Trusted storytelling: How The B1M brought Europe's $1BN abandoned mega build to life

The B1M's Chief Revenue Officer, Liam Marsh, shares how the platform drove global attention for one of Europe’s most iconic redevelopment opportunities.

SOME projects definitely surprise you. When The B1M published its documentary on the Berlin ICC earlier this year, we had no idea it would become one of the biggest conversation-starters of 2025 in the construction world. But that’s exactly what happened. 

Here's the inside story of how we turned a long-forgotten Cold-War relic into the year’s most-talked-about mega-build revival — and why the world sat up and paid attention.

Client

Berlin Partner, the official economic development and marketing agency for the City of Berlin.

Objective

Berlin Partner approached The B1M to help amplify the international tender for the ICC Berlin — an enormous, architecturally significant yet long-abandoned conference centre on the edge of West Berlin.

The brief was clear:

• Bring global visibility to the tender
• Educate audiences on the building’s history, significance, and potential
• Attract serious interest from developers, architects, and investors
• Position Berlin as a city backing ambitious, future-shaping redevelopment projects

Approach

The B1M produced a high-impact onsite documentary, capturing the ICC’s dramatic scale, architectural legacy and redevelopment opportunity.

Our editorial lens focused on:

• The building’s engineering significance
• The scale challenges of revitalising a structure of this size
• The opportunity for design innovation and commercial transformation
• Berlin’s strategic vision for the site

Key deliverables included:

• A flagship documentary on The B1M YouTube channel
• Supporting assets and short-form cutdowns
• A pinned CTA driving viewers to the official tender information
• Cross-platform amplification to engage global AEC audiences

Results

The campaign far exceeded expectations, delivering extraordinary reach, engagement, and commercial visibility for Berlin Partner.

Performance Highlights:

• 8 million+ views on the main documentary
• 90 million+ impressions across YouTube and social platforms
• 125,000+ likes
• 8,000+ comments from construction, architecture, engineering and real-estate professionals
• One of the most engaged and discussed videos published on The B1M in 2025
• Significant inbound interest in the ICC tender from global firms

Above: The B1M's Fred Mills on set with exclusive access inside the heart of Berlin's abandoned ICC. Image: Fred Mills.

Audience Impact

• Reached a highly targeted, highly engaged AEC audience
• Sparked global debate on the future of the ICC and mega-redevelopments
• Positioned Berlin as a forward-thinking, opportunity-rich city for major real-estate projects
• Generated direct traffic and attention to Berlin Partner’s tender documentation

Why It Worked

• Trusted Editorial Platform: The B1M’s reputation for authoritative construction storytelling provided instant credibility.
• On-Site Access: Captured the scale, complexity and potential of the ICC in a way static press or traditional marketing could not.
• Global Distribution: Delivered unparalleled reach into the exact industry verticals Berlin needed to mobilise.
• Purposeful Storytelling: Combined history, engineering, and future vision to inspire developers and design teams.

Outcome

The content became a cornerstone asset for Berlin Partner’s global tender promotion and remains one of the highest-performing pieces of ICC Berlin marketing to date. It reinforced the ICC as a once-in-a-generation redevelopment opportunity — and demonstrated the power of partnering with The B1M to reach the global built-environment community.

Above: The B1M took viewers inside Berlin's vast ICC, one of Europe's largest abandoned buildings. Image: Fred Mills.

If you're ready to reach millions of engaged AEC professionals, get in touch with me here and I will send over our partnership options and availability.