The man is himself
Pius Walker returns to Zurich after ten years abroad and founds «the world’s smallest agency.».
After ten years abroad, Pius Walker returns to Zurich and founds "the smallest agency in the world".London is known for its cabs, pubs and queuing. "People there are specialists in queuing. This is especially true for jobs in an interesting advertising agency," recalls Pius Walker. Nevertheless, the young Swiss made it back then. "It was my dream to be able to work in one of the creative capitals of the world one day," says Walker, still proud of his two years at Leagas Delaney. "In London, top-class advertising can be found in such a high concentration like hardly anywhere else in the world," he enthuses. Of course, Walker has not only been able to realize his dreams of working abroad and now founding his own agency thanks to patiently lining up his job search. His references before London included four years at Springer & Jacoby in Hamburg. He first worked there in the agency's founding office. Later, he was mainly responsible for advertising for Mercedes at another branch of the group.
Walker started out with an apprenticeship as a graphic designer at Advico Young & Rubicam in Gockhausen. This was followed by two years at GGK in Zurich before the point came when he said to himself: "It would be interesting to go abroad for a year."
Walker sees the fact that it took ten years as his capital. "You can absorb a lot," he knows. In London, the AD lived together with film school graduate Patricia, who later became his wife, in an apartment measuring just 26 square meters in order to save as much money as possible for further cultural enjoyment. This included a year-long trip around the world, before London was followed by another new experience with a year as CD and managing director of a unit at Scholz & Friends in Berlin.
Now the Ikea shelf with the large collection of books on art, film, photography and, of course, advertising has found its permanent home on Blaufahnenstrasse in Zurich.
The new company is simply called "Walker". And what is supposed to set "the smallest advertising agency in the world" apart from a conventional freelancer's office?
"We are like an orchestra that is put together anew for each piece," says Walker, explaining the network of freelance teams he has come to know during his years of traveling. With this wide-ranging infrastructure, Walker does not want to offer "a standard formation" that can be used both for
Jazz as in classical music with the same people all the time.
They want to play for clients who "don't necessarily have budgets in the millions, but still want international quality". This requires good commercials and a good strategy - but "not a big office", the advertiser is convinced.
Pius Walker believes that the time for such start-ups is very good. Many old patterns are breaking up and there is a need for action. But those who simply want to ride in the slipstream of the big players are unlikely to succeed. "We want to offer alternatives with a different structure and a different network."
Walker has not taken a single customer with him from previous jobs. Nevertheless, one major order is already in the bag. He has produced two commercials for Düring's toilet duck and a new cleaning cloth from the company. In one, a tourist drags his toilet with him on a trekking trip to China. This tackles the seemingly thankless subject of cleaning with a lot of lifestyle and humor. For WC-Ente, the new style has paid off with an almost dreamlike and therefore "unfortunately unquotable increase in sales".
For Walker, this initial success is an encouragement to contact a few other companies that have so far "attracted attention" with no or only mediocre advertising.
Pius Walker is pursuing clear goals with his network: "We want to
Walker started out with an apprenticeship as a graphic designer at Advico Young & Rubicam in Gockhausen. This was followed by two years at GGK in Zurich before the point came when he said to himself: "It would be interesting to go abroad for a year."
Walker sees the fact that it took ten years as his capital. "You can absorb a lot," he knows. In London, the AD lived together with film school graduate Patricia, who later became his wife, in an apartment measuring just 26 square meters in order to save as much money as possible for further cultural enjoyment. This included a year-long trip around the world, before London was followed by another new experience with a year as CD and managing director of a unit at Scholz & Friends in Berlin.
Now the Ikea shelf with the large collection of books on art, film, photography and, of course, advertising has found its permanent home on Blaufahnenstrasse in Zurich.
The new company is simply called "Walker". And what is supposed to set "the smallest advertising agency in the world" apart from a conventional freelancer's office?
"We are like an orchestra that is put together anew for each piece," says Walker, explaining the network of freelance teams he has come to know during his years of traveling. With this wide-ranging infrastructure, Walker does not want to offer "a standard formation" that can be used both for
Jazz as in classical music with the same people all the time.
They want to play for clients who "don't necessarily have budgets in the millions, but still want international quality". This requires good commercials and a good strategy - but "not a big office", the advertiser is convinced.
Pius Walker believes that the time for such start-ups is very good. Many old patterns are breaking up and there is a need for action. But those who simply want to ride in the slipstream of the big players are unlikely to succeed. "We want to offer alternatives with a different structure and a different network."
Walker has not taken a single customer with him from previous jobs. Nevertheless, one major order is already in the bag. He has produced two commercials for Düring's toilet duck and a new cleaning cloth from the company. In one, a tourist drags his toilet with him on a trekking trip to China. This tackles the seemingly thankless subject of cleaning with a lot of lifestyle and humor. For WC-Ente, the new style has paid off with an almost dreamlike and therefore "unfortunately unquotable increase in sales".
For Walker, this initial success is an encouragement to contact a few other companies that have so far "attracted attention" with no or only mediocre advertising.
Pius Walker is pursuing clear goals with his network: "We want to
offer alternatives."
Andreas Panzeri
