For years, "Metro" has actively launched readership campaigns aimed at young inhabitants of large cities. We engage into interaction with our readers, promote ecological lifestyle and concentrate on interesting subjects for them in our editorial cycles.
METRO'S SCHOOL OF TRUST (2009)
In a week - long editorial cycle we discussed the importance of mutual trust and cooperation between people in every day life. We talked to famous people, published test on building relations with other people and lessons on trust prepared by professional trainers. We also announced a contest for school teachers for a lesson plan on trust. The contest will be finalized in Autumn 2009. Also, a special Internet site
SzkolaZaufaniametra.pl was launched.
E- VOTING (2009)
On the 20th anniversary of the first free elections in Poland, "Metro" together with Polish Youth Association (Stowarzyszenie Polska Młodych) invited its readers to participate in e-voting. The objective of the action was to name the most important challenges for Poland for the next 20 years.
Before e-voting an editorial discussion in "Metro" and Round Table with the representatives of media, scientists, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and employers took place. They chose five challenges for Poland, which were then subject of e-voting.
In the service e-glowania.org over 19.000 people registered. The challenge that received the largest amount of votes was the development of road, train, airport and energy network infrastructure in Poland.
BIKE FOR THE FESTIVAL (2008)
During the International Film Festival "Era New Horizons" (Era Nowe Horyzonty), "Metro", one of media patrons of the Festival, opened 3 rent-a-bike offices in the most attractive places of Wroclaw. 40 specially branded city bikes were available, free-of-charge to all festival ticket holders. "Metro's" bikes were rented over 1000 times. The aim of the action was to promote a bicycle as a comfortable and ecological means of transport.
VLEPKA - THE PROTEST FOR TIBET (2008)
We organized a protest against Chinese occupation of Tibet. The newspaper announced a contest for the project of vlepka (initiated by "Metro's" readers) illustrating the idea of the protest.
The action was met with the huge response from the readers - "Metro" received over half a thousand projects and the best of them created an exhibition in "Metro's" publisher building. The works were evaluated by the jury consisting of: Piotr Młodożeniec, graphic artist and painter, rewarded worldwide for his posters; Adam Koziel, expert on China and Tibet from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Helsińska Fundacja Praw Czlowieka) and Adam Ostolski, sociologist from the Warsaw University. "Metro's" editorial office was represented by Magadalena Mamajek-Mich, "Metro's" artistic director and Katarzyna Kesicka, editor responsible for vlepka project. The jury granted one main award and 12 other prizes. The awarded project was printed in 200.000 copies and added to a special edition of "Metro" with the summary of the whole action, interviews with the winners and the jury's opinions on the submitted projects.
I'M ECOPOSITIVE (2007)
The second unique opportunity for readers to write "Metro" was in summer 2007 due to the "Metro's" national ecological action "I'm Ecopositive". It aimed to educate and promote pro-ecological way of life and conduct, with a special reference to proper segregation of waste at a household level and during holiday on the beach or in the mountains. The action involved reader interaction. "Metro" invited readers to describe their own ecological activities on personal and community level. Authors of the most interesting initiatives were invited by the editorial team to make a special ecological paper "Ecopositive", which was published on August 23 and distributed with a regular national edition of "Metro".
The "I'm Ecopositive" action was accompanied by a number of additional activities. Among others, for one week "Metro" street distributors were collecting used-up batteries brought by the readers. As a result a few hundred kilos of the waste were handed to the organisation specialising in used battery recovery and recycling, the partner of the action. Moreover, "Metro" promoted the idea of replacing single use bags with multiple use bags - street distributors were giving out ecological recyclable bags with the current edition of the paper.
ZALEZY MI (I CARE) CAMPAIGN (2006)
The "I CARE" project used interactive trends to create a Reader generated content of "Metro". While it started off with the "I CARE" editorial spread full of celebrity testimonials, for the next three weeks each edition of "Metro" would burst of stories written by its Readers. "Metro" managed to boost citizen journalism and create the "I CARE" community of people wanting to share their charity and community experiences.
