Results and Effectiveness

We collected hundreds of heart-wrenching real letters written by real soldiers who fought in the pacific battles of WWII. We then placed actual-sized replicas of the letters inside bus stops. More letters were pinned, along with photographs, on a 20-metre wall for people to read and even take away with them. Thousands of New Zealanders received one of the letters in the mail enclosed in a genuine-looking envelope. Finally on the eve of the show's premiere we recreated a large aerial dogfight, which used pyrotechnics, two Japanese planes and a New Zealand Kittyhawk over New Zealand's largest harbour.

Creative Execution

We collected hundreds of heart-wrenching real letters written by real soldiers who fought in the pacific battles of WWII. We then placed actual-sized replicas of the letters inside bus stops. More letters were pinned, along with photographs, on a 20-metre wall for people to read and even take away with them. Thousands of New Zealanders received one of the letters in the mail enclosed in a genuine-looking envelope.Finally on the eve of the show's premiere we recreated a large aerial dogfight, which used pyrotechnics, two Japanese planes and a New Zealand Kittyhawk over New Zealand's largest harbour.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

ONE had a problem people would come to them for the news and then switch to other channels for their entertainment. Speilberg's 'The Pacific' was a chance to tell New Zealanders that ONE is more than News ONE can do entertaining stuff too. 'The Pacifc' is based on the real stories of soldiers who fought in the pacific region. But it's also a real war that affected the lives of many New Zealanders. So there was also an opportunity to engage with New Zealanders about what war really is, while having a positive effect on the ONE brand overall.