This work is most relevant for Media, because Media has made the creative agency's basic idea - making letters disappear - a topic of conversation in eight countries via a consistent and innovative "mystery media" campaign. A whole series of media first movers, for example via guerrilla measures and content cooperations, managed to communicate the campaign without naming HORNBACH as the sender and nevertheless build up an exciting mystery that concluded with a massive impact on the brand and the campaign.

HORNBACH’s positioning as a store for DIY projects is increasingly being challenged and copied by the competition. Differentiating the brand in the classic advertising environment is becoming more and more difficult. Getting messages to the target audience is becoming increasingly challenging every year.

So HORNBACH has to fundamentally rethink the standard communication path based on classic campaigns – and take new paths. It’s about doing something fundamentally new: a campaign that is not directly recognizable as such, creates a massive hype, provides entertainment, and generates excitement throughout the entire campaign period – and thus clearly stands out from the competition. People mostly don’t talk about classic advertisement, they talk about real events. These insights led us to do a Media Campaign never seen before.

The goal: to create a hype, turn the letters into cult objects and send the message: ‘Do something. No matter what. Build something. Just start.

People and the press talk about things that happen in reality, things they see with their own eyes, things that are mysterious.

The creative core idea: HORNBACH created a mystery by having the courage to change something ‘sacred’ and remove parts of it: yes, we’re talking about the HORNBACH logo sign letters. At 39 stores across Europe in the HORNBACH ‘countries’.

Letters disappear and reappear in spectacular fashion until a documentary sheds light on the background of the mystery. Based on the core idea we create a media-storytelling campaign that makes the mystery fly. Through intensive research and creative media sessions we discovered that we could create a huge amount of "mystery media" measures. Never done before, but possible.

Media strategy: to fuel this mystery. Create exciting twists and turns and make the disappearing letters THE topic of conversation.

1) The letters are gone – and keep reappearing in a variety of ways. Through a series of anonymous and innovative media measures – without HORNBACH being the sender. Guerrilla media and collaborations are used to maximum.

2) HORNBACH now wants their letters back. The public is asked to send tips via wide-reaching measures. Pragmatic advertising that seems to be produced spontaneously since the letters began disappearing.

3) Thanks for the Tips! The mysterious measures that we staged ourselves during the first phase were documented. In addition to real tips coming from people, these are now communicated as vital tips from the community.

4) A documentary shows further facets of the mystery, illuminate the background of the campaign and convey its message with an extremely wide reach across all countries.

While letters disappeared from HORNBACH stores, we placed identical letters via Media in a wide variety of locations and on appropriate platforms. In public places with staged transportation of the letters. Letters placed uncommented as a background behind people streaming content. Further measures suggested the business that began to flourish trading the letters. They were sold on online platforms via ‘private’ accounts and on flea markets. Exchange offers were staged anonymous in +2,500 supermarkets. The rumor mill went into overdrive.

Later, HORNBACH actively searched for hints with a wide reach: authentic ads via social media, radio, wild posters, (D)OOH, Jodel, print and display formats.

Measures from the first mystery phase were documented and now served as ‘pertinent tips and information’.

Now it’s time to shed some light on the matter with a documentary that provides further details. The documentary was massively streamed across video channels, display, DOOH and social media.

All core objectives were exceeded.

HORNBACH became THE topic of conversation. More than 1.000 hints were received – over 140 media with an earned media reach of more than 40 million contacts reported. Many brands and influencers interacted with the campaign and it became the most successful paid Jodel campaign to date. Enormous interest was generated. Over 500% more traffic was measured on the HORNBACH website compared to the same period in 2021. The campaign had over 1.5 billion contacts.

Sales rose by sensational 10.4 % in the campaign period compared to the same quarter in the previous year. The Letters became a cult object and are now placed in a letter museum in Berlin. By combining mystery and reach – HORNBACH jumps on a new level of forward-looking communication with the highest brand awareness and social engagement ever measured in fall. It’s HORNBACHs most successful European campaign to date.

With the mystery surrounding the disappearance of letters at 39 stores in 8 countries, HORNBACH was ´talk of the nation´ among public and media: a PR gag or a criminal case? People in all countries asked themselves this question, and the interest for this campaign was thus aroused in all countries.