TV-3 channel (part of Gazprom-Media Holding) has developed a special transmedia initiative “Saluyt Gerou” (Fireworks for the Hero), dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Victory Day. The channel invited its viewers to launch virtual fireworks anywhere in the world in honour of World War II veterans and thus honour the memory of their heroic ancestors.
The traditional celebrations on May 9 will look different this year. Due to the mandatory self-isolation order, mass events are cancelled and people will be staying at home.
The team of TV-3 channel has come up with an interactive way to set off celebratory fireworks, one of the traditional commemorative events of Victory Day. The initiative “Salyut Gerou” will extend across all of the channel’s platforms: its official website, social networks and TV broadcast. This will be a symbolic unification of May 9 celebrations across the country and a way for the channel to address each viewer.
The channel has launched a special page for the “Salyut Gerou” initiative on its website: https://9may.tv3.ru/
From April 27 to May 9, anyone can go to the page and fill in a form with the information about a relative who participated in the Great Patriotic War - his or her name and surname, a significant location such as the place from which he left to the front, where he fought or worked in the rear, to which point he progressed, where he died or where he lived after the war. It is also possible to upload a photograph of the veteran. The participant is then directed to Google Maps, without leaving the website, where he sees the portrait of his veteran with the information about him on the background of the chosen location, stylised with a wartime era filter. Animated fireworks are then set off in his honour, with the sounds of a gun salute and cries of ‘Hurrah!’ overlaid on top. The fireworks and portraits of hero relatives can be shared in social networks.
In the first day since the launch of the project, website visitors have already set off more than 1,000 fireworks, 80% of them featuring a photograph of the hero being honoured.
TV-3 will show a compilation of the virtual fireworks that its viewers have launched in honour of the veterans during the channel’s May 9 broadcast.