Big Bang

The communications dramaturgy of Linz09 was timed in such a way that the point of greatest intensity would coincide with the inauguration of the Culture Capital. This phase, the “Big Bang”, was, if the most intense, also the shortest of the entire communications process. The year was supposed to start with a bang whose tremendous energy would spill over and transform the entire year.

The city’s public sphere was now entirely under the sway of Linz09’s corporate brand; its logo was conspicuously present in all the Linz09 venues and on banners along Nibelungenbrücke, Landstraße, at the Central Railway Station, in squares and in front of landmark buildings. Ads were placed in Austrian and foreign dailies, weeklies and specialist journals; outdoor advertising on a huge scale underscored the event character of the opening weekend. The message was limited throughout to the date of the opening: 31/12/2008. 16- and/or 24 sheet poster were posted both in Linz/Upper Austria and in Vienna. Special pages and supplements were realised by several print media such as Falter, Die Presse, Der Standard, Oberösterreichblicke and Lebendiges Linz. The Linz09 Pass was introduced in cooperation with the Kronen Zeitung. Concise messages and catch phrases such as “Komm”, “Europa”, “Welcome” and “Hallo”, combined with the Logo in Corporate Design colours, appeared in all media and became part of the branding at the opening event on New Year’s Eve.

In December 2008 the social media platforms Facebook, Myspace, Youtube and Flickr went on stream and Linz09 groups were started. The first great wave in the field of e-marketing spanned the time from before Christmas 2008 to late January 09.

This mixture of the most diverse measures aimed to convey to both Linzers and to the city’s visitors that Culture Capital had been launched, turning over a new leaf in the city’s history.

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