prejudice or open enmities, while others result in jokes and teasing. And that’s where creative inspiration struck.

Our job was to motivate more passengers to use the Länder-Ticket, explore more of their home regions, and discover their similarities with neighbors. We were expected to find a unifying message.

But what if gently mocking local differences is what actually brings Germans together? Defying political correctness, we created provocative content that zeroed in on Germans’ perceived (and often petty) cultural differences.

Using Deutsche Bahn as the vehicle and the Länder-Ticket as the catalyst, we took an unexpected journey into prejudice and identity politics. Enlisting wry comedian Christian Ulmen as our foil, we filmed a series of Deutsche Bahn encounters that playfully exposed local stereotypes: from overly-fastidious Stuttgart residents, to the cultural gulf between people of Cologne and Düsseldorf – a mere 30 minutes apart.

This was a Germany that real Germans could relate to. By showing we understood regional stereotypes that divided, our original content united a nationwide conversation.

The logical approach would call for Germans to come together, ignoring their cultural differences. But that marketing strategy had become a stereotype in itself. We needed original content that was entertaining enough to generate organic shares, and newsworthy enough to earn media coverage.

Most regional differences are well known throughout Germany. For instance, Swabians and Badener are not the best of friends and would rather live in two different states. And inhabitants of Cologne and Düsseldorf only live 30 minutes apart, but have competing beer and carnival traditions that residents don’t consider compatible. Our video journey would explore this “real” Germany with refreshing honesty -- in a way that inspired good-humored social debate.

Talent was crucial. We selected notoriously clever television actor Christian Ulmen to play a passenger on multiple Länder-Ticket lines, engaging with locals and exposing the stereotypes. For authenticity, the actors were given some bandwidth to improvise.

We produced a three-part video series to play on Deutsche Bahn’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels – storylines intended to entertain and provoke.

With Christian Ulmen playing a wry, slightly smug Berliner, born and raised in Hamburg, each Deutsche Bahn/Länder-Ticket scenario finds him riding the train and getting caught in the middle of competing local identities. The exchanges begin neutrally, but quickly veer into uncomfortable territory and stereotypical traps – only for the rival neighbors to discover something in common by the end. Each video ends with the call-to-action: “Discover (the region) as it really is.”

We cut the honest, amusing slices of German life into a variety of social media-friendly formats, including long and short versions, in-stream and bumper ads. We first launched the content to business and trade media, then seeded stories with German lifestyle media -- fueling campaign awareness and conversation before publishing them on social platforms.

It turns out the people of Germany enjoy a good tweaking. Our main objective was to increase awareness and interest in the economical Länder-Ticket, but the humorous campaign quickly delivered more passengers — increasing year-over-year monthly sales of the Länder-Ticket by 3 percent.

Our “Real Germany” videos generated 31+ million total social media impressions on Deutsche-Bahn’s social channels. On YouTube alone, the videos earned 3.7 million views and more than 2,000+ social reactions. Our team also landed media stories in virtually all major national and regional German news outlets, generating 127.5 million earned media impressions — particularly impressive in a country of 82 million people. The campaign and video content received major play in key news outlets such as Stuttgarter Nachrichten (Stuttgart news), Bild (German newspaper with highest national reach), plus significant coverage and discussion on the TV shows Sat 1 Frühstücksfernsehen and ARD Brisant.