The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2021–2022
Germany's #TogetherAgainstCorona gets 1,000+ brands to turn logos into vaccination calls
Berlin agency antoni got 1,000+ brands to turn their logos and slogans into vaccination calls — almost 1 billion gross reach, zero media spend.
All #TogetherAgainstCorona · antoni Holding GmbH
What it had to solve
In December 2021 Germany's vaccination drive still had to reach the hesitant, and one government-style campaign would never cover every audience. Berlin agency antoni came up with #ZusammenGegenCorona (#TogetherAgainstCorona): get brands — including direct competitors — to carry the vaccination call themselves.
How it works
In late 2021 Germany was still trying to move vaccine-hesitant adults, and the standard answer — a government campaign buying airtime — could only reach audiences one channel at a time. Berlin agency antoni instead asked a different question: who already has the attention of every audience in the country?
The answer was brands. Under the hashtag #ZusammenGegenCorona (#TogetherAgainstCorona), which the federal government was already using, antoni invited companies to change their logos with an integrated call to action to get vaccinated and to post the result on their own channels.
Brands twisted their famous slogans into vaccination pleas, so a logo that normally sells a product spent a moment selling a jab instead. The campaign launched with more than 150 companies on its first day, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Edeka, Lidl and both Burger King and McDonald's, with Bild as media partner.
Over 1,000 brands eventually took part — even direct competitors appeared side by side — for a gross reach of almost 1 billion people with zero media spend. D&AD kept the work in its awards archive.
Why it lands
- Brands donated what money can't easily buy: trust and attention already earned with their own audiences.
- Competitors joining the same appeal turned corporate rivalry into proof that vaccination was beyond competition.
- Changing a logo makes the message impossible to miss, because people notice when a familiar mark breaks its own rules.
- No media budget meant the campaign could not be accused of spending public money, only of borrowing brand equity.
What it did
More than 1,000 brands took part — competitors joined forces too — and the campaign reached a gross audience of almost 1 billion people with zero media spend.
What you can take
The logo a brand has spent decades building is its most valuable media; persuade a thousand owners to lend that media to one message and competition itself becomes free reach.
Since then
The hashtag launched with more than 150 companies on 6 December 2021 and kept growing to over 1,000 brands. The work later appeared in The One Show's 2022 winners archive and in D&AD's awards archive as an example of coalition-led public-health creativity.
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