D-Day 80 on ITV

The challenge

How can the British Normandy Memorial position itself at the centre of the D-Day 80 commemorations, on an anniversary which is dominated by The Royal British Legion?

How can this new Memorial share its stories to drive public awareness and increase visitor numbers?

How can an initiative of this scale be funded?

Our solution

The Makers created the only UK event marking D-Day 80 – with a sold out event at the Royal Albert Hall and a broadcast on ITV.

Co-produced with TBI Media, the show was presented by Davina McCall and funded through an ITV commission, sponsorship from Ancestry and ticket revenue.

How the British Normandy Memorial and Ancestry featured

The real-life stories at heart of the show’s narrative were sourced from the charity’s extensive archives and brought to life through music and words – presented by high-profile talent on stage including Lulu, Katherine Jenkins, Emeli Sande, Toby Jones, Tamsin Greig and Sally Lindsay.

The project gave Ancestry the opportunity to reach their core audience through sponsorship, which included bumpers on ITV.

To reach a Gen Z audience we cast 23-year-old reality star Harry Clark, winner of BBC’s ‘The Traitors’ and former Lance Corporal, to make an emotional visit to the British Normandy Memorial to meet his namesake.

As well as featuring on ITV, this Ancestry-funded VT was edited as a standalone film for the charity’s social channels.

The results

• We helped increase footfall to British Normandy Memorial over the D-Day period by 264% (160,000 visitors)
• We placed Ancestry in front of 1.5m core customers to increase their brand awareness
• Social content reach 500k+
• PR reach – our war commemorative events deliver an average AVE media value £250k