Comet celebrates the 20th birthday
Komet, the Bern-based agency located right on the Aare River, celebrated its anniversary party on Friday with partners, clients, employees, and friends.
Peter meant well with Komet: Despite possible rain showers and thunderstorms, which were forecast in advance, the Komet party, to which the Bern agency had invited on Friday, remained dry. The invited guests who attended the celebration wanted for nothing: they were spoiled with culinary delights, the DJ played at a pleasant volume, and when you have an agency location right on the water, not much can go wrong anyway.
In his entertaining speech, agency founder and owner Marcel Durst looked back on the last two decades, on highlights when the small Bernese agency beat the big Zurich competition in the smart pitch, and on disillusionments when this client was lost again for incomprehensible, internal reasons. Durst was optimistic that Komet will still have something to celebrate in another 20 years: The agency is well positioned, is winning new clients and is led by a team of three that perfectly complements each other in terms of experience and new ideas. He doesn't know how long Durst will stay on board before handing over the helm completely to his younger colleagues - he still enjoys his work every day.
Zurich residents queue up for it every day; in Bern, Gelateria di Berna served the glacé creations at Komet's agency festival.
The catering left nothing to be desired and left no culinary wishes unfulfilled.
Right on the Bernese Aare: Komet is one of the most beautifully located agencies in Switzerland (Photo: zVg).
20 years ago, when Jean-Etienne Aebi was still ADC president and the Swiss Leading Agencies (LSA) were still called Bund Schweizer Werbeagenturen (BSW), Marcel Durst founded his own agency called Cosmic Bern together with three other ex-employees of the Hofer communications agency and in cooperation with Cosmic Zurich. Their first assignment: the package design for 120 different varieties of pet food under the "Schweizer" brand.
Rich bar offer - among other things with the own anniversary beer.
This was soon followed by clients such as Swisscom Directories and Smart, who went full throttle in communications at the beginning of the new century and thus ensured the continuous growth of Cosmic Bern. This period also saw the move from the Sulgenau district to the idyllic banks of the River Aare in Altenberg, as well as the acquisition of Migros Aare with Shoppyland Schönbühl as a client in 2009, which has remained loyal to the agency to this day. Finally, in 2011, the cooperation with Cosmic Zurich is terminated and the agency is renamed Komet. Then in 2013, with the national health insurer Visana in the portfolio, another growth step takes place, but also a creative change of course.
While Komet was mainly known for graphic design under Creative Director Thomas Pfister, the agency has developed into one of the leading advertising agencies in the Bern area in recent years. Under the operational management of Consulting Director Corinne Hert and Creative Director Jeff Gerber, Komet now advertises not only for regional clients such as BZ Berner Zeitung, BSC Young Boys, EWB or Oberland Shopping, but also for national brands and those from other regions such as Interdiscount, Microspot.ch, Swiss Lotto or Industrielle Werke Basel IWB.
Today's management: Creative Director Jeff Gerber, founder and owner Marcel Durst and Head of Consulting Corinne Hert (from left) (Photo: zVg).
So it will be interesting to see how the agency develops over the next 20 years. Owner Marcel Durst already revealed this much in a message on the anniversary: "Everything will remain different.
Agency founder and owner Marcel Durst gave a speech in front of an assembled crowd of guests on Friday - it didn't last three hours as "threatened", but it did offer an entertaining and entertaining review of the last 20 years of agency history (photos: Werbewoche.ch).
The youngest visitor - with paws like a big one.
