"Power of Pictures" was not exposed to any restrictions or regulations in Germany.

Based on the researches of UCLA and UKE we developed a pilot project in cooperation with the Red Cross Hospital in Kassel, that not only intended to ease the emotional but also the physical pain with the power of high quality pictures.

This is how it worked: We set up an app and a microsite that enabled the patients to receive personal pictures of friends and family. In order to ensure easy usage we gave every patient a tablet to access his or her personalized picture greetings.

Furthermore, Nikon encouraged everybody to be part of the project via Facebook. This way, everybody was given the chance to unleash the power of pictures by sending their own personal pictures as greetings to the patients.

It was a real-life experiment under scientific observation, designed as long-term program to give continuous outcome for the study and the brand.

Two days after the rollout of the documentation, we had already gained more than 26 million contacts and after 4 weeks even 31.6 million contacts with nothing but earned media coverage. That equals more than € 1.6 million ($ 2.2 million) in media spending. The story was covered by news websites, blogs, magazines, as well as by wide-coverage TV stations even outside Germany. On Nikon's Facebook page the number of fans skyrocketed from about 7,500 fans to around 32,500 fans after the launch.

But there is even more: In a year, where media spending had been cut, the project served as a key influencing factor for shaping the brand. Compared to previous year, Nikon gained 'suitability' (+14%) and 'likeability' (+11%) and improved the items 'relevant set' (+22%) and 'first choice' (+53%). (Source: Icon Added Value, 10/2013)

However, the most important success: The project turned the brand expertise into true relevance for people's lives – a method for almost miraculous cures. "It triggered positive thoughts which lead towards a release of neurotransmitter and therefore actual physical reduction of pain.", explained Dr. Andreas Böger, Germany's leading expert in pain therapy from the Red Cross Hospital.