Every pin tells a tale. Every life lost during the battle of Passchendaele has a story. 100 years on, many of these stories have also been lost to history. We wanted to bring them back to life.

So, first we created a beautifully crafted tribute to every son, brother and father who died fighting for their country. 60,083 unique poppy pins with intrinsic, profound, meaning – a piece of connective tissue between 100 years ago and the present – made from shells and earth from the battlefields and dedicated to an individual soldier who fell.

Then we made every pin serve as a “voice of the fallen” – the centerpiece of a digital post-purchase experience, providing a direct link to the stories of soldiers who sacrificed their lives. Helping their stories, and their memory, Live On – today and for the next 100 years.

Each of our 60,083 limited edition Passchendaele Poppy Pins has the essence of the battlefield in its making. We collected brass shell fuses fired during the battle. This 1917 brass was cast into bars, before being re-melted and poured into a wax mould for their final reincarnation.

In addition to the shell metal, each poppy pin incorporates another vital element that links it inextricably to Passchendaele; the soil itself. The very ground the soldiers fought and died upon – and that many still lie at peace beneath. We gathered earth from key locations and ground these soil samples into a fine powder, which was added to red and green enamels before artisans carefully applied them to each brass poppy.

Each pin is engraved with ‘Ypres 1917’ and comes presented in a lacquered wooden box with a unique Royal British Legion “Everyman Remembered” Certificate detailing an individual British soldier who lost his life during the battle. Furthermore, each box also activates an AR experience turning the pin into a portal to the trenches, unlocking individual soldiers’ stories from the battle, giving a real understanding of who they were, what else they achieved in life and who they left behind.

We created a new occasion for the Legion, engaging the public and raising £2m revenue to support the Armed Forces community – attracting younger supporters and cement a brighter future for poppy appeals, ensuring the memories of the soldiers, live on.

Thousands, aged 18-80 (compared to the traditional 60+ donor) purchased the pins – at a price point much greater than the typical £1 paper poppy.

The pins inspired action. Thousands went online: sharing how they were made, expressing their pride and remembering the solider commemorated by their pin. Customers were even motivated to go to Flanders and pay their respects to the soldier they now feel so close to.

Our AR experience received a previously unheard of 40% interaction rate – 10x higher than Blippar benchmarks – with users averaging 74s in the experience, 2.5x a traditional TV spot and 26% of users were highly engaged, scanning multiple times.