`Brigitte` himself

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Basic information
Hamburg, February 2012
Topic: Facebook Model Contest
‘Brigitte’ himself – OTTO’s social-media sensation
He clinched first place in a feather boa and wig. Everyone was surprised when a man
dressed as a woman – student Sascha Mörs, alias ‘Brigitte’ – won our Facebook Model
Contest in November 2010, triggering a huge media response. But instead of backing
down for reputation reasons, OTTO took the community’s vote seriously and, besides
gaining tens of thousands of Facebook fans, it also scooped gold at the renowned
Econ Award finals for its PR marketing of the result.
When the OTTO Facebook Team launched the model contest on its Facebook page on
November 15, 2010, nobody had any idea of the scale the competition would achieve. The
intention was to conduct a two-week campaign whereby people would vote for the ‘new face’
of the company’s own Facebook page. Every Facebook member was free to take part and
vote for their favourite, simply by clicking the Like button. The winning prize was a photoshoot, a voucher for 400 Euros and the chance to become The Face of the OTTO page on
Facebook.
Uproar on the Web
Almost 50,000 people took part in the social-media competition and uploaded pictures of
themselves. Within ten days, 1.2 million Facebook users had clicked the Like button to
register their favourites. Against all expectations, the majority of Facebook viewers, with a
total of 23,000 votes, were impressed by a young man in a blonde wig, heavily made-up lips
and a red feather boa. ‘Brigitte’, a 22-year-old male economics student from Koblenz dressed
in women’s clothing, won the competition and triggered widespread discussion among the
entrants as well as beyond the social network itself.
“Humour is when you laugh anyway”, commented Thomas Voigt, Vice President Corporate
Communications Otto Group, on the result back then, and was pleased with the phenomenal
response to the competition. The competition’s resonance had spread like wildfire, with the
OTTO fan community on Facebook growing by some 10,000 fans a day. At the end, the initial
figure of 25,000 had shot up to 163,000. The incredible popularity caused the OTTO servers
to collapse under the tremendous number of visitors and the model content, which was
originally scheduled to run from November 15 to 29, had to be ended early on November 22.
Otto (GmbH & Co KG) · Unternehmenskommunikation · Wandsbeker Straße 3–7 · 22172 Hamburg
Telefon +49 (0) 40 64 61 4010 · Fax +49 (0) 40 64 61 4490
www.otto.de · www.otto.com · www.ottogroup.com
AG Hamburg, HR A 62 024, Persönlich haftend: Verwaltungsgesellschaft Otto mbH, Hamburg, AG Hamburg, HR B 13 762
vertr. durch: Hans-Otto Schrader (Vorsitzender) · Dr. Rainer Hillebrand (Stellvertretender Vorsitzender) · Alexander Birken ·
Dr. Michael Heller · Dr. Timm Homann · Hanjo Schneider · Jürgen Schulte-Laggenbeck · Dr. Winfried Zimmermann
Aufsichtsrat: Dr. Michael Otto (Vorsitzender)
2
“Our systems here are being brought to their knees time and again. We ordered an additional
server yesterday, but that’s also already running at full capacity”, posted the OTTO Facebook
Team during the competition.
A sensation in a dress
What started as a joke by the Koblenz student became a social-media sensation whose
resonance also spread to traditional media. This is why OTTO invited countless media
representatives along to Sascha’s photo-shoot on December 8, 2010: at the OTTO photo
studios they got to see first-hand how the economics student transformed himself into socialmedia star ‘Brigitte’ for the photo-shoot to become OTTO’s Facebook ‘Face’.
The Brigitte case clearly illustrates how quickly companies’ social-media activities can take
on a whole life of their own – something over which the initiators ultimately have hardly any
influence. That said, the rules of OTTO’s model contest were clear: social-media
considerations were the focus and it was up to the community alone to choose the ‘Face’ of
the Facebook page. “It was extremely important to us to take users’ votes seriously”, explains
Voigt on OTTO’s clear backing of the surprise winner.
And there was applause not only for the outcome of the competition: as Web dialogue is a
two-way street in the social-media age, there were also some begrudging comments on
OTTO’s Facebook page. “Contrary to what most Facebook fans had expected, we decided
not to back down for image reasons despite the outcome of the competition – the result of
which also took us by surprise”, explains Voigt. OTTO followed its own competition rules,
stood by its word and made Brigitte the company’s Facebook ‘Face’.
Award-winning confidence
Confidently handling a situation where seemingly negative news is turned into a PR successstory has long been a best-practice showcase of how to engage with the social-media
community. In 2011 OTTO proved this point in scooping gold with ‘Brigitte’ at the renowned
Econ Award finals for outstanding and innovative work in corporate communications – a prize
awarded annually by publishers Econ-Verlag and the ‘Handelsblatt’ daily newspaper.
“Taking users’ votes seriously was one side of the success story, but writing and
implementing a PR campaign very deliberately and with a good touch of humour was the
other side”, commented Thomas Voigt, Vice President Corporate Communications Otto
Group, on the campaign at the time.
Well-grounded
Protagonist Sascha was pleased at winning, but took the media hype about him and his alter
ego all in his stride. After winning he said: “I’m blown away by all the votes and the immense
popularity! I’m amazed at how relaxed OTTO are and how humorously they are dealing with
the fact that I won with a rather unusual photo and theme.” Along with the experience of
being in the social-media spotlight, following his win, OTTO offered the Koblenz student the
Otto (GmbH & Co KG) · Unternehmenskommunikation · Wandsbeker Straße 3–7 · 22172 Hamburg
Telefon +49 (0) 40 64 61 4010 · Fax +49 (0) 40 64 61 4490
www.otto.de · www.otto.com · www.ottogroup.com
AG Hamburg, HR A 62 024, Persönlich haftend: Verwaltungsgesellschaft Otto mbH, Hamburg, AG Hamburg, HR B 13 762
vertr. durch: Hans-Otto Schrader (Vorsitzender) · Dr. Rainer Hillebrand (Stellvertretender Vorsitzender) · Alexander Birken ·
Dr. Michael Heller · Dr. Timm Homann · Hanjo Schneider · Jürgen Schulte-Laggenbeck · Dr. Winfried Zimmermann
Aufsichtsrat: Dr. Michael Otto (Vorsitzender)
3
opportunity to experience the PR work of the company first-hand as an intern in the
Corporate Communications and New Media Area.
For further information on the topic of social media at OTTO visit www.otto.com.
Press Contact:
Ulrike Abratis, Tel.: +49 (40) 64 61-8630, Fax: -4490, E-mail: [email protected]
Otto (GmbH & Co KG) · Unternehmenskommunikation · Wandsbeker Straße 3–7 · 22172 Hamburg
Telefon +49 (0) 40 64 61 4010 · Fax +49 (0) 40 64 61 4490
www.otto.de · www.otto.com · www.ottogroup.com
AG Hamburg, HR A 62 024, Persönlich haftend: Verwaltungsgesellschaft Otto mbH, Hamburg, AG Hamburg, HR B 13 762
vertr. durch: Hans-Otto Schrader (Vorsitzender) · Dr. Rainer Hillebrand (Stellvertretender Vorsitzender) · Alexander Birken ·
Dr. Michael Heller · Dr. Timm Homann · Hanjo Schneider · Jürgen Schulte-Laggenbeck · Dr. Winfried Zimmermann
Aufsichtsrat: Dr. Michael Otto (Vorsitzender)