Winners & Shortlists

FRONT LETTERS

Short List
TitleFRONT LETTERS
BrandN-TV NACHRICHTENFERNSEHEN
Product/ServiceTV DOCUMENTARY "WORLD WAR I"
Category C06. PUBLICATIONS & MEDIA
Entrant Company SERVICEPLAN Munich, GERMANY
Advertising Agency SERVICEPLAN Munich, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Alexander Schill Serviceplan Chief Creative Officer
Cosimo Moeller Serviceplan Executive Creative Director
Claudio Keleminic Serviceplan Copywriter
Valerie Koch Serviceplan Copywriter
Claudio Aragon Bartsch Serviceplan Art Director/Graphic Design
Stefanie Paulus Serviceplan Art Director
Gary Scheicher Serviceplan Account Supervisor
Daniel Albrecht Servieplan Account Supervisor
Florian Panier Serviceplan Executive Creative Producer
Eduardo Garcia German Wahnsinn Music Producer

The Brief

For the centenary of World War I, n-tv, one of Germany’s biggest news stations, will broadcast “World War I“, a primetime documentary in three parts that will give audiences intimate insights into this devastating war. Our briefing was to develop an attention-grabbing promotion that advertises the documentary and its gripping content while making the topic emotionally accessible.

Creative Execution

We didn’t want to create a mailing that’s just an eye-catcher. We wanted to create one that would convey the topic of World War I in an intimate, emotionally stirring way. That’s why our mailing is written and sent by real soldiers – not just to trigger extreme emotions in every single recipient, but also to motivate opinion leaders, journalists and history buffs all across Germany to write about it.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

To commemorate World War I, we developed a mailing that doesn’t leave anyone untouched: because it is written and sent by real frontline soldiers. This allowed us to make a forgotten war come alive again. We bought hundreds of original documents from World War I – all handwritten by soldiers reporting “live“ from the front between 1914 and 1918. Together with a program announcement, they were packaged in authentic field mail parcels and sent to opinion leaders, journalists and history buffs across Germany as a haunting teaser for our documentary miniseries.

Results

The mailing was sent to opinion leaders or multipliers in publishing houses and the trade press. Their published articles generated further attention for the documentary, which became apparent in the numbers the broadcast reached: a market share of 1,5% and an average of 90.000 viewers.