To honour John Lennon, his ideas and ideals, Steinway and Sons devoted him an instrument: the Imagine Series Limited Edition.Like all Steinway grand pianos, this one is very exclusive. And very expensive. Only a few people can afford it.

To let everybody experience the piano, we used a special occasion: The anniversary of Lennon’s famous Bed-In at Hilton, Amsterdam.

The same hotel. The same room. And the Imagine piano right in the middle.And then we let people from all over the world access it, by contributing their own song via pianoforpeace.com and then seeing it being played on a live webcast by a newly invented and constructed animatronic.

Right in the exact hotel room, where Lennon once peacefully protested for peace.

A message we deemed worthy of being spread on all relevant channels:First via the official Steinway channels with a kick-off newsletter to existing customers, and a press release exclusively for cultural and tech bloggers.To spread the news into more analogue spheres, we also addressed conventional concert goers at classical concert halls, using traditional posters.Then the buzz started. On Facebook, Twitter and Google+, links started showing up:- Firstly linking to the microsite pianoforpeace.com, when it was still in a teaser phase.- Then, due to a sharing-mechanism, when people contributed their song and when international journalists, they were invited to the room and experienced Piano for Peace for themselves.- And finally, when the songs were broastcast live on the webcast.Needless to say, this made the event show up in the digital press all over the campaign’s timeframe.

In just 8 hours, tens of thousands of viewers witnessed more than 400 songs, played by people from more than 80 countries, which made it into the gallery.This, by the way, means an increase of 19,900% compared to an average of 2 people, who usually come on a typical day to a Steinway store, to try a grand piano. Simply believe us. (And if you don’t: (400-2)/2*100=19.900.)But most importantly, we strengthened the public’s perception. And also changed it a little bit: Now Steinway as a brand not only stands for high-quality instruments, but also for the same ideals, John Lennon had.