Situation
The partners in the Amsterdam office of one of the world's leading management consulting firms wanted to contribute to solving the country's societal issues by organising a solution-oriented national dialogue with fifty thousand Dutch citizens. To facilitate this, the firm broke down the big themes in Dutch society into smaller issues and showed different ways to solve them. People could then choose their favourite solutions.
Problem
The firm's partners strongly believed in the added value of a large-scale, solution-oriented national survey. But how to get 50,000 people to fill in a lengthy, demanding, unknown questionnaire for free and without advertising?
Solutions
Together with the firm's partners, we organised support from media companies to offer free advertising space. In the communication, we contrasted the time it takes to complete the survey with the total time per year one spends on more trivial things (e.g. yawning, sneezing, waving goodbye). Suddenly, people realised that participating in the survey was a relatively small investment in the nation's future.
Impact
More than 150,000 people participated in the survey. The results were extensively covered in the media. The partners received numerous requests from ministries, the Council of Ministers and major political parties to explain the results and helped current decision-makers and the major political parties craft their election campaigns.
