From the airline to the customer
In March 2012 Lufthansa changed the way it spoke to the world. The carrier retired "There's no better way to fly" and introduced "Nonstop you," a claim developed by the Hamburg agency Kolle Rebbe, which had won the brief in a pitch shortly before Christmas 2011.1, 2, 3 The launch came with a reworked visual language, a teaser campaign in the daily press handled by the media agency Mindshare, and, for the first time in several years, Lufthansa advertising in the commercial breaks of the major television networks.1, 2, 4
The grammar of the new line told the whole story. The old claim had been about the airline. The new one was about the passenger. Where "There's no better way to fly" asserted Lufthansa's superiority, "Nonstop you" promised undivided attention to the individual traveller, the sense that the entire operation existed to serve the person in the seat.5
Why the old claim had to go
The decision to replace the slogan came from the top of the marketing organisation. Hubert Frach, Lufthansa's Vice President Marketing, together with Benita Struve, who led brand management and advertising, had briefed the agencies with an explicit request for a new claim.1, 6 The reason was strategic. "There's no better way to fly" had come to feel too elitist, too much a message delivered from above, for the brand Lufthansa now wanted to be.1, 4
That brand was broader than the one the previous claim had addressed. Lufthansa had long been shaped around the male-dominated world of business travel, a carrier for the performance-minded rather than a means of getting to a holiday.1 The company wanted to change that. To become more profitable in a fiercely contested industry, Frach and his team set out to speak far more directly to private travellers as well as to their core of business flyers.1, 6
According to Andreas Winter-Buerke, managing director of consulting at Kolle Rebbe and the lead on the new account, the aim was to show Lufthansa not as a premium carrier for the performance-oriented, but as the quality airline for everyone.1, 4
A quality airline for all
"Nonstop you" was built to carry that wider invitation. Families, retirees and young couples were now part of the audience, alongside the frequent business traveller who had always been at the centre of the brand.1 The claim positioned Lufthansa as approachable, an airline you could almost reach out and touch, without abandoning the promise of quality that the crane had always signalled.1 The customer, not the company, was the subject of the sentence.
The supporting work reinforced the shift. A modified image language softened the brand's tone, and the move into mainstream television advertising signalled that Lufthansa wanted to be seen by, and to speak to, a general public rather than a narrow segment. The teaser phase in the daily newspapers introduced the new claim before the full campaign arrived, giving the change a deliberate, staged rollout.2
The wording itself did double duty. In aviation, a nonstop flight is the most direct connection between two points, the premium option that needs no change of plane. "Nonstop you" borrowed that vocabulary and turned it inward, suggesting not only the convenience of a direct route but an uninterrupted focus on the passenger. The phrase let Lufthansa keep a hint of its premium heritage while recasting it as a service to the individual.
Pressure from every side
The repositioning was a response to real competitive pressure. On short and medium-haul routes, low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet, along with Lufthansa's own subsidiary Germanwings, had been gaining ground and resetting customer expectations about price.1, 4, 7 On long-haul routes, the Gulf carriers Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad were growing stronger year by year, competing hard on product and service.1 Lufthansa was being squeezed at both ends of its network.
Frach was careful not to frame the situation as a crisis. Asked about the competition, he insisted that no one at Lufthansa was afraid, that the airline faced large challenges but rested on a strong, compelling brand that stood for very good quality.1 The task, as he described it, was to communicate that positioning convincingly to passengers and potential customers.1 "Nonstop you" was the instrument chosen for that job.
The claim marked a turning point in how Lufthansa talked about itself. It moved the brand from assertion to attention, from a statement of rank to a promise of focus on the traveller. The line would later give way to "Say yes to the world," but the underlying direction it set, away from the airline and toward the person flying, would shape Lufthansa's communication for years to come.5
Source: Jeuxtesblier Youtube
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. W&V, "'Nonstop you': Wie der Kolle-Rebbe-Claim die Marke Lufthansa neu ausrichten soll", 2012, the article the verse was written from and listed in its sources as the primary account of the launch, for Kolle Rebbe having won the pitch shortly before Christmas 2011, the reworked visual language, the teaser phase in the daily press and the move into television; for Hubert Frach as Lufthansa's Vice President Marketing and Benita Struve as head of brand management and advertising briefing the agencies for a new claim; for "There's no better way to fly" having come to feel too elitist; for the brand's roots in the male-dominated world of business travel and the push towards private travellers to become more profitable; for Andreas Winter-Buerke as the lead on the account and his account of the aim, Lufthansa shown not as a premium carrier for the performance-oriented but as the quality airline for everyone; for families, retirees and young couples as the wider audience and the airline