Title	THE WEAPEN
Brand	REPORTER OHNE GRENZEN
Product/Service	REPORTER OHNE GRENZEN
Category	A07. Charities, Public Health & Safety, Public Awareness Messages
Entrant	DDB GROUP Hamburg, GERMANY
Idea Creation	DDB GROUP Hamburg, GERMANY
PR	DDB GROUP Hamburg, GERMANY
Production	BLMFILM Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 2	SOUNDSCAPE MUSIC Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 3	OPTIX DIGITAL PICTURES Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 4	HASTINGS MEDIA MUSIC Hamburg, GERMANY
Additional Company	THE WOODEN QUILL Land O Lakes, USA
Additional Company 2	BEINDER SCHREINEREI & WOHNDESIGN Weitnau, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Fabian Roser	DDB Hamburg	Executive Creative Director
Nicolas Schmidt-Fitzner	DDB Hamburg	Creative Director
Jan-Hendrik Scholz	DDB Hamburg	Creative Director
Christian Baur	DDB Hamburg	Senior Art Director
Thimon Machatzke	DDB Hamburg	Senior Copywriter
Eva Schramm	DDB Hamburg	Art Director
Pascal Rößler	DDB Hamburg	Junior Art Director
Vitali Wachramejew	DDB Hamburg	Junior Art Director
Quentin Frémont	DDB Hamburg	Junior Art Director
Nicolas Berg	DDB Hamburg	Junior Copywriter
Sönke Bruns	DDB Hamburg	Client Service Director
Carolin Sonnenschein	DDB Hamburg	Junior Account Manager
Laura Maroldt	DDB Group Germany	Head of Corporate Communication
Meike van Meegen	DDB Hamburg	Head of TV
Franck Papenbroock	blmfilm GmbH	Director
René Richter	blmfilm GmbH	Camera
Hessel Herder	Soundscape Music	Music Producer
Geert van Gaalen	Soundscape Music	Music Producer
Reinhard Hunger	Bransch Europe	Photographer
Eric Schoeffler	DDB Group Germany	Chief Creative Officer

The Campaign

Everywhere in the world, people use murderous weapons to suppress one of our most important rights: the freedom of information. We took their fired bullets and turned them into the strongest ammunition in our fight against oppression – by turning them into: WEAPENs. A product innovation made to generate money for the work of ‘Reporters Without Boarders’. Soon, ‘theWEAPEN’ became a piece of communication that moved people and went viral very quickly. Without spending money, we advertised ‘theWEAPEN’ on owned media channels. Popular journalists started to support us and wrote statements with ‘theWEAPEN’ against oppression. Whereby we could create powerful adverts. With a lot of backing from Germany’s biggest newspapers, magazines and media agencies, we could advertise our campaign for free in the whole of Germany. Finally, ‘theWEAPEN’ became a strong symbol for freedom of information and still generates a lot of money – without ever spending a single dime.

Execution

In 2015 we started with a teaser campaign on our owned media channels. When the interest reached its peak, the time had come to reveal the secret: on Freedom of Information Day we released ‘theWEAPEN’. A piece of communication, that affected people positively and went viral very quickly. Without spending money on advertising, the limited-edition pens reached break-even point within two hours – and were sold out in less than ten hours! To meet the massive demand, we introduced a second, unlimited edition on our website. With the support of Germany’s most popular journalists, we could create powerful adverts with their statements. Germany’s biggest newspapers, magazines and biggest media agencies published these ads for free. Thus, our campaign reached the whole of Germany. ‘theWEAPEN’ became a symbol for freedom of information national wide. And generates money for our cause down to the present day.

Without spending money, ‘theWEAPEN’ generated a lot of funds and created national wide awareness. This campaign is a great example how powerful a creative idea can be. By building an innovative product, ‘theWEAPEN’ became a piece of communication that affects people positively. Advertised on our owned media channels, the pen went viral very quickly and got the attention of the most influential journalists, who wrote statements with ‘theWEAPEN’. With the support of the biggest newspapers, magazines and media agencies, we could spread our campaign in the whole of Germany – for free. Thus, national wide awareness for our cause and the product itself was generated, together with countless media impressions. By selling not only the 144 limited-edition pens but also a second unlimited edition, we earned more than 50.000 Euros so far. Finally, ‘theWEAPEN’ became a symbol for the freedom of information and raised the awareness of ‘Reporters Without Borders’.

The Situation

By inventing a symbol for freedom of information in the form of a product innovation, we created a piece of communication that affected people. Without spending money, we advertised ‘theWEAPEN’ on our owned media channels. Soon, we got a lot of support from Germany’s most popular journalists, who wrote statements against the oppression with ‘theWEAPEN’ – whereby we could create powerful adverts. Germany’s biggest newspapers, magazines and media agencies published these ads for free. ‘theWEAPEN’ still generates a lot of money for ‘Reporters Without Boards’ and raised the awareness of the freedom of information.

The Strategy

We turned an instrument of evil into ammunition for peace. By turning fired bullets into pens, we gave ‘Reporters Without Borders’ the means to fight non-violently against oppression. A symbol for freedom of information in the form of a product innovation: ‘theWEAPEN’. A piece of communication that went viral very quickly. Without spending money, we advertised ‘theWEAPEN’ on our owned media channels. Soon, we got a lot of support. By making the pen available to the most influential journalists, we could create powerful adverts with their statements against oppression – written with ‘theWEAPEN’. With the support of Germany’s biggest newspapers, magazines and media agencies, we could advertise our campaign in the whole of Germany – for free! Thus, we created national wide awareness and generated highly needed financial funds to support our battle. Finally, ‘theWEAPEN’ became a symbol for the freedom of information and raised awareness for ‘Reporters Without Borders’.