France has no overly complicated or particular restrictions and regulations regarding museum advertising. However, when you are a new museum, specialized in a very narrow part of history, located outside of Paris, with very little money, you start with a real handicap compared to the big and famous museums. So when the Museum of the Great War opened in november 2011, they approached us to spread their vision of World War 1. A vision focused on human beings and promoting the 'duty to remember'. We were facing a cross-media competition from much bigger 'museum brands' with bigger media budgets. We knew from the start that we had to find a fresh way to spread the message.

The idea: what if facebook had existed a century ago?

We did not create a usual brand page about history, but a personal one. Léon Vivien's page. An ordinary man who is 29 years old in 1914. A school teacher torn away from his pregnant wife to be thrown into the slaughter of WW1. Everyday, Léon shared his thoughts, his little joys and his fears. His posts were richly illustrated by hundreds of pics, objects and documents selected from the museum's collection. It subtly made the young frenchies realize how lucky they were to live in a peaceful country.

On the demand of many fans (including teachers), the facebook page then became a book enriched with a new digital content.

- 50,000 fans within the first 2 weeks (60% of them were under 35 years old)

- 3 million € of earned media (more than 1,000 press releases: print press, web, radio, TV)

- the number of the fans of the museum's official page increased by 300%

- the number of visitors on location increased by 45%

- The National Board of Education relayed the page