Branded Entertainment in general is rather restricted in Switzerland, so the public audience is not used to it. In this case, the circumstances were even more unexpected: NZZ, as one of the world oldest and most prestigious newspapers, is known for not being open to branded entertainment stunts at all.

A remarkable and well known fact is that since NZZ’s founding in 1780 the layout only changed a few times: In 1878 she became her today’s four-column layout. In 1946 the font changed from the old gothic to a serif type. And in 2005, it published its first color picture on the front page. So the front page mostly stayed the same for over 130 years.

NZZ is not about flashy tabloid looks, it’s well respected for substantial journalism and the written word. NZZ even insists on its own spelling rules – and is known for not making mistakes. But everything was different on June 8th 2012, when the entire front page was a mess full of zeros and ones! Readers were stunned and irritated.

On 8 June 2012, the front page of the NZZ - which had never been touched before - appeared entirely in binary code. To the complete amazement of NZZ readers at mailboxes and newsstands everywhere - the de facto untouchable NZZ front page was written entirely in zeros and ones. All headlines and articles were fully translated into the language of the Internet shortly after the editorial deadline. On the following page, the campaign was explained, the digital strategy announced and the newly updated website www.nzz.ch communicated - to the entire key audience and at zero cost.

With virtually no media spending, the campaign caused a record-high traffic on the website so that the server went down several times on launch day. All of the 120,000 copies printed had sold out by midday and people were calling for further NZZ copies to keep as a souvenir. The campaign made its way around the world in the news, on Twitter and in blogs – and strengthened NZZ’s reputation as a daring and progressive newspaper – not just content-wise, but also in the way it communicates in the market.