Germany’s biggest and most popular news show, the “Tagesschau”, reinvented itself last year - with the most modern news studio in the world. We were asked to turn possible resentment into anticipation and get people excited about this change, even before the announcement was made. For this, we used the most unattainable media placement in German Public Television: the moderation notes used in the show itself which millions of people see every night. On them we kicked off a countdown for the final ten broadcasts from the old studio. This quickly gained a lot of momentum, making newspapers, TV shows and audiences on social platforms discuss possible meanings. Accompanying viral trailers revealed little by little more information about what was about to happen. Stirring curiosity and pushing our buzz in the news. And on premiere night the Tagesschau had a market share of a whopping 40%.

First we started out with a viral video posted on Tagesschau’s (very large) Facebook channel. It was a “supercut” consisting of material from the last couple of decades of the show and poking fun at prejudices about the “Tagesschau”. Announcing nebulous “changes to come”.

Then we hit the road and used the most unattainable media placement in German Public Television*: the moderation notes used in the show itself which millions of people see every night. On them we kicked of a countdown for the final ten broadcasts from the old studio. This gained quickly a lot of momentum, making people on social platforms and other media (such as Europe’s biggest newspaper BILD and Germany’s largest Night show “TV Total”) discuss possible meanings. With continuing trailers we revealed more details. And finally a press conference announced the new studio.

*In Public TV there is no advertising allowed after 8 p.m.

500.000 views, thousands of likes and shares of accompanying teaser trailers.

Media mentions in practically all leading German news media: Spiegel Online, BILD, TV Total, Welt, Süddeutsche, T-Online, …

Media mentions in almost all specialist media: Horizont, Meedia, kress, w&v, …

On the night of the premiere the “Tagesschau” attained a market share of almost 40%.