Theses from the field of tension

1. Art & Communication: Do companies benefit from creative campaigns?

Swiss curator Harald Szeemann said: «Art is always ahead of the Zeitgeist.» Technology and nature are changing exponentially faster than we can comprehend. Today, it is more important than ever that we reconnect with nature. Art helps us understand the complexity of the world on an imaginative and emotional level. The role of art is also changing: in addition to traditional introspection, contemporary art practice is increasingly focused on participatory and interdisciplinary work. Some artists collaborate with scientists and engineers on the practical implementation of scientific inventions. For example, we work with artists when it comes to translating and visualizing major societal trends for a broad audience.

2. Is there any escape from "Swissness"?

The prevalence of “Swissness” in advertising is a warning sign of the decline in our ability to innovate in a Switzerland that has become complacent due to its success. For the past 15 years, “Swissness” seems to have been the ticket for marketing executives to win the board’s favor. “Swissness” in advertising—that is, the celebration of quirky but harmless local quirks, as well as the promotion of values like solidarity, modesty, and a commitment to quality—has vague marketing goals: evoking shared values and shared experiences, and feigning customer closeness in the style of *Heidi*. More and more people tune out when a company once again tries to stroke our national soul: Erstfeld–Biasca, so to speak. Others, however, expose “Swissness” as a sales gimmick. For instance, when a major retailer, a communications service provider, or an insurance company tries to whitewash its decline in creativity, value for money, and genuine customer contact with a love of the homeland. Compulsory solidarity makes sense in the context of cantonal financial equalization. Not so much when it comes to the weekly grocery shopping. The self-satisfaction of the “corporate super-Swiss,” presented with pseudo-modesty, not only makes it harder for us to distinguish between brands—it directly harms Switzerland. This complacency masks the fact that we are squandering Switzerland’s greatest and most exciting asset: our capacity for innovation. Empowered consumers have very different needs, fears, and hopes. They deserve brands that offer more than just folklore in exchange for their attention.

3. Is “slice-of-life” a bullshit category?

Never. “Slice-of-Life” has found a new purpose thanks to the Kardashians. They show that nothing is more exciting than real life. Illnesses, weddings and divorces, armed robberies, children, careers, houses, and luxury cars: it’s all there. It’s camp and trashy, funny and sad all at once, and can shift in surprising ways from low to high and from high to low. The Kardashians have our respect. And they know a thing or two about smart merchandising. Take Skims, for example—Kim Kardashian’s truly excellent lingerie line. It’s photographed exclusively by the Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft. Beecroft became famous in the ’90s for her performance in the lobby of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Models wore bikinis and high heels by Tom Ford for Gucci and simply stood there. An army of women. Today, Beecroft lives in Hollywood and serves as Kim’s art director and personal photographer. “Slice of Life” remains a winning category.

4. The Curatorial Turn: What does the term mean?

How do you strategically align brands in an age of constant confusion? One solution is «Human Identities Instead of Brand Identities.» Incidentally, this is also a strategy employed by Creative Director Demna Gvasalia, who uses this phrase to describe the Instagram activity of his brand, Balenciaga. A group of Balenciaga fans styles the products exactly as they please. The brand strategy is, in a sense, to have no strategy at all, but rather to let the consumers speak for themselves. The images are sometimes endearing, sometimes annoying, sometimes silly—just like a real personality. The other approach is called the “Curatorial Turn” and suggests that curators are playing an increasingly central role in brand management. We predict that the next creative director of a major company will be a woman.

5. Purpose: Are Advertisers Seeking Meaning?

More and more of our clients’ briefings revolve around “purpose”—the deeper meaning behind business creation and production. Creating meaning has indeed become one of Neutral’s most pressing—and interesting—tasks. “The social responsibility of a business is to increase profits,” Milton Friedman wrote in the headline of his famous 1970 essay. Today, however, more and more business leaders are recognizing the need to assume environmental and social responsibility and to position their companies as purpose-driven. If the strategy allows for it, we’re happy to take on this task—but with respect: The “P” word is too often misused, with a bouquet of nice-sounding visions and values intended to distract from the conventional and poorly defined corporate direction. Companies are enablers of the future. This isn’t just of interest to shareholders.

6. Gold Standard: The best-written Swiss campaign?

As authors and copywriters, we’ve chosen a long-copy campaign—specifically, a dignified, unhurried, and touching campaign for Emmentaler. The ads and posters were written by Martin Suter a good 30 years ago. We could have also included a long-copy ad we wrote ourselves for the NZZ Folio, but according to the preachers of “Swissness,” the Swiss shy away from immodesty like a vampire shies away from a garland of garlic.

((Headline))
The flat, flower-patterned plate ((Small image: Schnäfu Emmentaler on a plate))

… On the battered wall, hanging from a hook that had been patiently reattached time and again, was a bottle brush with a long handle made of two wires twisted together. In the pass-through to the living room was a round, tin bread box, on whose lid someone had painted two roses. In the cupboard was a box of parcel strings that had been painstakingly untangled and neatly rolled up, among which tiny balls of colorful and golden ribbons sparkled here and there like Christmas decorations. That was my grandparents’ kitchen, and this is what remains of it for me: a flat, flowered plate, on which a piece of Emmental cheese sometimes lies.

«Balenciaga's brand strategy is, in a sense, to have no strategy at all, but rather to let consumers speak for themselves.»

7. Courage: How much courage does it take to work with agencies like Neutral?

Twenty years ago, Swiss marketing departments viewed us as aliens. They wouldn’t even invite us in for a meeting. For 100 years, advertising creatives had been copywriters and graphic designers. But certainly not artists, designers, architects, or scientists. Where would that lead us? Of course we work with graphic designers, too—the very best ones. (And: We’re currently looking for an architect.) Zurich Insurance’s European corporate business was our first major account. The target audience was the CEOs and CFOs of the largest companies in eight European countries. The immersive campaign «The Next 3 Years» was a blockbuster. Today, we recommend Neutral to anyone who has a message to share.

* Neutral Founder Rudolf Schürmann, Strategist and Creative Director, as well as Michelle Nicol, an art historian, curator, and author, are pioneers in the transcultural application of architecture, art, design, and science. Their jointly run agency has received numerous awards for creative work, most recently including ADC Double Gold in the premier categories of Overall Campaign and PR for «Ai Weiwei & Hornbach.».