"Because we love you." With this self-deprecating and cheeky brand campaign, the Berlin transport authority (BVG) has achieved the nearly impossible in recent years: they are likely the only German public transport operator that possesses a certain coolness. Nearly one billion passengers board the BVG year after year, and around 16,000 employees keep this giant operation moving.
Now, however, Germany's largest public transport company faces a fundamental transformation: the brand must become more diverse, professional, and at the same time more serious in order to reshape the capital in the coming decades and attract sufficient staff. Not everyone at the BVG is happy about this. Together with Maja Weihgold, the company's head of communications, we review the stages of their brand restructuring: how does one become a "love brand," and above all, how does one remain one? What happens when reality is not quite as cool as the brand suggests? And how does one sustainably transform a city that has an avowed car enthusiast as its mayor?