Christmas is the most important family celebration in Germany. It’s a time to enjoy food, to drink and to especially cherish each other’s company. This makes it a very important season for EDEKA, Germanys biggest supermarket chain, as well.

Yet, many people in Germany have forgotten what Christmas is really about. They just don’t find the time anymore to go home to celebrate with all of their family members. EDEKA wanted to remind them of what really matters on Christmas: family.

The film tells the story of a lonely grandfather who spends Christmas alone at home every year, because his whole family is too busy to visit him. But then in one year he takes drastic measures: he fakes his own death in order to reunite his family for Christmas.

When the sad news reaches his family members, who live at different places all over the world, they immediately travel home for the funeral service. But surprisingly the old man is alive and expects them with a great Christmas meal. Thus, the whole family is finally re-united after all these years and celebrates Christmas together.

Heart of the campaign #heimkommen (coming home) was a film that was launched on YouTube and Facebook on the 28th of November. It was also aired on TV and in cinemas before Christmas.

We sparked organic reach through a strong influencer and blogger outreach program.

To help the video go viral we pushed the conversation about Christmas in many different media channels: with Online-Banners, print ads, out of home posters and point of sale we encouraged people to go home for Christmas and to share their family reunions on social media, such like facebook, twitter and instagram.

As it kept going, we pushed the heated debate in the social web and provided vouchers to support the reunions of families to feed the international news story.