Armistice weekend in 2018 was of huge cultural significance in Britain – and our activity needed the right focal point to achieve cut through and bring people together.

100 years earlier Londoners had gathered in Piccadilly, Westminster, to mark the end of war. So, in a world first, we took over the landmark Piccadilly advertising screens in their entirety for an hour. It was also the first time the screens had featured sound, which was integral to our placement.

Our carefully choreographed, highly emotive experience drew in thousands of passers-by and made incredible waves on local and national media.

The First World War was one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history – one in which more than one million British and Commonwealth service people died. But, with every passing year, the scale of death feels more abstract and unimaginable – especially to younger generations who have never really known war.

Each year on the weekend closest to 11th November, Britain comes together to mark the end of the war and remember those who served. 2018 was the centenary of the end of the war.

Between 1914 and 1918, millions of soldiers passed through Westminster in London on their way to war. So Westminster City Council wanted to create something that would mark the centenary in a highly visible, appropriate and meaningful way.

Our idea was driven by a startling realisation: that it would take more than 10 days and 19 hours for the fallen soldiers to march past us in single file.

We knew that if we could bring this to life in an impactful, emotive way, we could help people understand the horrific scale of the death toll.

So, during evening rush hour on Friday 9th November, we filled the Piccadilly screens with the sight and sound of relentless marching boots, each pair representing a soldier who died. These were punctuated by 11 haunting stories of people who served in the war, many of whom were from Westminster – helping humanise the statistics.

As the last pair of boots marched off screen, representing the 1,119,193rd and final soldier to be killed, the screens faded to black, and a lone bugler sounded the last post across Piccadilly Circus.

Research showed that Remembrance Weekend in the UK has lost meaning for younger generations; or, worse, that it can be taken by some people as a celebration of war.

So, 100 years after the end of the First World War, we set out to create an experience that would restore meaning to the shocking death toll – and show that the ordinary people who fought and died were no different from us today.

As this activity was on behalf of Westminster City Council, our primary audience was Londoners passing through or near to Piccadilly. But we also wanted the experience to capture media attention and reach people across Britain.

There was no real call to action; we simply wanted the placement to have a lasting effect on anyone who saw it – whether passing through, pausing for a few minutes, or watching remotely – and to drive reappraisal.

As one of the busiest and most recognisable ad spaces in the world, the Piccadilly screens offered us an incredible focal point – and a poignant one too as, 100 years earlier, Londoners had spontaneously gathered in Piccadilly Circus to express their relief at the end of war.

We wanted to create something resonant enough to shape the national mood going into the Armistice weekend – and so chose to focus on one hour as darkness fell on the Friday evening.

Taking over the screens in their entirety – and subverting their usual purpose – gave us incredible stand out, and let us bathe Piccadilly Circus in eerie red light. We augmented the normally silent screens with a sound system that allowed us to add an extraordinary aural dimension to the experience as the boots marched relentlessly across the screen and echoed around the area.

From a simple synopsis of the idea, the media were captivated. BBC, ITV, and Sky News were granted access to a rooftop opposite the screens so that they could broadcast the event live. Radio stations like LBC, Heart, and Classic FM included it in news bulletins throughout the day. And newspapers like the Evening Standard and Mail online devoted lots of column inches to the film. In all, our activity achieved combined reach of 391,976,620, plus a further 27.9 million from radio.

Feedback from those present was exceptional too, with an outpouring of heartfelt responses on social media. But the final word should go to Councillor Rachael Robathan, armed forces champion at Westminster City Council, who simply said:

“The sight of Piccadilly Circus being almost brought to a standstill will stay with me for a long time.”