HORNBACH turned the shrinking square meter into the canvas for its DIY ads

HORNBACH built its reputation on large, ambitious DIY projects, but as rents rose and apartments shrank, fewer customers believed they had room for them. The retailer needed to prove that great ideas still fit in small homes.

HeimatTBWA Berlin took the square meter—the defining small space of the housing crisis—and turned it into the campaign's canvas. The hero film was shot in a house of one-square-meter rooms, where each miniature set becomes a stage for creativity, and designers and artists from eight European countries produced real square-meter artworks for the supporting campaign.

The idea ran under the line 'Every square meter deserves to be the best in the world'. Results included an 8% lift in unaided brand awareness, a 9% gain in brand evaluation, and 4.1% brand preference—first place in the German DIY sector.

Make the constraint the medium

The unit of the housing crisis became the unit of the ad

Tiny sets made 'small space' a spectacle, not a limit

Artists' square-meter works gave the idea physical proof

Craft awards amplified a low-interest category

When the market's constraint is spatial, name the unit of the constraint and rebuild your whole campaign around it—the message and the format become inseparable.

The Square Meter won the Film Craft Grand Prix at Cannes 2024 plus two Gold Lions and a Silver, and a Gold at the ADC Europe Awards—making a German hardware chain's ad one of the most decorated films of the year.