Dribbling artist with a nose for goal
Antonio Lopez has been a copywriter at Publicis since early February.
Antonio Lopez has been a copywriter at Publicis since the beginning of February.Antonio Lopez used to score goals as a striker for a Zurich football club. Today, as a copywriter, he only juggles with words instead of balls: he joined the team at the Zurich agency Publicis in February. "Only a few Swiss agencies match my idea of creative advertising," says Lopez, who quit his job at Springer & Jacoby in Hamburg to move to the Limmat. He has long respected the consistent performance of the team around Jean Etienne Aebi and Markus Gut. The 31-year-old now wants to build on this and produce successful campaigns that also win prizes. "And for big clients," Lopez emphasizes, "because that's more difficult than for the hairdresser around the corner." The Swiss with Spanish roots finds inspiration for this in everyday life: he devours everything - from tabloids to world literature. His (reading) hunger for new things is also reflected in his professional career: the lyricist has already worked as a fitness instructor, journalist, bartender and assistant to ballet director Heinz Spoerli, and studied at the conservatory (piano) and at university (French and German literature).
In his early days as a copywriter at FCB Leutenegger Krüll, the career changer learned the trade and quickly drew parallels with football: "In both disciplines, the better the team is, the easier it is to score goals," says Lopez. So he quickly set his sights on making it into the "Champions League". Two years later, he realized this idea with a copywriting job at Jung von Matt/Alster. A tough but all the more instructive school awaited him there: "In Germany, everything is ten times bigger, ten times faster, the work is ten times harder because you have ten times more competition and obstacles to overcome on the way to realizing a campaign," says Lopez. As a result, he has learned to achieve maximum quality with a certain obsession. Although he had a fascinating time at the Alster, his private life suffered as a result. This did not change when the copywriter moved to Springer & Jacoby after 17 months. "The fight for survival in such agencies is not only external, but also internal, 13 hours a day, 7 days a week," says Lopez. At both agencies, he worked on campaigns for BMW (3 Series), Mini, Bild, Panasonic, Smart and Mercedes-Benz, among others.
Back in Switzerland, Lopez finds everything heavenly - the work at Publicis, the food, the cultural offerings. The only thing he misses a little here is the cosmopolitanism and speed. He now wants to bring the speed he has learned abroad to the Publicis team and reject the "Swiss suckiness" in advertising. "A campaign can sometimes just be intelligent instead of funny," Lopez is convinced - he wants to "dramatize surprisingly, amazingly, wittily, simply and quickly". By "quick", the copywriter means "that everyone has to understand the message immediately without explanation".
Nevertheless, he is not afraid of sinking into Helvetic provincialism. After all, he is now playing in the best team in Switzerland, the FC Basel of advertising, so to speak. And, as we all know, it has also made it far in the lucrative Champions League.
Wants to take the Swiss advertising landscape by storm: Publicis copywriter Antonio Lopez.
Carole Koch
In his early days as a copywriter at FCB Leutenegger Krüll, the career changer learned the trade and quickly drew parallels with football: "In both disciplines, the better the team is, the easier it is to score goals," says Lopez. So he quickly set his sights on making it into the "Champions League". Two years later, he realized this idea with a copywriting job at Jung von Matt/Alster. A tough but all the more instructive school awaited him there: "In Germany, everything is ten times bigger, ten times faster, the work is ten times harder because you have ten times more competition and obstacles to overcome on the way to realizing a campaign," says Lopez. As a result, he has learned to achieve maximum quality with a certain obsession. Although he had a fascinating time at the Alster, his private life suffered as a result. This did not change when the copywriter moved to Springer & Jacoby after 17 months. "The fight for survival in such agencies is not only external, but also internal, 13 hours a day, 7 days a week," says Lopez. At both agencies, he worked on campaigns for BMW (3 Series), Mini, Bild, Panasonic, Smart and Mercedes-Benz, among others.
Back in Switzerland, Lopez finds everything heavenly - the work at Publicis, the food, the cultural offerings. The only thing he misses a little here is the cosmopolitanism and speed. He now wants to bring the speed he has learned abroad to the Publicis team and reject the "Swiss suckiness" in advertising. "A campaign can sometimes just be intelligent instead of funny," Lopez is convinced - he wants to "dramatize surprisingly, amazingly, wittily, simply and quickly". By "quick", the copywriter means "that everyone has to understand the message immediately without explanation".
Nevertheless, he is not afraid of sinking into Helvetic provincialism. After all, he is now playing in the best team in Switzerland, the FC Basel of advertising, so to speak. And, as we all know, it has also made it far in the lucrative Champions League.
Wants to take the Swiss advertising landscape by storm: Publicis copywriter Antonio Lopez.
Carole Koch
