Together with our client Laut gegen Nazis e.V. we’ve come up with a world first approach to stop the spread of Nazi codes once and for all. We targeted social channels of cultural and political opinion leaders to set up a dialog and amplify our campaign, successfully.

Our campaign brought an unprecedented wave of attention to the issue and the NGO fighting it. For the first time ever, the threat of Nazi codes has become tangible for the wider public. Global awareness lead to a record growth of 687% in donations to our client.

The extreme right disseminates their hateful messages and ideologies to the masses by blending in. They use codes that reveal their true meaning only upon a closer look, or to people that are part of the Nazi scene.

Most Nazi symbols, signs and words have long been banned in Germany and other European countries. However, the Nazi scene has been bypassing bans for just as long: with its own codes and abbreviations. So the banned word "HAKENKREUZ" (Swastika) became "HKNKRZ", "HITLER" became "HTLR" and "VATERLAND" (Fatherland), "VTRLND" – rendering all bans pretty powerless.

A big problem! These codes, printed on shirts and merchandise, are the main source of income for right-wing organisations – and a way to spread their racist believes. A challenge that lawmakers have not yet risen to and one that is becoming more and more urgent with the political shift to the far right in Germany and Europe.

The extreme right have been concealing their hateful ideas through coded messages. Codes – used in place of explicit far-right terms – mean lawmakers are incapable of banning their use. Giving Nazis the opportunity to use them on merchandise such as t-shirts and sweaters to finance the movement.

Our client, "Laut gegen Nazis" (Noise against Nazis), is a nonprofit organisation that stands against the spread of extreme-right wing violence and hate across Germany and Europe. Our brief was to create awareness for the NGO, boost donations and educate people on existing Nazi codes and abbreviations.

The briefing resulted in a world-first approach to effectively stop the spread of extremist ideologies and hate.

The idea: Outsmarting Nazis by securing their codes with trademark law, and revoking the rights of Nazi online shops to use them.

Together with Laut gegen Nazis, we secured trademark rights for German and international Nazi codes at the European trademark office. As the new rightful owners of these trademarks, we can now bring Nazi shops to justice for the first time ever. By compelling them to remove and destroy the merch bearing these codes and claiming compensation for each item sold.

More and more of these trademarks will be published to create PR buzz for our campaign. We introduced our smart idea to our audience with a film and a website, optimised for press and social media. It is designed to engage our audience and encourage them to take part through donations.

In depth data research lead to the most prominent online Nazi shops in Germany and Europe. It revealed a strong link between Nazi merch and the significance of Nazi codes. Investigations showed that Nazi merch is funding their operations, making it the main source of their funds. Further research with lawyers has confirmed the potential of our campaign idea: Where laws against racism and hate are powerless, trademark rights can actually stop Nazi ideologies from spreading.

Our primary target audience were community leaders, educators and politicians that would share the campaign. It heavily relied on these opinion makers to create a viral effect, without media budget. This way we could reach a wider audience and general public – especially young people, who are more vulnerable to Nazi codes and the hateful ideologies. The key message: Nazis are using codes to spread their hatred – support our way to outsmart them.

We launched our campaign on social media and supported it with press meetings, interviews, and a press release. This created exponential awareness for our campaign. Even prompting Nazi shop owners, who voluntarily removed merchandise from their online stores.

Social media accounts big and small featured our campaign and brought it to millions of users who liked, shared and discussed the campaign. Then global media outlets picked up the story. All reach occurred organically. The engagement is unprecedented for our client, Laut gegen Nazis, and lead to their donations dramatically increasing by 687% within days of its launch.

Donations have increased by a massive 687%. We have achieved this while Germany is going through a general decrease in charity donations, which plummeted by over 30%. To summarise, our results have vastly exceeded the expectations set by our client.

At the same time our campaign managed to strategically make Nazi codes part of the mainstream public discourse. We ignited a strong and pervasive conversation and played a pivotal role in reshaping the public perception of Nazi merchandise featuring repulsive ideologies. The media reach spanned a colossal 2.2 billion people. Online we reached impressive 117 million. Fostering an active engagement of 176,000, our campaign has masterfully orchestrated an unparalleled wave of awareness for our client, Laut gegen Nazis. The impact manifests in a staggering 630% surge in searches related to the NGO and Nazi codes.