Firstly: A charge of theft.

The Zugspitze mountain summit theft became one of the biggest no-media budget campaigns that Austria had ever seen. The story generated millions of free media coverage in Germany and Austria. The action was discussed in endless blogs and forums, heated up by a traditionally sensitive love-hate relationship between the two countries. The action earned more than 211.000.000 media impressions.

Paid media: None

Media impressions earned: 211.000.000

Visitors: 15% plus

Owned: A block of stone

Production costs including lawyers´ fees: 4.700 EUR

The whole campaign started with an anonymous YouTube video showing four Austrians chiseling off the tip of Germany’s highest mountain. The beloved Zugspitze mountain (2,962m) was now apparently 30 cm shorter, measuring only 2,961m.

The issue immediately became a state affair. The police started an investigation, the Public Attorney’s Office filed charges against unknown persons and the Bavarian public authorities called for the Zugspitze to be officially re-measured. Germany was in a rage.

Two days later when the outrage about the mountain summit theft was at its maximum, we addressed Germany via YouTube and other online platforms claiming that Gemany´s highest mountain was now to be found in Austria and could be viewed at Vienna’s Model-Makers Fair in the scale of 1:1. Well, at least the peak of it. It didn’t take long for the news to spread all over Austria and Germany, generating free media coverage worth millions.

The Model-Makers Fair in Vienna is Austria’s biggest fair for true-scale model reproductions. Every year it attracts model-making fans not only in Austria but also from neighbouring Germany.

Unfortunately the fair’s media budget is just about as small as the exhibits themselves, so to raise awareness about the start of the Fair, we had to create something really big: We stole the peak of Germany’s highest mountain and brought it to Vienna.

There is a traditionally sensitive love-hate relationship between the Germans and the Austrians, which we played on to create awareness about the start of the Fair. Stealing the peak of Germany’s beloved Zugspitze mountain seemed an ideal way to go about it.