On May 16th 2006 "Metro" was totally crafted by ten Readers invited by "Metro" editorial team. They were carefully selected from those who'd responded to the "I CARE" campaign. None of them had ever written for a newspaper before. They had never done editing or page design either. During their visit to "Metro", first they received a one-day-training that enabled them to observe our regular staff at work and next they faced the challenge of making the whole issue of "Metro" by themselves. The "Metro's" amateur citizen journalists did almost everything - from gathering the news to assisting in designing the pages. They perfectly managed to build the whole issue of the largest free newspaper in Poland. The front page bore their photo with a headline full of pride "We did it!".
FUNDUSZE STRUKTURALNE (STRUCTURAL FUNDS) EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN (2006)
In April 2006, "Metro" implemented a community education campaign for its Readers. As part of the "Let's work together! Structural Funds are for you, too!" project, articles and educational materials appeared in the paper throughout the month. In three cycles, "Metro advises", "Metro teaches" and "Metro leads the way", we wrote about how to apply for and spend EU money, how to fill in the forms, how to understand the stiff official language, and how to choose your ground in order to receive European Union subsidies. There were also interviews with experts (incl. Danuta Hubner and Roza Thun) as well as with people whose lives had been changed thanks to EU funds. The project was completed by a special supplement to the national edition of "Metro" which was published on the second anniversary of Poland's accession to the European Union.
The project was co-financed by the European Union under the Technical Assistance Operational Programme, in which "Metro" was a winner.
"JUREK LUDZIK METRA" (JUREK - METRO'S LITTLE CHAP) CAMPAIGN (2005)
"Jurek - Metro's little chap" appeared in "Metro" in summer 2005 and was a holiday companion for the paper's Readers, giving them a wink and saying, "it's not as bad as it seems". He proved to be another example of the dialogue between "Metro" and its Readers. Jurek, the little chap, also made an appearance on billboards in the cities where "Metro" is published and ran through the streets, always with a copy of "Metro" in his hand. The comic character of Jurek was a reference to other popular newspaper comic heroes. He romped through the whole paper, poking fun and exasperating, doing interviews, making comments, answering Readers' questions, asking famous faces difficult questions, grieving with us, laughing, and joking.
METROCAPITAL OF POLAND PLEBISCITE (2005)
In June 2005, "Metro" organised a "Civic Pride Barometer in Polish Cities", where we looked for Poland's Metrocapital. Over four weeks, "Metro" published editorial material about each of the 19 cities where "Metro" is distributed. Famous and lesser known inhabitants of the cities competing for the Metrocapital of Poland title encouraged Readers to vote for their city. The rivalry between the cities was strong, especially because the Readers, through their votes, were fighting for free promotion of their city in the national edition of "Metro". The people of Kielce turned out to be the proudest of their city, and came first in our "Civic Pride Barometer" ranking.
BE A METRO STAR (2005)
In parallel with the voting for "Poland's Metrocapital", Readers also had the opportunity
to compete for a prize for themselves in the form of an interview with the competition winner and their photo on the front page of the national edition of "Metro". All that was needed was to come up with a clever slogan advertising one of the cities where "Metro" appears. The winner, the author of a slogan promoting Bydgoszcz "Nic mi nie zohydzi mojej pięknej Bydzi" ("Nothing can blacken my beautiful Bydgoszcz"), appeared on "Metro's" front page on June 24th.
HUG EXCHANGE POINT (2004)
Between May 17th and 21th 2004, "Metro” ran an event campaign and created the warmest spot in the capital. Each day, for two hours at the junction between Swietokrzyska and Nowy Świat streets, the "Metro" team ran a hug exchange point together with famous people including the Big Cyc group, Muniek Staszczyk, Hania Stach and Jerzy Kulej. The "Metro” team gave hugs to passers-by and urged them to pass it on. The course of events was described each day, both in "Metro" and on the Internet at
metro.gazeta.pl . The campaign was supported all week by the radio stations Radio Pogoda and TOK FM. The hug point also moved to a children's home on June 1st, where we were accompanied by the football players of Legia Warsaw.
