Brainport Eindhoven

Using language to strengthen social cohesion

The Brainport region is growing rapidly and is more international than ever. With that success comes a challenge: how do you ensure that both long-standing residents and internationals truly feel at home and connected in the same region?

For Brainport Eindhoven and the partners of the PSV partnership (ASML, VDL, Philips, Rabobank, Swinkels, CSU, Jumbo), social cohesion is essential. The region can only continue to function and grow if people feel connected. To each other and to the place where they live and work.

The behavioural question

What needed to change?

People should not simply live alongside one another, but feel part of one shared region. Internationals should feel welcome to participate, while existing residents continue to feel: this is still our region too.

Our approach

We developed the overarching concept The Language of Our Home. Based on the insight that language plays a crucial role in the feeling of belonging. When you speak even a little of the local language — or make the effort to try — you feel welcome more quickly. And when you see others making an effort to speak your language, you feel recognised.

Within this umbrella concept, the activation From hello to houdoe was created: a warm invitation to internationals not only to speak English, but also to take a step towards Dutch — and even the Brabants dialect (Houdoe is a way of saying goodbye in Brabant). Not as an obligation, but as a gesture of connection. PSV played a key role as the sender of the campaign and as a powerful unifying symbol in the Brainport region. This made the message accessible, recognisable, and shared.

The campaign was initiated by the partners behind the PSV–Brainport partnership, for whom it is crucial that everyone can feel at home in the region. Creative realisation was handled by Blickfänger and Golazo, who brought the concept to life through activations and campaign assets, including the film below.

What this set in motion

Language is not a dividing line, but an invitation. The campaign The Language of Our Home presents a positive and unifying narrative in which both long-standing residents and internationals can recognise themselves.

With PSV as the sender and the joint commitment of the Brainport partners, a sense of shared ownership over the region emerges.