Attention, Awareness, Acceptance and Action became the home-based guideline for a 3-part campaign that would make the Danes aware of the new passport rules that came into force on October 7th. The rules were introduced to strengthen the external borders of the Schengen and Denmark's security and mean that anyone who crosses the Schengen border must have scanned their passports, which are then checked against police databases. And it may mean that the passport control takes longer - and that there will be queues. Thus, the message is not the most cheerful. On the other hand, it is confusing. For what should passengers do differently than they usually do?

The solution: A campaign made in 3 steps.

1. Before departure (Attention)

2, In the departure terminal (Awareness and Acceptance)

3, At the passport control (Action)

1. Before departure (Attention):

Spreading the message via social media. A film told about the expected queues. In Danish “queue” means “standing in line” – but it also means “cows”. We used this double meaning to tell about the problem with a glimpse of fun: “expect queues in Copenhagen Airport”.

2. In the departure terminal (Awareness and Acceptance):

Posters were set up in the waiting areas and they explained the new passport rules.

3. At the passport control (Acceptance):

Using nudging-principles the whole area in front of the passport control was divided into 3 zones: 1. Find your passport, 2. Open passport on photograph page, 3. Hand over passport like this. This ensured that all travelers spent the waiting time getting their passport ready for the passport control.

The results were more than convincing.

The waiting time in peak is reduced up to 18%.

100%. In a test, all 500 out of 500 travelers had their passport ready at passport control.

Copenhagen Airport avoided the long queues that many other airports have not been able to avoid.

Most important: Copenhagen Airports 29 million travelers have not experienced longer queues since the new passport rules have been introduced.

We worked it out together!