Small town and Volta Studio spotlight women's alliances

Women are a force to be reckoned with: This is shown by the seven success stories so far recounted by the Gosteli Archive on the History of the Swiss Women's Movement for its #zusammenfrauen campaign. Under the title "Da fraut sich was zusammen," the archive, which was founded by women's rights activist Marthe Gosteli 40 years ago, describes how women in Swiss history have repeatedly joined together in groups and alliances to fight for rights and freedoms.

Animated archive box as a time machine

With this campaign, the Gosteli Foundation wants to draw attention to the fact that women celebrate the greatest successes when they work together, in view of the women's strike on June 14, 2023. One website with many archive items - old flyers, photos and video clips - forms the heart of the campaign, which is accompanied by an Instagram presence, a video and posters. An animated 3-D archive box shows the connection between past and present particularly well and forms the portal for diving into the seven success stories.

In terms of communication, the focus was on the question of how to show what services an archive provides for the general public. The implementation with newly developed content on its own microsite and a matching Instagram presence builds this bridge to a younger and non-specialized audience. "We wanted to show that today's women don't have to reinvent everything," says Sarah Pfäffli of the small-town agency. "The challenge here was to tell these stories in an attractive way, but also not oversimplify." Storytelling using concrete examples and focusing on successes and strategies should help inform as many interested people as possible about the achievements of women's groups.

Almost an all-female production

The design also helps to build this bridge. It takes up existing elements from the Gosteli archive, such as the "Gosteli orange", but also makes clear with sprayed elements that women already - or especially - had to go unconventional ways to represent their concerns in the past, as they had no political rights for a long time. "It was clear to us from the beginning that the archive box would have to play a central role in this action," says Selina Muth of Volta Studio.

For both small agencies, the Gosteli Archive was "a dream client," as Isabelle Lindner of Volta Studio points out. With the exception of the video production, women were exclusively responsible for the entire project. A circumstance that is probably still a rarity in the advertising and marketing world.

Responsible at the Gosteli Archive: Lina Gafner (co-director), Tabea Fröbel, Joana Burkart. Responsible at small town agency: Sarah Pfäffli, Eva Hefti (concept, editing, production). Responsible at Volta Studio: Isabelle Lindner, Selina Muth (concept, creation, realization). responsible for Roli Deluxe: Salome Grand (CGI).
Video: Flo Wyss.