The legendary 6:3 against England - Hungary’s greatest football victory to date - was a national treasure everyone kept referring to without actually having seen the match. No wonder, as the only surviving Hungarian record of the game was a radio broadcast. The “real” 6:3 had yet to find its way back to the people.

In a very difficult year characterised by global crises, we believed that the notoriously gloomy Hungarians craved something that united them and sparked optimism triggered by the miracle of digitalisation, and the 1953 football triumph turned out to be the perfect material for the initiative. By digitally restoring the match to its former glory and beyond, we seeked to generate a national sense of optimism and belonging that could peak on the 67th anniversary of the event: a nationwide television broadcast for everyone to celebrate.

An ambitious brand like Telekom needs to walk the walk and show real digital upgrades to create behavioural changes. So we got the original footage from the archives of the BBC and worked hard on creating a watchable and enjoyable HD version from the recording of an old TV, also colourising every second of the six Hungarian goals. The peak event of our campaign was the primetime broadcast of the digitally upgraded match on a national TV channel on its 67th anniversary with modern commentary and halftime talks.

And we built a complex integrated campaign to create an audience for this TV broadcast. We targeted football fans, the mainstream demographic, and the youngest, most digital generation with different content. This created an opportunity for us to show everyone in Hungary that our historic 6:3 win is an opportunity to feel pride, celebrate and be more optimistic as a nation.

Hungarians are gloomy and pessimistic: one of the least hopeful nations of Europe. And the events of 2020 didn't help that.

But there's something this small country has always been proud of: its football. November 25th is our National Day of Football, remembering our historic win against England. The country is obsessed with football and everyone knows the heroes of the Golden Team. However, we found that the match didn't give Hungarians the kind of hope and optimism it could.

When we dug deeper, we realised that its power was lost due to the fact that no one had actually seen it in the past 70 years, because the only available record of it was a radio broadcast.

Our strategy relied on the fact that if everyone had the opportunity to see our historic win, it would elevate the national spirit and show Hungarians the optimism generated by digital upgrades.

The process lasted 13 months. The original was so damaged that, even though our team was aided by AI, colourising 1 second took 1 workday for a team member to complete. And restoring the match was only half the job. It had to find its way back to the people. We launched an extensive integrated campaign that promoted various aspects of the restoration focusing on cultural, technological and sports angles in order to get everyone in Hungary excited about the enterprise. The hype was in, people on social media were keen to see more and more of the digitally upgraded footage.

Influencers, public figures and media outlets celebrated the endeavour and helped the project gain awareness. On the 67th anniversary of the event, we broadcast the digitally upgraded match on primetime national television. In the darkest of times, a national sense of pride and belonging was born: everyone was in.

Our campaign reached 5.6 million people, over half of Hungary's population. The primetime broadcast brought the match to 10 times more Hungarians than the number of spectators in Wembley in 1953.

With a reach of 600 000, the programme doubled channel-average views. The viewerbase got a boost of 70% in the 18-49 age group. We saw an outstanding 7% engagement on the creator content we targeted at younger generations.

Engagement and interest skyrocketed: our native content resulted in 3 times more page downloads, twice as much time spent on each content, 46% more video starts and 4 times more podcast listens.

Despite the pandemic, the first signs of a more optimistic mindset appeared. Beyond media and campaign results, the initiative generated impressions on all major news sites with exclusively positive reviews. Influencers, public figures and media outlets also celebrated the endeavour and helped it gain awareness.