Study Association KIC

• Dec 20, 2018, 10:00:00 AM

KIC lecture: Olaf Haazer

The 6th of December 2018, was D-Day for the chairman of Studio KIC, Olaf Haazer. Olaf was going to give the second KIC-lecture talking about his experience as part of the campaign team of the local party Student & Stad. At half past ten in the morning, a crowd compiled of KIC-members and other interested people came waltzing into the college to be educated on how to build a campaign. The unexpectedly high attendance made for a little delay regarding the start of the lecture, but fifteen minutes later than planned, the lecture could start.

Olaf Haazer was an active member of the campaign team of Student & Stad during the campaign period, he is a second-year Visual Design student and besides his role at Student & Stad he is active at Spot Groningen. Within KIC Olaf is the chairman of the committee studio KIC that pulls all the strings regarding audiovisual content.

Olaf started his lecture with a little introduction of Student & Stad, this is a local political party that is run by students. The party was founded in 1993 and they are currently representing a single seat in the local parliament. Student & Stad works closely with the University of Groningen and Hanze University of Applied Sciences. The party’s leader is Marten Duit. Student & Stad hoped to reach their goal of three seats with this campaign. Besides that, they wanted to be a part of the coalition to be able to fight for more focus on international students and their situation in Groningen.

The second part of the lecture was about the actual design of the campaign. The campaign team went with a design revolving around the colors yellow, black and white. Olaf also talked about the logo, slogan and both offline and physical content. To see these designs in their full glory, visit the social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram of Student & Stad.

Finally, Olaf told the crowd something about the physical campaigning in the streets and the way this went down. Student & Stad chose to implement guerrilla strategies, for example blocking the controversial crossroad on the Eikenlaan to let cyclists cross the road safely. Besides this, the campaign mainly consisted of handing out loads of promotional material like flyers, stickers and bananas. Yes, bananas, because they are yellow.

Olaf closed the lecture giving the final results of the campaign, talking about the disappointing turnout of only 44% and the disappointing result for Student & Stad. Despite the monstrously good campaign, the result was not what Student & Stad had hoped for. However, this does not mean they will give up on things altogether, they will still try their very best to make the lives of students in Groningen more enjoyable. All in all, the lecture was an informative success end a clear look behind the scenes of a professional campaign team.

Thanks Olaf!

David Oost – Editorial Committee