Goodbye Britain. Welcome, Brits: Summing up our viral Brexit campaign

On January 30th, 2020 at 6 AM, one day prior to Brexit, it was on us to take over more than 100 billboards and city lights in the centre of the financial district in London, in the vicinity of the European Parliament in Brussels and major sites in Glasgow. We went live with a bold and thought-provoking campaign saying: “Millions of people can’t be wrong. Unless they’re British”.

For us, the European Union is all about free trade, free movement, and collaboration. It’s about empowering everyone in the Union to make the most of their ideas and talents. And it’s the most successful peace project in human history, uniting a continent that has a long history of bloody conflicts between neighbouring countries.

We at Bitpanda strongly share the values of the EU. Of course, the EU is not perfect. Bureaucracy can be frustrating sometimes, but we believe that in order to face today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, we need answers on a much bigger scale than just nationally.

No hard borders between you and your finances

There is so much noise going around the entire political sphere. Especially in the run-up to Brexit day, it seemed such a waste not to poke the bear a bit in a bold and gentle way. Because you can be quite relevant and still be… boring. So we decided to be bold and take a stance. And that’s exactly what we did with the first international Bitpanda billboard campaign.

More than 75% of young people between 18 to 24 years voted to remain in the EU. While we accept the official poll turn-out and the majority’s decision to leave the EU, we believe that leaving a project like the EU is a mistake because no self-promoting politician should be a reason for anyone to suffer. When it comes to financials in particular, we all need education and rational thinking to be prepared for the future.

Boldness on Brexit

The campaign was not only aimed at drawing attention to the mistake of Brexit but also raising awareness that Bitpanda provides a solution across borders. With this campaign, Bitpanda makes a statement about this political decision and the economic uncertainty that comes with it. Our aim is to provide financial freedom to everyone on this planet no matter the country, political decisions or the budget. And of course, we want to provoke so people might think again about the impact their vote has on their lives and finances.

The billboards were accompanied by an adapted landing page saying “Goodbye Britain. Welcome, Brits. No hard borders between you and your finances” aiming to give a little context and to highlight that British Bitpanda users get the same high-quality service they are used to on our platform.

“Who the f*** do you think you are?”

Thought-provoking and controversial: When the Bitpanda campaign was unveiled, the social media blow up that would soon follow was huge. Giving people the ability to share pictures from the billboards, with an instant click on social media, caused a frenzy that spread quicker than word of mouth. We even saw some companies tried to do a copy/paste mock-up of our work, which we took as a compliment.

There should not be twenty or more different rules within Europe. That is not only a killer of innovation, but it would also be a driver for regulatory arbitrage. Nobody wants this and in fact, we have to work together to compete with the US and Asia, as we have already fallen behind. When you see the statistics where the biggest startups are based and where the most valuable companies are located, I am sure you will get my point.

We believe freedom drives change and we want to empower everyone to be in charge of their own future. Solutions should not be found individually but synchronised. Technological adoption has to be done together. Unity and cooperation are the drivers of the future success of this continent.

Eric Demuth
co-CEO and founder