Revolver’s Steve Rogers directs Hornbach’s Autumn campaign via HeimatTBWA\ Berlin

Hornbach has launched a new campaign ‘Obey Your Hands’ directed by Revolver’s Steve Rogers and long-term agency HeimatTBWA\ Berlin.

The close relationship between typical Hornbach project customers and their hands has always been a recurring element of Hornbach DIY/ Home Improvement communication. But what actually happens when our own hands want something different from their owner, who prefers to lose himself in the colorful world of first and second screens? When our hands are made for so much more.

It is precisely this scenario that the new campaign literally takes to the extreme. In the commercial, the hands want to “get back to work on the project” while the protagonist is still lounging on the sofa. What follows is an amusing and painful, traditionally insane lesson that the lost DIY soul is given by its own hands. And we all know the power of our own hands.

“Hands and will are probably the most valuable and magical creative tools at your disposal. However, it’s also one that DIY enthusiasts have to bring to the project themselves,” says Thomas Schnaitmann, head of international brand at Hornbach, “even the Hornbach range doesn’t have that for once.”

The purification process extends from the sofa to the half-finished loft conversion, where the performer has visibly come to his senses and become one with his hands. Obey your hands, is the simple and clear Hornbach message for late summer/autumn.

“This completes 2024 as the declared year of Hornbach humor, which began with the much-discussed cocoon spot,” says Guido Heffels, who has been creatively responsible for Hornbach communication for 25 years now.

As always, there are many other layers of interpretation in the commercial in addition to the obvious message. Analog versus digital. Acting versus consuming. Active versus passive. The commercial was produced by Tony Petersen Film and its EP Michael Duttenhöfer. It was directed by Steve Rogers (Revolver, Sydney) DoP: Daniel Landin, set design: Steven Jones-Evans. Katalyst in Berlin was in charge of visual effects. The tango that musically accompanies the path of purification comes from Machine in New York.

As always, the staging of the idea is extremely diverse and has plenty of surprises in store. In addition to the moving image impact, the campaign includes various other executions in social media, digital, (D)OHH, radio, ambient and at the POS.

Client: HORNBACH Baumarkt AG
Chief Marketing Officer: Karsten Kühn
Head of Global Brand Marketing: Thomas Schnaitmann
Client Head of  Brand Marketing: Julia Post
Client Brand Manager: Tina Maier, Sabrina Kiese

Media Company: Mediaplus, Munich

Agency: HeimatTBWA\Germany, Berlin
CCO: Matthias Storath
Head Creative Hornbach: Guido Heffels
Creative Directors: Guido Heffels, Luis Jaehner, Christofer Kuemmerer
Copywriter: John-Conrad Speer
Senior Agency Producer: Kerstin Heffels
Agency Managing Director: Tim Holtkoetter
Agency Account Director: Lea Boehm, Peter Hunger

Director: Steve Rogers
Director of Photography: Daniel Landin
Production Company: TPF x Revolver
Executive Producer TPF: Michael Duttenhöfer
Executive Producer Revolver: Pip Smart
Producer: Florian von der Heydt
Production Designer: Steven Jones-Evans
1st AD: Ben Gill
Editor: Jonnie Scarlett @ The Quarry London
Colorist: Jean Clement Soret @ Company3
VFX: Katalyst, Berlin
Composer: Nico William Sleator
Music Supervisor & Production: Machine, New York
Sound Design: David Arnold
Sound Studio: Fridge Audio, Berlin
Casting: Charlotte Martin
Service Company: Unit+Sofa, Prague­
Executive Producer Unit+Sofa: Martin Sobotka, Fady Salame, Veronika Hajkova
Producer Unit+Sofa: Nikola Mohorita