Global viral attention with a tomato fight

Client

Siemens is a leading global producer of electronic appliances for domestic usage (e.g. washing machines), medical-, industrial- and energy industry.

Challenge

We - a group of 4 creative and entrepreneurial friends - wanted to raise awareness for the impact of the trade-boycott between EU and Russia in 2014, which left food producers with 80% overproduction, that would go to waste. A big problem we wanted to address with a positive approach.

Work

We organised a tomato fight with 200.000 over-ripe tomatoes and 2.000 participants on the most prominent location of the Netherlands: Amsterdam’s Dam Square, in front of the Royal palace. The event was inspired by Spain’s world-famous annual tomato festival “La Tomatina”. We attracted press coverage and participants using a PR and social media marketing strategy, linked to the active news topic of the boycott combined with the appealing visuals of a tomato fight.

Impact

The non-profit event drew 130 million media impressions worldwide, international media present and filming on site included BBC News, CNN, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Economist, Moscow Times and many others, as well as all national media including NOS and RTL. All event partners worked for free and the financial proceedings of participants were offered to the tomato farmers. Dam square was left cleaner than ever, thanks to the natural acids in tomatoes.