Heidelberger Frühling
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Rethinking brand management – attracting young target groups
_Forward-looking brand positioning
_Co-creation with young talent / Future Workshop
_Redefining how we reach our target audience
Background
The Heidelberger Frühling is one of Europe’s leading music festivals. Under the direction of Artistic Director Thorsten Schmidt and in collaboration with Igor Levit as Co-Artistic Director, the festival is renowned for its exceptional artistic quality, international appeal, and unique festival atmosphere. At the same time, classical music is often perceived, especially by younger audiences, as elitist, stuffy, or irrelevant to their own lives. With the U30 Ticket, the festival therefore created an attractive offer that provided the best available seats for 8 euros and allowed for spontaneous booking shortly before the concert. The communication challenge was to make this offer visible, understandable, and emotionally relevant.
Task
ebene c was commissioned to develop a communication strategy for the U30 Ticket that would better reach young people under 30 and help overcome their reservations about classical music. The focus was on how the Heidelberg Spring could position itself on social media and in the urban space in a way that revitalizes classical music for the target audience: surprising, provocative, and at the same time in line with the festival’s artistic standards. The goal was to develop a youthful narrative that addresses preconceptions, sparks curiosity, and promotes sales of the U30 ticket.
Solution
In collaboration with Heidelberger Frühling and a creative team of master’s students from the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg, ebene c first developed a workshop format that consistently reimagined the Heidelberger Frühling brand from the perspective of the under-30 target audience. The workshop identified the key barriers and prejudices and translated them into a bold communicative stance. This resulted in pointed core messages (“Classical music is for boomers!”), a cheeky tone, and concrete content formats for out-of-home and social media. The role of the master’s students was particularly effective: they developed the concept, appeared on camera themselves, and independently handled the editing and post-production of the videos. The result was a communication strategy that emerged directly from the target audience and possessed the highest possible credibility.
Result
The campaign struck a chord. The Heidelberger Frühling promoted its under-30 ticket in a visible, bold way that spoke directly to its target audience, without compromising the festival’s artistic standards. The provocative posters generated buzz and reached a wide audience: The FAZ reported that the festival saw the highest demand for its €8 tickets in its history.
Client quote
“A clear positioning, a well-designed workshop, and a bold campaign built on that foundation—it was precisely this combination that was key to making the U30 ticket relevant to young audiences. And it was all done in a playful way, with everyone involved clearly enjoying themselves. We’ll definitely use this format from ebene c again. Thank you!”
Sophia Pick, Head of Marketing
“A festival is more than just a concert program; it’s a space for exploring social issues. And this space must be open—even to people who don’t typically go to the concert hall. ebene c helped us make exactly that visible: with a clear stance, a truly bold campaign, and master’s students who brought their own perspectives to the table and took charge of the implementation themselves. It’s worth breaking new ground.”
Thorsten Schmidt, Artistic Director