The Unknown Face is above all an artistic project that embodies a symbol of peace, hope and remembrance in tribute to all those who died in the First World War. At a time when geopolitical tensions are increasing all around the world, it is essential to educate the younger generations in the near future in order to preserve this fragile peace.

This is the challenge of our campaign, to maximize our reach, we had to orchestrate an effective PR strategy mobilizing the French president in person to inaugurate the Unknown.

The Historial of the Great War at Péronne in the Somme is the largest museum dedicated to the 1st World War in France. Its collections showcase the cultural, social and military dimension of this important and cruel chapter of History.

In 2018, the Historial wanted to set up a major project around the theme of ‘Peace to fight’, 100 years after the signing of the Armistice, on November the 11th of 1918, against all current geopolitical tensions.

At a time when extremism and nationalism are plaguing the whole world, the younger generations must never forget past mistakes so as not to reproduce them in the future.

In the aftermath of World War I, France buried the tomb of an Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. This national military monument is dedicated to the memory of all fallen soldiers during the Great War.

100 years later, we made this symbol of War, a universal symbol of Peace for the younger generations by giving a face to the Unknown Soldier. A face composed of 30,000 men, women, soldiers, nurses or civilians, winners and losers, regardless of their nationality or their origins: the Unknown Face.

This face took the form of an interactive and digital work permanently exhibited in the galleries of the Historial.

Our goal was to create a project which would draw the attention of a disinterested younger generation and public opinion through a contextual and technological approach.

Launched in France in November 2018, the Unknown Face was conceptualized to move people internationally and especially in the countries who participated in WWI. We made sure to collaborate with historians, collectors and specialists for our project in order to give more strength to our message.

For our campaign to become viral, we asked the French President to inaugurate the work the greatest influencers and specialists of History in France by his side.

In parallel, we unveiled a dedicated digital device on which the public could discover the behind the scenes of the creation of this project, as well as a more educational part highlighting 40 authentic stories of men and women who have taken part in the great war and have atypical destinies.

The portrait was revealed at the Historial of the Great War at Péronne, as a unique and immersive installation. Visitors were able to skim through the dozens of thousands of faces which together through a leap-motion technology, constitutes the piece. By using their hands, visitors could scroll through the lists of portraits. We also thought about everyone who couldn’t be on location to experience and created a digital dedicated platform to uncover the portrait.

In only a few months, the website was able to gather one of the most important collections of portraits from the Great War. Still today, we keep on receiving daily contributions from all around the world.

Thanks to this system, the Unknown Face keeps evolving day after day and pictures are being added to the database. 4 months after being revealed, the Unknown Face has slightly changed around the mouth and the superciliary arch.

As soon as it was launched, the “Unknown Face” has encountered a large success from the media, the general public and the institutional sphere: a very wide media cover with more than 120 national, local and regional press covers (TV, radio, digital). In total, the audience reached went up to more than 700 millions people.

Web users have also widely shared the project on social network. The most impressive fallout was the implication of French President Emmanuel Macron, who shared the project on both Facebook and Twitter. The project then took an international dimension which caused positive reactions amongst diplomatic members the day before the commemoration of the Armistice.

Thanks to the success of the operation and numerous positive press fallouts, visitations at the WWI Museum in Peronne rose by 47% in November. 35% of their new public belong to younger generations and spend approximately 4 minutes to consult the Unknown Face and its portraits.

The Unknown Face was supposed to last until the end of 2018. Seeing the success it received, the museum has kept to this day the artwork and wishes to install it permanently in the museum.