DW’s latest campaign puts the focus on people who are making a difference. People who rely on global insights and who think, reflect, reconsider and innovate. Who make rules, instead of playing by them and motivate instead of standing in the way. What DW refers to as “local heroes”.

Coinciding with the launch of its new television channel, flagship news show and app, DW is calling for viewers and users on social media to submit their own stories about people in their community who are making a difference. To submit their stories, users just need to fill out a form at dw.com/localheroes or join the discussion on Facebook.

The campaign also features DW’s stories about local heroes as a programming highlight. For example, the winners of this year’s The Bobs are being featured on Life Links. The show speaks with online activists like a refugee from Syria, a data protection activist from Bangladesh and a blogger from Mexico, who tell their stories about taking a stand and fighting for what they think is right.

DW is valued all over the world for revealing unqiue ways to understand important global issues. A series of recent high-profile awards is a strong sign that this quality is being appreciated.

A prime example is the PromaxBDA Promotion, Marketing and Design Global Excellence Awards, where two DW productions won three awards last week in Los Angeles.

The youth-oriented documentary program Life Links received a gold award in the category, “Art Direction & Design: News Opener.” Life Links premiered last year and features personal and impactful stories from young people across the world.

Two bumpers from the Global Ideas series also won awards in the category “Art direction and design: News Bumper”. A gold went to “Biodiversity- Birds” and a silver to “Biodiversity- Forests”.  The documentaries from Global Ideas cover a fascinating variety of environmental and social issues tied to globalization.

In the winning categories, DW was among top brands in international news and documentary entertainment like CNN, BBC News and the Discovery Channel.

ProximaBDA is an international association for marketing, promotion and design with 10,000 members in 70 countries. The Global Excellence Awards recognize outstanding work in all branches of media marketing.

Another example is in Jordan, where DW received the Al Haitham Arab Media Award for the best international broadcaster with Arabic-language programming. The prize will be presented in August at the Arab Youth Media Forum in Amman, Jordan. The jury said that DW (Arabia) was a “reliable and trustworthy” source of information marked by a strong cultural profile and quality documentaries.

DW (Arabia) brings audiences from Morocco to Saudi Arabia a valuable independent perspective on global news and events. Starting June 22, the channel will broadcast 24 hours a day in Arabic.

Two DW productions were awarded with gold prizes at the 16^th annual World Media Festival in Hamburg. DW’s youth-oriented documentary format Life Links won a gold award in the “web-based new media” category. Winning a gold medal in the “E-learning and education” category was the DW Global Ideas production, A school for orangutans: learning to survive in the wild.

Life Links impressed jury members with well-produced and intimate personal portrayals of challenges that are similarly faced by young people around the world. The format combines a televised episode with an attractive website that expands on the issues in focus and invites the audience to discuss ideas.

A school for orangutans: learning to survive in the wild is another successful example of the interactive web documentary format. This emerging medium brings together stunning graphics with entertaining interactive features that create an entertaining learning process. This year’s gold-winning web documentary feature was produced in cooperation with the Federal Environment Ministry of Germany.

Guest commentary

Fabian von der Mark, Senior Producer for Life Links

In the multimedia age, good television programming will succeed by standing out from the content overload that is constantly bombarding audiences. People may expect something different from TV journalism than they did ten years ago but they still pay attention to stories that reach them personally with dynamism, insight and perspective.

There is no precise formula for creating original television, but good storytelling and a compelling protagonist are fundamental elements that will always connect with audiences. Everything starts with reporters in the field. For our new multimedia series, Life Links, we have put together a diverse team of young journalists and are sending them around the world to meet young people and listen to them talk about the issues that are holding them back.

We start with a core concept for each episode, but it comes down to the creativity and insight of our reporters to tie the essential elements together and find the story behind the story. The process is unscripted and nothing is guaranteed, but we are not looking for predictable answers. We are trying to share the stories of a generation with real people who tell it like it is, not like we think it should be.

If you look closely, you will see that the young people who share their stories with us may come from many different places – but they also have many things in common. We have interviewed North Korean defectors, Roma in Paris or Bolivian coca farmers and we work together as a team to take these individual stories and weave them together to create a single voice that speaks clearly about universal problems. The depth of experience and the international environment at DW makes it the perfect atmosphere to bring these stories to life.

As the series takes off we will explore how issues like identity, drug use and family problems affect individuals in different ways. Through telling these stories on television and by heavily incorporating online multimedia, we can create a global narrative and begin conversations with which young people everywhere can share their realities. The result are documentaries that stand out and speak out.

The obstacles every young person faces are as diverse as the dreams they are trying to realize. I believe the stories shared on Life Links will ultimately show us that sometimes what holds you back can also be what drives you forwards.