In Germany, branded content is a pay-to-play business. But we had no budget to work with, so we turned the Nazi march into something worth watching: a funny, colourful and entertaining charity walk for EXIT-Deutschland. By using banners, bananas and street markings, we made sure that the general public immediately understood the idea of neo-Nazis unwittingly donating against themselves and helped us spread the word. Thanks to its entertaining character, the campaign quickly gained its own dynamics and the media worldwide reported about the “Miracle of Wunsiedel” – using our content as a central element.

We turned a neo-Nazi demonstration on its head: from a right-ring extremist march into a charity walk. Consequently, we applied this approach to our idea: for every metre the neo-Nazis marched, €10 would be donated to EXIT-Deutschland.

This would force the neo-Nazis to face a dilemma: either walk and collect for their own downfall or abandon the demonstration. To ensure we got the right setting and story, we chose a neo-Nazi march in the small, helpless Bavarian town of Wunsiedel.

The town, sick of the annual march, was willing to cooperate and helped us raise the €10,000 from companies and citizens of Wunsiedel. The small circle of well-informed people collectively founded the initiative “Nazis against Nazis” and meticulously planned and executed the turnaround of the event and the media campaign.

24 million people were reached, worth a media equivalence of €1 million via national TV and print coverage alone

279 million impressions worldwide through social media

2.8 million YouTube views for the German and English versions of the video reportage

155,000 unique visitors on the microsite in just one week

21,000 visitors followed the march live on the microsite

4.7 million impressions on Facebook in one week

6,900 potential quitters clicked the EXIT button on the microsite

€10,000 in additional donations on top of the €10,000 raised by the neo-Nazis