Title	HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Brand	EDEKA ZENTRALE AG & CO. KG
Product/Service	EDEKA
Category	A04. Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
Entrant	JUNG von MATT Hamburg, GERMANY
Idea Creation	JUNG von MATT Hamburg, GERMANY
Production	TEMPOMEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Jens Pfau	Jung von Matt AG	Executive Creative Director
Tim Hartwig	–	Senior Art Director
Christian Moehler	–	Senior Copywriter
Johannes Haverkamp	Jung von Matt AG	Executive Producer
Annika Burchert	Jung von Matt AG	Senior Project Manager
Simon Urban	–	Copywriter
Alex Feil	Tempomedia Filmproduktion GmbH	Director
Carlo Jelavic	Tempomedia Filmproduktion GmbH	Director of Photography
Vera Portz	Tempomedia Filmproduktion GmbH	Executive Producer
Justin Niklas Mundhenke	Tempomedia Filmproduktion GmbH	Producer
Sabine Panek	nhb video GmbH	Offline Editor
Florian Lakenmacher	Supreme Music GmbH	Music Composer
Matthias Walbroel	–	–

The Campaign

Instead of telling the people a nice Christmas story, we confronted them with the harsh reality: especially the elderly are often forced to spend Christmas alone! Above all in a society, in which families are often spread across continents, this insight was more than just relevant. It met the zeitgeist. And we used it as a trigger to encourage everyone to go home for Christmas and celebrate with their loved ones again.

Execution

The integrated campaign #heimkommen (coming home) started with a film that was launched on YouTube and Facebook, on TV and in cinemas. Additionally, we used print ads, out of home posters and a raffle to encourage people to celebrate Christmas at home. At the point of sale, vouchers were provided to help families to come together for Christmas. Furthermore online channels such as banners and social media were used to ask for people’s own #heimkommen story.

The campaign struck a chord. And it triggered an international debate about the issue. People joined in and shared their personal #heimkommen story on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Consequently, #heimkommen developed its own dynamic. News and press reports all over the world covered the campaign. Already on the first day it achieved over 15 Million views on YouTube and Facebook. So far, the film earned almost 160 million views and has been shared on Facebook over four million times. This makes EDEKA one of the most-shared brands worldwide. There are over 100.000 posts and comments and the EDEKA fan community grew by 20 percent. Furthermore there were a lot of parodies. According to Unruly, #heimkommen was the most successful Christmas campaign of all time.

The Situation

The integrated campaign #heimkommen (coming home) addresses an issue that is relevant to most people. EDEKA, Germanys biggest supermarket chain, decided to not just tell a nice little Christmas story, but to bring up a social issue that concerns everybody. The combination of a strong insight and a creative idea had a deep impact in the global news world. The campaign was executed across multiple media and thus attracted a lot of attention worldwide. It caused a debate in the press and the social web. No campaign was shared and commented more often. It established an emotional benchmark in 2015.

The Strategy

With the integrated campaign #heimkommen (coming home), EDEKA encouraged all people in Germany to spend Christmas with their loved ones. Heart of the campaign was a film about a lonely grandfather who fakes his own death in order to reunite his family. With this highly emotional content the campaign should be hyped in all media channels and become the talk of the town. All channels, both online and offline, were used to encourage people to go home for Christmas and to initiate an international debate about Christmas and family. So not only the people in Germany – the actual target audience – but people around the whole world where moved by the campaign. The strong and emotional content.