As the cost of living explodes, creativity in our homes is in danger of becoming extinct: As people have less and less space, they are increasingly skeptical about the possibilities to use their homes for anything but the bare necessities. To adapt to this changing climate, HORNBACH has reinvented not just the idea of a project, but an entire unit of measurement - turning a dry number into a media space for hundreds of different executions. From hundreds of hyperlocal messages on public square meters to a carefully crafted film and a series of bold projects.

Like most of the world, Germany is heavily affected by the ongoing cost of living crisis. Inflation, stagnating wages, and sluggish urban development make adequate housing impossible to find for most. In the news, this development is often illustrated with the soaring price of rent per square meter, which in some areas has doubled or tripled in just the past few years. In the public imagination, the square meter is symbolically linked to a decrease in living standards and an increasingly restricted way of life. This gives our effort to reclaim this particular space as a stage for fun and creativity added significance.

In Germany, HORNBACH has established itself as the hardware store chain for ambitious, large, and joyful projects. But as the cost-of-living crisis hits Europe, fewer and fewer people feel like they have the kind of space that is necessary for big projects. Forcing people to live in cramped, increasingly bare and joyless places that heavily impact their quality of life and their outlook. To bring back optimism and help to preserve creativity in an environment that is increasingly hostile to it, we need to show that the HORNBACH spirit is still applicable in the homes of potential DIYers today.

To inspire people, we tried to change our collective perspective on the most defining unit of space of our time: The humble square meter. As the basic measuring unit of our existence, it has become a symbol of astronomical rents and unobtainable real estate. We created a campaign to demonstrate that even a single square meter is more than enough to create something extraordinary – and motivate people to see even the smallest corner with fresh eyes. Because every square meter can become the best in the world.

A key challenge that HORNBACH faces with new, more urban target groups is the perception that its products and services are tailored to more suburban customers – a product range tailored to expansive backyards and spacious houses they can’t afford. To win over city-dwellers living in increasingly expensive cities and metropolitan areas, we needed to show that HORNBACH’s focus on creative projects and inventive solutions work just as well for kind of small, rented spaces as for suburban living spaces. We needed to prove the relevance and affordability of HORNBACH’s range of products for urban living. And find ways to inspire urban target groups to see extra space for our products and projects in rooms that, at first glance, seemingly don’t offer any.

Across Europe, we transformed humble square meters into venues for creativity in all its forms. Unused square meters, from overlooked urban spaces to rural backwaters, became spaces for ideas as eight artists, activists and creatives created ambitious projects on a single square meter: a tiny plot of land in the German countryside became the site of the world's smallest festival stage; a Slovak backyard hosted a square meter farm; another square meter filtered dirty city rain in the middle of a busy street in Prague; a steel perch was installed in the middle of a Swiss lake; a soup kitchen was squeezed into a square meter in Austria.

With a web series, we not only gave an insight into the process of each project. But we also proved that one square meter is enough space to tackle an ambitious DIY project - no matter how crazy or complex the idea.

Since its launch, the campaign has achieved a list of impressive results:

- Overall, we achieved over one billion impressions in Germany alone.

- Preference grew by 5 %, making HORNBACH the number one choice in its segment.

- Brand recall has risen by 8%, to reach an all-time high for the brand.

- Brand perception improved by 10% compared to 2022.