Gecko Communication and Burgerbibliothek make Bern unforgettable

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Burgerbibliothek Bern, Gecko Communication has created a campaign that brings a unique archive into everyday life. Under the motto «We make Bern unforgettable», the campaign focuses on historical images, amazing archive stories and formative personalities.

Theodor Kocher, the late surgeon and Nobel Prize winner, and Monika Meyer-Holzapfel, once the first female zoo director in Europe, enrich the campaign, as do «Patent Ochsner» leader Büne Huber and YB manager Christoph Spycher. On social media and elsewhere, they get to the heart of what Bern has experienced, made possible and achieved over the centuries.

Focus on employees

Huber and Co. are representative of many others. After all, it is not just celebrities that make a city unforgettable. It also needs the rich archive of the Burgerbibliothek - and the employees who cherish, maintain and communicate it so that the people and their stories remain unforgettable. Gecko is therefore giving them a similarly important role in the campaign. Several employees of the Burgerbibliothek - from the director to the music archivist to the digital archivist - describe what makes their work uniquely appealing. The employees are given this visibility in short films by the Bern-based video agency Breitbild.

Common claim

The Burgerbibliothek's campaign shows in an impressive and accessible way how much undiscovered, surprising and entertaining information the past holds. It demonstrates how young supposedly old stories are - and how worthwhile it is to pass on the told and tell the untold. «We make Bern unforgettable» thus becomes a shared claim: by the Burgerbibliothek as an institution, by its employees and by the public - whether prominent or previously unheard. Everyone has the chance to contribute to making Bern unforgettable.

Claudia Engler Maurer, Director of the Burgerbibliothek Bern, says: «»We make Bern unforgettable' is not just a motto for us, but rather a mission. I'm delighted that Gecko has found a language and implementation for the campaign that suits us - and also appeals to people who may not have had any connection to the archive before."