UNESCO - Backup Ukraine
UNESCO and Blue Shield Denmark approached Virtue Worldwide. They needed an urgent solution to digitally preserve Ukraine's cultural heritage, which was under severe threat of destruction during the war. The challenge was empowering Ukrainian citizens to actively contribute to this vital task, safeguarding their national identity. They wanted an innovative, accessible way to capture and protect cultural sites for future generations and potential reconstruction.
Creative Idea
UNESCO equipped Ukrainians with a 3D scanning app to digitally preserve their cultural heritage and national identity from war.
Polycam created a unique campaign called 'Backup Ukraine' that enabled Ukrainian citizens to use a mobile app to 3D scan and digitally preserve their cultural heritage sites and monuments during the war, protecting their national identity from physical destruction.
Building a Digital Fortress in Forty Days
The Android Hackathon
While the campaign relied on Polycam technology, a major hurdle emerged: the app was originally iOS-exclusive. Since the vast majority of Ukrainians use Android devices, the Polycam team executed a high-speed hackathon to build and launch a compatible version in just weeks. This technical pivot was essential to democratizing the effort, allowing the project to scale from zero to 50,000 downloads almost immediately.
Digital Resistance by the Numbers
The initiative effectively turned a civilian population into a specialized preservation force. Within months, volunteers uploaded more than 35,000 3D captures of monuments and buildings. To put this in perspective, the volunteer force backed up more sculptures in a single summer than the MoMA has collected since 1993. Beyond the app, 135 civilians joined a specialized unit coordinated by local authorities to scan high-risk sites, while 7 international firms donated funding and equipment to support the digital archive.
Speed and Presidential Support
The project moved at a pace rarely seen in global bureaucracy. Morten Grubak, Global ECD of Innovation at Virtue, noted that while UNESCO partnerships typically take 6 to 12 months to finalize, this collaboration was secured in just ten days. The campaign's significance was further cemented when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise appearance at the Cannes Lions festival, specifically citing "Backup Ukraine" as a benchmark for how the creative industry can provide functional utility during a national crisis.
Safety and Reconstruction
To ensure civilian safety, the app included strict protocols forbidding scans near military installations or active combat zones. The data collected wasn't just for archival purposes; some blueprints were immediately used to 3D print replicas of threatened statues, proving the feasibility of physical reconstruction should the originals be lost to the conflict.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
UNESCO leveraged its global authority on heritage protection alongside Polycam’s accessible LiDAR technology, turning professional-grade 3D scanning into a simple mobile tool for the masses.
Category
The category typically relies on specialized experts and heavy, expensive equipment, making preservation efforts too slow and dangerous to execute during active military conflicts.
Customer
Ukrainian citizens felt a profound sense of helplessness as their history was physically erased, desiring a way to actively defend their national identity beyond just survival.
Culture
The invasion saw a surge in 'digital resistance,' where smartphones became tools for truth-telling and crowdsourcing, turning data collection into a powerful act of civilian defiance.
Company
UNESCO leveraged its global authority on heritage protection alongside Polycam’s accessible LiDAR technology, turning professional-grade 3D scanning into a simple mobile tool for the masses.
Category
The category typically relies on specialized experts and heavy, expensive equipment, making preservation efforts too slow and dangerous to execute during active military conflicts.
Strategy:
Democratize high-tech preservation to transform civilian smartphones into a decentralized defense system for a nation's endangered cultural identity.
Customer
Ukrainian citizens felt a profound sense of helplessness as their history was physically erased, desiring a way to actively defend their national identity beyond just survival.
Culture
The invasion saw a surge in 'digital resistance,' where smartphones became tools for truth-telling and crowdsourcing, turning data collection into a powerful act of civilian defiance.
Strategy:
Democratize high-tech preservation to transform civilian smartphones into a decentralized defense system for a nation's endangered cultural identity.
Results
The campaign achieved 2,400 weekly downloads of the Polycam app in Ukraine. There was a 44% weekly growth in heritage scans. The initiative received significant media coverage, with mentions and interviews on platforms like NTD UK News, MSNBC, CNN, and BBC. It was praised by publications such as Fast Company ("An extremely welcome innovation"), CNN ("A solid door into the Metaverse"), and The Odessa Journal ("Anyone can join"). The technology and unlimited cloud storage for scans were donated freely to all Ukrainians by Polycam. The project gained support from multiple organizations including UNESCO, Leica, Skeiron, R3GA, NEMO, Blue Shield, ICOM, ICOMOS, IUAJ, and IPN.
2.400
weekly downloads in Ukraine
44%
weekly growth in heritage scans
Strategy Technique
Build an Utility, Not an Ad
The campaign provides a mobile app as a direct utility for citizens to 3D scan heritage. This tool genuinely solves the urgent problem of cultural preservation during wartime.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Cutting-edge Tech
The campaign leverages a mobile 3D scanning app, a bleeding-edge technology, to empower citizens. This innovative tech provides an accessible solution for urgent cultural heritage preservation.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional for its groundbreaking strategic idea, empowering citizens with innovative digital technology to preserve cultural heritage amidst conflict.
The campaign's technical execution is outstanding, transforming 22 million smartphones into advanced 3D scanners via the Polycam app and establishing a secure cloud library for digital blueprints of heritage.
The user experience and interface design of the Polycam app made the complex process of 3D scanning intuitive and accessible for ordinary citizens, enabling widespread participation.
The magic comes from the perfect synergy between a powerful, empathetic idea born from urgent necessity and cutting-edge digital technology made accessible to empower a nation.
