customers

Contractor:

Vienna Provincial Committee for Market, Street and Travelling Trading

Agency/Implementation:

communication matters

Project Period:

September to December 2007

The Vienna Christmas market or Christkindlmarkt on Rathausplatz attracts between three and four million visitors from all over the world (2/3 of all visitors being tourists). As a result, the Christmas market has become an important economic factor for the city, creating jobs and bringing in tax revenues.   
Despite its positive reputation with tourists, the Christkindlmarkt is not seen quite so positively by local people.   

Targets and Dialog Groups

The goal of communication matters and the Vienna Provincial Committee for Market, Street and Travelling Trading was to get all the enthusiastic visitors to the Christmas market to feel the tranquility and reflectiveness of the Christkindlmarkt on Vienna Rathausplatz. The collaboration with the leading Austrian daily newspaper the “Kronen Zeitung” enabled the partners to project this picture to a wider audience. This resulted in the conception of the “Kinder Krone” from the Christkindlmarkt on Vienna Rathausplatz. Children were asked to look for stories, interview stallholders and visitors and report about events at the Christkindlmarkt and publish these in the “Kinder Krone”. Some of the reports made by the children were also published in the main edition of the “Kronen Zeitung”. The distribution of the newspapers at the market and around the young reporters also raised additional awareness. At the center of activities was always the message that the Christkindlmarkt on Vienna Rathausplatz offers contemplativeness and not kitsch.