#GetTheMayor – A Future Platform for Citizen Engagement
Razorfish recently announced the results of their #GetTheMayor platform; a world-first creative digital platform for the German city of Heidelberg, which allowed citizens to influence genuine city decisions through a bespoke social media and mapping platform at Getthemayor.com. It was launched back in January by the Australian-based Razorfish executive creative director Christian Behrendt, as a collaborative project for his Berlin-School’s Executive MBA in Creative Leadership program, which is sponsored by Razorfish, who also organised a launch campaign that used PR, digital, social media, events, local print and OOH installations across city. The platform uses simple social media mechanics and mapping technology to give Heidelberg's citizens the ability to influence mayoral decisions. For the first test of the platform, visitors to the platform were able to vote on the Mayor of Heidelberg’s weekly schedule, and get him to visit a place of their choice in order to discuss the civic issues they felt most passionate about.
Razorfish recently announced the results of their #GetTheMayor platform, which was launched back in January by Australian-based ECD Christian Behrendt
This is a bold and creative way to get people (especially young people) involved in local politics and it appears to have been embraced wholeheartedly by the people of Heidelberg, with almost 10% of the population visiting the site within just the first four weeks of launch. Thousands of votes and social media posts have been generated, all of which were shared with the #GetTheMayor and #HolDenOberbuergermeister hashtags. Whilst the platform was initially only meant to be tested on the city, its runaway success means that the town was committed to keeping the platform for the future. Not only that, but three other major cities have already shown interest in adapting the system for their citizens.
Mayor Dr. Eckart Würzner has already made visits to numerous start-ups, cultural institutions, social hot-spots and communal living projects, each of which have been the most-voted for locations over the past few weeks. The Mayor engaged with the citizens who voted for these locations and issues and explored different ways that the city could help. The #GetTheMayor platform was deployed across desktop, mobile and tablet, offering enthusiastic people a variety of simple and immediate way to get involved and, giving passive citizens the incentives to turn themselves into active members of the community.
#GetTheMayor allowed citizens of Heidelberg in Germany to influence genuine city decisions through a bespoke social media and mapping platform
Behrendt couldn't be happier with how his creation has turned out. He said “This is an exciting new way for the community to help shape their own city’s future,” and that he feels it worked so well because of its simplicity. “It’s as simple as nominating a location, voting on an existing suggestion and then getting the Mayor to visit and focus on a particular issue or project,” he said. Behrendt hopes the platform will be a “Game-changer for government and citizen interaction, giving people a truly democratic way of creating change in their cities and most importantly, (as over 50% of all users were between 18-34), engaging a millennial audience who feel disconnected from the traditional platforms cities usually offer.”
Mayor Würzner agrees, stating that there is no other city where “The citizens can exercise influence on the diary of a Mayor.” His favourite aspect of the platform, is that it allows him and his citizens to share “Share their issues, ideas and passion projects with and get the full attention of the city governance,” allowing the people to “Actively participate in the development of their city.” He adds that he's already met “Many inspirational people because of the platform and learnt about their projects,” indeed, he already has many action-points to follow up to find ways he, and the different city departments, can help. The doctor is “Delighted to see so many people engage with their city and local community,” and looks forward to “Many more interesting conversations.”
