When night falls, the train pulls in with the bats

 
Outdoor advertising The ZVV and ZKB, together with KSB/SJ, get the night network talked about with a giant comic.  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Around the clock, suburban trains and buses will operate during the European Football Championship. At night, fans will get their money's worth. Thanks to a sponsorship from Zürcher Kantonalbank, the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) will waive the night surcharge of five francs throughout Euro 08. In return, ZKB will receive from ZVV the largest advertising space in Switzerland, which was officially presented at a media conference on April 10 in Zurich's main train station.
These are two train compositions, each 100 meters long, which show a nocturnal landscape in comic style along their entire length. The night world presents the Zurich skyline and countless bats, led by a giant bat at the head of the locomotive. The advertising highlight was realized by the Zurich agency Krieg Schlupp Bürge/Springer & Jacoby (KSB/SJ). The two train compositions will be on the S-Bahn network throughout the greater Zurich area for an entire year.
Star of the comics sceneThe Lucerne-based comics artist Melk Thalmann was commissioned to create the train. Born in 1967, the cartoonist is one of the early and very successful representatives of the Swiss comics scene. As early as 1989, during his studies at the Lucerne School of Art and Design, Thalmann published his first work, "Kommissar Roggenmoser, ein schwieriger Fall" (Commissioner Roggenmoser, a difficult case). In 2001, he received a scholarship from the city of Lucerne for a year of work in Chicago.
Stylistically, Melk Thalmann feels a connection to modern US adventure comics and has developed his own style from them. In 2005, he published the comic book "Zwischenfall," an exciting and at the same time offbeat agent story set against the historical background of Swiss efforts to obtain the atomic bomb in the sixties. Thanks to this publication, Melk Thalmann won the Cultural Recognition Award of the City of Lucerne in 2005.
The passionate illustrator has also worked as a freelance illustrator for press and advertising for 17 years. His highlights include cover illustrations for the business magazine Bilanz and the news magazine Facts, which ceased publication in 2007. Occasionally, illustrations bearing his signature also appear in the Sunday press.
Paper and pencil instead of pencilThe night world comic for the ZVV was not created on the computer, as Thalmann says, but on paper, drawn in pencil. The sketches were later colored with brushes and ink and then scanned in. On the computer, the colors were edited and the drawing was given the finishing touches. For Melk Thalmann, the poster in train format was new territory and a special challenge, because the extreme length has its pitfalls. The artist had to take into account the safety regulations of the ZVV and the train architecture. For the passionate cartoonist, the production of the train poster was also very demanding because the clients wanted a staging that could be recognized from a distance and from a short distance. For this reason, the large bats were used on the outside and the "rummage character" in the door area. In the door area, the "longest poster in Switzerland" has a few surprises in store for the attentive viewer.
While the current poster and ad campaign of the ZVV was already characterized by a multitude of allusions and secret messages, the train advertising impresses with various "special effects". If the doors open, individual bats move or new fluttering animals emerge. Melk Thalmann is not the only one who counts the work for the ZKB night network as a career highlight. Daniel Krieg from KSB/SJ also considers the work to be a highlight of his career to date: "After a project like this, I should actually retire as an advertiser."
Convertible sloganInitially, the two trains will advertise the ZKB night network, which will exceptionally operate night after night during the European Football Championship 08. The slogan will be "So that you are where your football night is". Afterwards, the trains will then travel with "So that you are where your night is" for the rest of the year. A whole range of other advertising materials will accompany football fans and anyone who prefers to avoid the football hype in June: Ads, bus lettering, small posters in streetcars, buses, and suburban trains, ticket vending machine stickers, and info brochures for European Football Championship guests and regular ZVV customers.
KSB/SJ takes Feldermaus idea furtherSince 2002, the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) has operated the night network, the bat has been the companion of every campaign. Under the motto "Live like a bat - first flutter around, then hang out", the ZVV communicates the night service. At the center of the campaign are the passengers traveling home in the S-Bahn cars. And the ZVV does not want to part with the wildly romantic image of the most famous nocturnal creature. Despite the change of agency in September 2007 - KSB/SJ is now responsible for communications instead of Publicis - the ZVV is holding on to the flapping animal. Daniel Krieg of KSB/SJ: "It's only right that we keep pulling the core idea." Together with Jean-Etienne Aebi, Daniel Krieg is one of the creators of the ZVV bat.
 
Christian Lüscher
 

ZVV is on the move around the clockWith 1,400 extra S-Bahn trains,
2,000 extra buses and streetcars, the ZVV wants to ensure that everything runs smoothly on public transport during Euro 08. More than one million visitors are expected. They should be able to travel at any time of the day or night by suburban trains and buses. As a matter of principle, they should be able to travel on the connections of the existing daytime network. During the Euro, the ZVV will deploy an additional 250 people per day. On match days, another 100 employees of the municipal transport company (VBZ) will be added. ZVV Director Franz Kagerbauer estimates the additional costs for the Euro at 4.4 million Swiss francs. About half of the amount should be covered by the ZKB by taking over the night surcharge. (cl)