HORNBACH: No Project Without Drama
HORNBACH challenged HeimatTBWA\ Berlin to maintain its position as the most authentic DIY retailer for serious projects. The campaign targeted European home improvers who were tired of sanitized, unrealistic category advertising. The goal was to acknowledge the inevitable frustration of DIY while reinforcing that HORNBACH is the partner that understands the true, messy nature of creation.
Creative Idea
Turned a simple bathroom renovation into a surreal, operatic drama featuring a literal Greek chorus.
Hornbach dramatized the chaotic reality of DIY projects through a surreal, operatic performance featuring a Greek chorus, validating the frustration and drama of home improvement to celebrate the hard-earned pride that comes only after overcoming obstacles.
The Greek Chorus in the Bathtub Theatre
Practical Effects Over Digital Shortcuts
Directed by Lope Serrano (co-founder of the production collective CANADA), the film eschews modern CGI in favor of tactile, physical storytelling. To capture the "heaviness" of a DIY disaster, production designer Andrea Batllo oversaw the construction of hand - built sets in Georgia. Every leaking pipe and crumbling wall was a practical effect designed to make the protagonist's struggle feel visceral. The production even featured a 30 - member Greek chorus that followed the actress through a "surreal bathtub theatre," chanting rhythmic narrations of her failures.
The Staccato Voice of Grit
The campaign's sonic identity was as meticulously crafted as its visuals. Supreme Music Berlin recorded a full orchestra to provide the operatic scale, but the final touch came from an unlikely source. Guido Heffels, founder of HeimatTBWA\, reportedly re - recorded the voiceover himself. He utilized a "broken - up, staccato style" to ensure the narration lacked the polished sheen of typical retail ads, leaning instead into a gritty, unpolished tone that mirrored the "Drama" of the project.
Redefining the DIY Narrative
The "No Project Without Drama" manifesto resonated instantly, garnering 15 million views within 24 hours of its digital launch. Beyond the views, the campaign drove a 15% year - on - year increase in engagement for Hornbach’s video content. By treating a trip to the hardware store as an "oceanic odyssey," the brand successfully pivoted the industry narrative away from "perfect results" toward the "earned pride" found in overcoming chaos. Industry critics at David Reviews even compared the atmospheric tension to something written by Stephen King.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
A brand legacy of celebrating the raw, unpolished, and physically demanding nature of manual labor and home improvement.
Category
Competitors focus on the perfect result and easy solutions, ignoring the actual pain and struggle of the process.
Customer
DIYers who feel overwhelmed and isolated by the inevitable mishaps, failures, and emotional exhaustion of home renovation projects.
Culture
A growing cultural rejection of Instagram-perfect lifestyles in favor of authentic, messy, and hard-earned personal achievements.
Company
A brand legacy of celebrating the raw, unpolished, and physically demanding nature of manual labor and home improvement.
Category
Competitors focus on the perfect result and easy solutions, ignoring the actual pain and struggle of the process.
Strategy:
Elevate the emotional struggle of the process to validate the pride of the final achievement.
Customer
DIYers who feel overwhelmed and isolated by the inevitable mishaps, failures, and emotional exhaustion of home renovation projects.
Culture
A growing cultural rejection of Instagram-perfect lifestyles in favor of authentic, messy, and hard-earned personal achievements.
Strategy:
Elevate the emotional struggle of the process to validate the pride of the final achievement.
Strategy Technique
Start With a Human Flaw
Instead of showing perfect results, it embraces the messy, emotional reality of human error and frustration, building brand trust through radical honesty about the DIY experience.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Dramatize the Problem
It transforms a mundane household leak into a high-stakes theatrical production, using a literal Greek chorus to personify the internal stress and physical struggle of a DIY project.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
The ad's power lies in its extraordinary production design and choreography, which turn a mundane home repair into a grand, operatic struggle.
The creation of the 'bathroom-in-a-void' and the plastic-sheet sea is a masterclass in using physical sets to represent psychological states.
The lighting and camera movement perfectly bridge the gap between a realistic home environment and a surreal theatrical stage.
The lead actress delivers a visceral, physically demanding performance that grounds the surrealism in genuine human emotion.
The percussive, vocal-heavy score is essential to the ad's rhythm and reinforces the 'drama' theme through sound.
The seamless integration of choreography, sound, and set design creates a unique 'theatre-film' hybrid that makes the metaphor of DIY drama feel tangible.
