With antisemitism rising to global records – Israel’s role as the sacred keeper of Holocaust memories becomes prominent. While every year Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated with a literal media takeover, all mainstream content focusing on survivor stories – Gen-Zers opt out, escaping to gaming.

With the last Holocaust survivors fading out – we had an important mission: conquer Gen-Z. How? We brought Holocaust survivors to Gen-Zers natural habitat: the gaming platforms. Using gaming influencers and gameplay – we were able to finally translate Holocaust remembrance to the next generation, captivating them with survivor stories coming to life.

Antisemitism is at an historic record-break: antisemitic incidents increased by 36% (3,697) and 32% (2,255) in the US&UK respectively, during 2022. Meanwhile in Israel, where Holocaust remembrance is a pivotal - it’s becoming less eminent.

If once survivor stories were common in homes, schools and media – times are changing: few survivors remain (over 10K passed this year), and those who are left have to bridge the gap of age, attention and platforms to be heard. Especially by teens, who have many screens to hide in on the regular – most prominently when it comes to the Holocaust. The result - the future generation of Holocaust remembrance is disconnecting.

“Zikaron Basalon”, a NGO focused on creating face-to-face connections with survivors - set out to change this trend. To be successful we decided to disrupt Gen-Zer’s, integrating Holocaust remembrance into Gen-Z culture – embedding organically into their world.

A big part of Israeli culture is to keep Holocaust remembrance alive for eternity – bequeathing stories down through the generations. While antisemitism spikes to an all-time high - 55% increase in antisemitic activity in Europe in 10 years and 150% increase in antisemitic social media activity – Holocaust remembrance is put at stake. With only 150,600 survivors remaining in Israel, decreasing each month – its crucial for the future generation to keep it going.

The problem: most teens have never met a survivor, schools reduced the subject’s volume and delayed its curriculum entry – making Holocaust narrative foreign and uninteresting. Since teens have many worlds (especially gaming) to hide in, most prominently during Memorial Day shutdown – connecting them to the Holocaust is a tall order. The only way forward is to take these important stories and tailor them into pop-culture – cementing them organically into Gen Z culture.

With our insight in tow - tailoring Holocaust stories into gaming culture - we set out to disrupt Holocaust Memorial Day and for the first time bring into the 24\7 gaming arena, real Holocaust survivors and stories.

How? We took over one of the most popular games – Call of Duty WWII, which depicts authentic Holocaust locations – and recreated history with our living survivors’ testimonies through gameplay. The big idea: teaming up famous gaming influencers (who are Gen Z’ers themselves) with survivors who told their stories via the game’s platform.

Thus, the gamers listened to the survivor’s tales and live-streamed a walk-through the game replica of WWII, mapping out their words using the game's images. Basically, we not only brought the stories to TikTok and YouTube, conquering a prominent cultural layer of our audience's world – but brought them to life, giving them a whole new dimension and longevity.

The connection between Holocaust remembrance and the Israeli Gen-Z, the fourth or fifth generation of survivors, is thinning: the subject is taught late in high-school, it’s no longer an organic part of house-hold narratives and teens have grown jaded to it.

How do we get teens to care? We bring the stories to them, conquering their natural habitat - gaming. Israeli teens lead the world in gaming - 65% report playing more than 5 times a day (50% global average), up to over ~21 weekly hours. Their absorption into games translates into ~2.6 hours a day - increasing exponentially on Memorial-day shutdown. While mainstream media focuses only on the Holocaust - gaming continues as is, unaffected.

In order to make Holocaust remembrance relevant to teens - we needed to not only take over the gaming world but tailor the stories into their culture itself, making it a part of gameplay.

In order to fully reach as many teens as possible - we collaborated with 5 of the biggest Israeli gaming influencers, connecting them to 6 survivors. On the days leading to the launch, the influencers invited fans to join them on their channels (TIKTOK & youtube) for the special event, explaining the purpose and importance of the project. This was backed up with a social media takeover of teaser trailers, glimpsing the survivors taking over the game.

On the day itself, we launched six 10-min videos boosted by PR in Israel and abroad: prime-time interviews on Israeli TV, more than 150 items in US media, more than 40 Israeli influencers organically re-sharing the project. We also took over more than 1,000 classrooms across the country - broadcasting it to 2 million students. That's not all, we are making it timeless: uploading 5 episodes to Amazon Prime Video platform for universal

This Memorial Day, we successfully integrated the Holocaust narrative into Gen Z lives, culture and most importantly - gameplay.

With over 1.5 million organic views on Memorial Day, we were able to reach 67% of Israeli teens. That’s 1.5 million Gen Z teens organically watching at least one 10-min film fully!

The campaign achieved 8.5M impressions overall, 53% organic. Adding 82M prime impressions around the globe, the campaign brought in a total of 7.2M$ in earned media, conquering the #1 spot on youtube’s gaming category and #8 position overall.

Furthermore, the power of the project even translated into the culture of the physical classrooms: 1,500 schools added the project to their curriculum, reaching over 2 million students in one day.

Moreover, “Zikaron Basalon”, saw a 168% increase in website entries YOY, +183% in brand searches YOY while doubling the number of participants in Zikaron Basalon events on Memorial Day!