KSK - NEVER FIGHT JUST FOR YOURSELF

TitleKSK - NEVER FIGHT JUST FOR YOURSELF
BrandDAS BUNDESMINSTERIUM DER VERTEIDIGUNG (BMVG) / GERMAN FEDERAL ARMED FORCES
Product/ServiceKSK - A SPECIAL UNIT OF THE GERMAN ARMED FORCES THAT RESCUES GERMAN CITIZENS WOR
Category A07. Not-for-profit / Charity / Governemt
Entrant CROSSMEDIA Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Idea Creation CASTENOW Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Media Placement CROSSMEDIA Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Production TACSY KOELN, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Andrea Schroeder CROSSMEDIA Unit Director
Nina Klaes CROSSMEDIA Team Leader
Hendrik Fernkorn CROSSMEDIA Senior Media Consultant
Sabine Castenow CASTENOW Executive Creative Director
Jörg Wolf CASTENOW Creative Executive
Dominik Weber CASTENOW Creative Director
Roman Rösler CASTENOW Senior Art Director
Luca Beuke CASTENOW Copywriter
Sebastian Rheinländer CASTENOW Junior Art Director
Natascha Flottmann CASTENOW Online Editor & Content Manager
Paulina Meyer CASTENOW Senior Account Manager
Daniel Goihl TACSY Chief Operating Officer
Sonja Dietrich TACSY Head of Digital Communication

Why is this work relevant for Media?

With Germany's first WhatsApp series, the target group got enthusiastic about the Federal Armed Forces again. KSK impresses with its large number of series channels, by which the audience is allowed to undergo an immersive series experience. The expansion of the existing channels leads to new media challenges: fragmented planning, small links, changing advertising pressure and multi-layered advertising forms. Daily monitoring of channel performance, intelligent interlocking and constant checking of the links improve the growth of the community. Creation, Media and Community Management evaluate learnings from past campaigns and use daily new insights to make KSK's overall success possible.

Background

The German Federal Armed Forces are taking a new direction to get talented young people interested in their spectrum of activities. In this campaign the focus was placed KSK, a secret special unit which stands in particular for the employer's promise of meaningful and qualified employment. But how do you advertise a military unit which is absolutely top secret? Our solution: The adventurer Robert Marc Lehmann attends the KSK and thus takes the target group along his journey and gives a close-up look into the special unit. An integrated online series accompanies the target group on WhatsApp, YouTube, Alexa and by podcast throughout the day, illuminating various aspects of the special unit’s daily life and ensuring that the suspense is maintained. The intelligent, interactive narration and the tactical linkage with digital channels allows the target group to feel substantive and emotional enthusiasm 24/7 for the special unit’s duties.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

The German Federal Armed Forces want to position themselves as a many-sided employer offering meaningful and high quality jobs. To show the full spectrum of activities, it has to be translated for the target group: To tell the stories of people who have to operate in secret, the Federal Armed Forces allow their target group to get a comprehensive and close-up look at real working life in the KSK via various social media channels. The adventurer Robert Marc Lehmann joins the KSK and shares the daily exercises and training with viewers in real time on WhatsApp, YouTube and by podcast. He attends a jungle training in Belize and participates in one of the largest international special forces exercise in Europe. Lehmann embodies the target group and becomes its spokesman into the unit. Within the interaction of the various media, each channel has its particular task – documentation, activation, engagement, or

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

It is difficult to reach the core target group (men and women aged 17–35) by conventional means and depict. We therefore made the target group part of the series: For the first time, a civilian accompanies the KSK special unit and shares the daily exercises and training with viewers in real time. To reach people beyond the established community, we focused on new channels and created several touchpoints throughout our audience’s day: A WhatsApp group was the heart of communication. An Alexa skill allowed the target group to follow the KSK’s actual training plan in the mornings. Parallel to that, we produced 22 episodes of the YouTube series and an evening podcast. Through targeted education and deep insights KSK missions become more transparent – and due to this immersive series experience, the deployment of soldiers becomes part of the reality of the audience’s lives.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Adventurer Robert Marc Lehmann accompanies the KSK for 41 days (05.11.-20.12.2018) and shares his experiences with the community. To ensure a consistent narrative we networked a multichannel series across the target group’s most-used media - including original content on each channel - and intelligently networked the different media: • Social media (FB, Insta, Snapchat & Youtube), online display & moving image form the core of the campaign, a landing page bundles all channels • (D)OOH & Ambient generate attention for the new series channels • Radio & Online Audio to gain listeners for the podcast • Facebook AR-Filter, Amazon Fire TV & Programmatic The live nature of the series gives rise to a high degree of authenticity and credibility – a warts-and-all 24-hour real-life series that accompanies viewers throughout the day. The missions are top secret but the target group is becoming part of the team.

List the results (30% of vote)

The series reached people far beyond the existing community and encouraged them to engage intensively with the KSK and the Federal Armed Forces. TV, online and print media reports on the series generated further contacts, raising awareness and discussion to a new level. The campaign's performance is a complete success in terms of the media KPIs but the new platforms also exceeded expectations in terms of use. Social Media has generated 317 million contacts, the campaign reach in the target group is 87%. In the mainly privately used chat medium WhatsApp, the campaign was able to achieve 30,000 subscriptions and is thus building a new community that can be reactivated. The YouTube community has grown to 381,000 with KSK and hit 40 million minutes of watch time. Alexa Skill and Podcast were successfully used with 2,500 Usern and 1,800h Playtime. In total we thus achieved over 653 million campaign contacts.