presented as approachable, almost within reach, while keeping its promise of quality; for the pressure from Ryanair, easyJet and Germanwings on short and medium-haul routes and from Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad on long-haul routes; and for Frach's statement that no one at Lufthansa was afraid, that the airline faced large challenges but rested on a strong brand standing for very good quality, and that the task was to communicate this positioning convincingly to passengers and potential customers. The article returned HTTP 410 and no archived copy could be retrieved, so its wording, date and byline could not be checked during the retrofit; the Christmas timing, Frach's title of Vice President, the elitism, the male-dominated business travel, the audience groups, the competitor names other than Germanwings and Frach's statement on the competition rest on this article alone; page not reachable on 1 October 2026. https://www.wuv.de/Archiv/%22Nonstop-you%22-Wie-der-Kolle-Rebbe-Claim-die-Marke-Lufthansa-neu-ausrichten-soll
2. HORIZONT, Elke Jacob, "Neuer Claim für Lufthansa: Kolle Rebbe lässt den Kranich fliegen", 1 March 2012, for "Nonstop you" as Lufthansa's new claim with the campaign starting in March 2012; for Kolle Rebbe, the independent Hamburg agency, having won the pitch for the airline's worldwide account at the end of 2011 ("konnte sich Ende vergangenen Jahres in dem Pitch um das weltweite Mandat der Fluglinie") against the long-standing incumbent McCann Erickson and, in the final, Scholz & Friends; for the concise headlines and the new "gelben Bubbles" of the brand appearance; for the ads in national daily newspapers ("Parallel werden Anzeigen in überregionalen Tageszeitungen geschaltet") with the posters shown first at the ITB in Berlin and the television spots following from mid-March, the staged rollout; for the Frankfurt media agency Mindshare ("Für die Planung und den Einkauf der klassischen Werbeplätze ist die Frankfurter Mediaagentur Mindshare verantwortlich"); and for television returning to the media mix after years without it ("Nach Jahren der Abstinenz vollzieht Lufthansa damit einen deutlichen Budgetshift im Mediamix zugunsten der TV-Werbung"), which settles the correction made in the body. A German advertising trade publication, off whitelist and used for corroboration only. Added during the footnote retrofit. https://www.horizont.net/agenturen/nachrichten/-Neuer-Claim-fuer-Lufthansa-Kolle-Rebbe-laesst-den-Kranich-fliegen-106069
3. Wikipedia (German), "Kolle Rebbe", listed in the verse's sources, for Kolle Rebbe as an advertising agency based in Hamburg, which footnote 2 confirms independently; page not reachable on 1 October 2026, the fetch being refused for this domain rather than the article being withdrawn. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolle_Rebbe
4. ONEtoONE, "Kolle Rebbe positioniert Lufthansa neu", 27 March 2012, for the motifs set close to people, with short headlines and yellow bubbles; for the launch with ads in national daily newspapers at the beginning of March ("Den Auftakt der ersten Arbeit von Kolle Rebbe bildeten Anfang März Anzeigen in überregionalen Tageszeitungen."); for television returning to Lufthansa's media mix after an interval ("Nach einer zwischenzeitlichen Auszeit ist auch TV-Werbung wieder im Media-mix von Lufthansa zu finden."); for the previous campaign claim "There's no better way to fly" having shut out private travellers ("schloss Privatreisende aus"); for Andreas Winter-Buerke as Geschäftsführer Beratung, managing director of consulting, at Kolle Rebbe, and for the statement the blockquote renders in indirect speech, in the original German: "Die Fluglinie ist jetzt Qualitäts-Airline für alle."; and for Germanwings as Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary ("Billigtochter Germanwings"). Published under the ONEtoONE editorial byline. A German marketing trade publication, off whitelist and used for corroboration only. Added during the footnote retrofit. https://onetoone.de/de/artikel/kolle-rebbe-positioniert-lufthansa-neu
5. Lufthansa, "Campaigns", the centenary page on a hundred years of Lufthansa advertising, undated, retrieved 1 October 2026, for "There's no better way to fly" as "the clear claim of the 2000s", for "Nonstop you" as the claim with which advertising "focuses more and more on humans and the traveler as an individual", and for "Say yes to the world" as the global campaign that followed it, with which Lufthansa, "from 2018 onwards", puts an open "yes" to the world and to new perspectives at the heart of its communication. Official brand page. Added during the footnote retrofit. https://www.lufthansa.com/de/en/100-years/campaigns
6. medienmilch, "Kolle Rebbe startet neue Kampagne für Lufthansa", 3 March 2012, for the first Kolle Rebbe campaign for Lufthansa starting on 5 March 2012; for Hubert Frach as "Leiter Marketing bei der Lufthansa" and Benita Struve with "Leitung Markenmanagement und Werbung"; and for the aim of addressing private travellers alongside the business segment, in Frach's original German: "Der frische Auftritt soll im Zusammenspiel mit dem neuen Claim ‚Nonstop you' nicht nur die führende Rolle der Lufthansa im Geschäftsreisesegment festigen, sondern deutlicher als bisher auch die Privatreisenden ansprechen". The page carries no byline. A German marketing news site, off whitelist and used for corroboration only. Added during the footnote retrofit. https://www.medienmilch.de/gereifter-kaese/archivuebersicht/artikel/details/102774kolle-rebbe-startet-neue-kampagne-fuer-lufthansa
7. Wikipedia, "Lufthansa", retrieved 1 October 2026, for Germanwings as Lufthansa's own low-cost carrier ("the company's re-branded low-cost carrier Germanwings"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa
