The brief was to attract young talent from around Europe to Hamburg (they have a massive Berlin complex). We wanted to create something that genuinely would make people move there, not just a change in attitude or increased awareness of the city's offering.
Berlin is only a few hours away and because of its cheap cost of living young talent will always prefer it to Hamburg as it is easier to satisfy your basic needs there. If you have food and roof over your head, you have the energy to express yourself.
So if our challenge was mainly a financial problem, not an advertising problem, we wanted to solve it with a financial solution. We created a new currency, the Creative Dollar. Hamburg would buy young people’s work of creativity, their various forms of cultural expressions such as art, plays, design and concerts with the Creative Dollar and people could then use it to pay for their basic needs. Sell a painting or a concert to Hamburg and pay your rent, utility bills or for local transport. It's liberal social well-fare system that would mean that Hamburg would end up owning a fantastic cultural treasure, that they in turn can turn into a revenue stream.
The freedom to create and not having to spend the days job hunting for low paid jobs would genuinely drive creative talent from all over Europe to Hamburg. Hamburg would build a bank of cultural expression that would inspire the city, attract tourists and encourage a new creative class to grow up in Hamburg, making it the most vibrant and creative city in the world.
And imagine if others would start trading with the currency, brands have been trying to reach this target audience since the dawn of capitalism, what if all they had to do was to accept their currency?
11. The Hamburg Creative Dollar
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Hamburg Art Shop We have new artwork in our eBay store!
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Hamburg Art Shop We have new artwork in our eBay store!
