Hornbach: Kein Projekt ohne Drama
Hornbach tasked HeimatTBWA\ with shifting its brand perception to better connect with DIY enthusiasts. The goal was to move beyond standard retail advertising and create a narrative that resonated with the reality of home improvement. The client needed a strategy that acknowledged the difficulty of projects while positioning the brand as an essential partner in the user's journey, ultimately driving project starts through authentic, engaging storytelling.
Creative Idea
The brand turned the messy, chaotic struggle of DIY into a high-stakes theatrical opera.
Hornbach moved from advertising to 'mediatainment' by dramatizing the messy, chaotic reality of DIY projects. By treating the struggle of home improvement as an epic, theatrical opera, the brand validated the user's frustration while turning the process into high-stakes entertainment.
An Operatic Rebellion Against Digital Perfection
A Stage Built for Chaos
To capture the visceral frustration of DIY, the production team rejected digital shortcuts, opting instead for a massive, handcrafted theatrical stage. Every element of the "plumbing opera" was built from scratch, requiring complex physical engineering to simulate collapsing walls and flooding pipes. The set functioned as a living, breathing machine where the 30-member Greek-style chorus moved in lockstep with the protagonist, Felicia Spielberger, to amplify the emotional weight of her struggle. By avoiding AI-generated visuals, the team ensured that the sweat and tension captured on screen were entirely authentic.
Orchestrating the DIY Odyssey
The film’s sonic landscape was as meticulously constructed as its physical set. The Berlin Music Ensemble recorded the score live at the legendary Emil Berliner Studios, providing a rich, classical foundation that contrasted sharply with the mundane reality of a bathroom leak. Creative lead Florian Lakenmacher and composer Sebastian Schütze worked to ensure the sound design mirrored the protagonist's internal state, turning a simple trip to the store into a grand, storm-tossed odyssey.
A Stand for Human Craft
The campaign served as a defiant response to the industry's obsession with AI. Guido Heffels of HeimatTBWA\ emphasized that the project was executed with "bare hands and passion," positioning the work as a manifesto for tactile storytelling. This commitment to physical craft resonated deeply with audiences, resulting in 15 million views within the first 24 hours of release. Director Lope Serrano noted that the goal was to transform the "neurotic process" of home improvement into a spectacle, proving that human-made film craft maintains a superior emotional grip compared to synthetic alternatives.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Hornbach leveraged its reputation as a serious, hands-on retailer for dedicated DIY enthusiasts who value authentic, challenging project work.
Category
Competitors typically portray home improvement as a seamless, easy, and perfectly polished experience for the average consumer.
Customer
DIYers felt alienated by unrealistic portrayals of perfection and wanted their real, messy, and difficult experiences to be acknowledged.
Culture
The rise of 'mediatainment' and a growing fatigue with AI-generated perfection made raw, handcrafted storytelling feel uniquely powerful and authentic.
Company
Hornbach leveraged its reputation as a serious, hands-on retailer for dedicated DIY enthusiasts who value authentic, challenging project work.
Category
Competitors typically portray home improvement as a seamless, easy, and perfectly polished experience for the average consumer.
Strategy:
Validate the inherent struggle of a process to build deeper emotional resonance with the audience.
Customer
DIYers felt alienated by unrealistic portrayals of perfection and wanted their real, messy, and difficult experiences to be acknowledged.
Culture
The rise of 'mediatainment' and a growing fatigue with AI-generated perfection made raw, handcrafted storytelling feel uniquely powerful and authentic.
Strategy:
Validate the inherent struggle of a process to build deeper emotional resonance with the audience.
Results
The campaign achieved significant success, generating 1.6 million views for the short movie. It secured the highest unaided recall of 2025 and ranked second highest in planned visits among all autumn campaigns, successfully motivating audiences to begin new DIY projects.
1.6M
short-movie views
1st
highest unaided recall of 2025
2nd
highest in planned visits among autumn campaigns
Strategy Technique
Start With a Human Flaw
By acknowledging that DIY is inherently messy and dramatic, the brand stops pretending it's easy. This honesty builds deep trust with enthusiasts who recognize their own struggles in the campaign's narrative.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Dramatize the Problem
The campaign turns the mundane, frustrating reality of home renovation into a high-stakes theatrical opera. This elevates the user's struggle into a spectacle, making the messy process feel epic rather than just annoying.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign excels through its bold media planning and theatrical art direction, transforming standard retail advertising into genuine entertainment.
The strategy of bypassing traditional ad slots to list the commercial as a featured title on streaming platforms was a brilliant execution of 'mediatainment.'
The theatrical, high-contrast visual design of the short film elevated a simple bathroom renovation into an epic, operatic struggle.
