Creative ideas, team spirit, optimism for the future: more than 250 predominantly young participants from politics, civil society, academia, the media and business came together at the end of this year as part of the second phase of the Zuversicht (Confidence) project to explore the following questions: How can we strengthen political participation and trust in institutions? How can journalism make people feel more self-effective again? And how can businesses promote social participation and confidence? The participants were supported by experienced coaches and experts. After three so-called ideathons full of energy, pitches, rejected and realised ideas, and intensive work phases, the finalists have been selected.

The ‘Project Zuversicht’ was launched at the beginning of last year by the market research company rheingold salon, the news literacy initiative #UseTheNews and the non-profit association Initiative 18 e.V. At the heart of the project is a comprehensive study* published in May last year. This study provided important insights into the reasons why so much trust and confidence has been lost among large sections of the population (project phase 1). Three ideathons, in which participants worked in a two-day barcamp format to develop new approaches for the fields of action ‘politics & parties’, ‘journalism & media’ and ‘brands & companies’, built on the study.

The winning teams will take part in a so-called Megathon at the rheingold salon in Cologne on 23 and 24 April 2026, where the best ideas will be further developed into projects ready for implementation (project phase 2). Both project phases were made possible by numerous renowned partners.

The finalists in detail:

Ideathon ‘Politics & Parties’

1st place Reversed Politics: The stage belongs to young people, the politicians listen: Reversed Politics turns the classic panel discussion on its head. In this project, school pupils use surveys and project days to develop concrete ideas for improving their everyday lives in their districts. Together with politicians, they then analyse how these local projects can actually be implemented.

2nd place Social Map: Who actually knows their neighbours anymore? Social Map asks the question of neighbourhood cohesion and provides the answer right away. The platform breaks down filter bubbles, makes community life in the immediate environment tangible and gives citizens the opportunity to document deficiencies in their living environment and report them directly to the administration.

3rd place How EU is your city?: Europe is far away in Brussels? Not at all! ‘How EU is your city?’ brings the European Union right to your doorstep. With creative campaigns and poster campaigns, the project shows the concrete positive effects of the EU in everyday life: from subsidised cultural cafés to modernised school canteens.

Ideathon ‘Journalism & Media’

1st place Media Buddies: A matching format that connects citizens and journalists – for joint research, more perspectives and genuine dialogue.

2nd place Überbrücke!: An intergenerational video format that aims to portray the lives of older and younger people in a whole new way.

3rd place Check Doo: A playful app based on the motto ‘Tinder meets Duolingo’ that empowers young people to recognise AI images and fake news.

Ideathon ‘Brands & Companies’:

1st place Zuvertising: The word creation combines ‘confidence’ and the English word for advertising – ‘advertising’. The idea: retailers are persuaded to make five per cent of the advertising space in their stores available for confidence-building and community content.

2nd place Society Connect: Trainees at a real estate company are developing a virtual and physical platform that brings the residents of 160,000 flats out of anonymity and connects them with each other, creating a sense of community and confidence.

3rd place VerantwORTung is the name of the concept for a platform that connects people in such a way that they can come together in specific locations for a wide variety of projects and make a difference together.

Application phase for creative competition began on 1 January

The programme is accompanied by a creative competition. The industry association GWA and the media company Weischer are jointly calling on young creatives to design an accompanying campaign for the ‘Project Confidence’. They are looking for campaign ideas that will rekindle young target groups' enthusiasm for reliable news. More information here: https://projektzuversicht.weischer.net

What the project initiators say:

Jens Lönneker, Founder & CEO, rheingold salon: “All three Ideathons showed how much energy and positive spirit emerge when young talents are given space to jointly develop concrete solutions in service of society. Young people are looking for tangible solutions in their immediate environment—local self-efficacy is the ultimate success factor against the crisis of trust in our country.”

Meinolf Ellers, Managing Director, UseTheNews: “In preparing for the Ideathons, we saw how strong the desire is for social change and new forms of solution-oriented collaboration. Initiatives are emerging everywhere; many people have ideas and want to get involved. The key will be connecting all these actors to create real momentum. The goal of the Megathon is to further develop the winning Ideathon concepts into well-thought-out, implementable projects.”

Manfred Kluge, Chairman of Omnicom Media Group and co-founder of Initiative18: “A big thank-you to all partners who supported us across many dimensions in the study and Ideathons. This makes me optimistic that, after consolidation and further development at the upcoming Megathon, we can implement these great ideas with the help of business, politics, and municipalities. Our country urgently needs more confidence.”

• Further results of the study: https://www.rheingold-salon.de/de/news-publikationen/582

** Partners: Project Zuversicht is supported by numerous well-known partners. The following companies, associations, and initiatives contributed to individual Ideathons and/or will also participate in the upcoming Megathon: Avant Beiden, AVE Institut, congstar, Correctiv, DIE ZEIT, Die Mediaagenturen, Funke Medien Gruppe, Gemeinnützige Hertie-Stiftung, Gerolsteiner Brunnen, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Initiative D21 e.V., Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, NRWision, Politagents Consulting, Prognos, ProSiebenSat.1, RMS, RTL Deutschland & RTL Journalistenschule, TIDE – Hamburg’s citizen broadcaster and training channel, TU Dortmund, twkpm – Society for Crossmedia Communication, VOCER, Weischer Media, Westermann Group, and the Westphalian-Lippe Farmers’ Association e.V.

The study itself was also supported by a broad base of prominent partners without whom the project would not have been possible: associations (GWA, Die Media-Agenturen, OWM, Westphalian-Lippe Farmers’ Association), advertisers (Dr. Oetker, REWE), and media companies & marketers (ARD MEDIA, Funke Medien Gruppe, Hubert Burda Media, Prisma Verlag, ProSiebenSat.1 Media, RMS Radio Marketing Service, RTL Deutschland, and Weischer Media).