Kurt! Immediately into the mask!
Publicis advertises for Publisuisse with unflattering celebrities for more TV commercial customers
Publicis advertises for Publisuisse with unflattering celebrities for more TV spot customersBy Simone Keller The Swiss advertising market is a stepmotherly one when it comes to TV advertising: its share of the advertising pie was just 18 percent in 2001. In order to gradually increase this share, advertising time marketer Publisuisse is enlisting the support of the creative minds at Publicis.
Despite poor conditions, TV advertising was able to increase its market share by 1.4% in 2001 compared to the previous year. However, print products still hold the lion's share of 66%, as figures from Media-Focus show. While TV accounts for between 25 and 45 percent of the total advertising volume in neighboring countries, it only accounts for 18 percent in the Swiss market.
The advertising time marketer Publisuisse is therefore convinced that the potential of television advertising is not being used optimally. Barbara Kohler, Head of Marketing, explains the current "malaise" in part by the fact that TV advertising time is limited by law, namely to 8 percent of total broadcasting time and 12 minutes per hour.
In addition, there is a general ban on TV advertising for alcohol, tobacco, politics, religion and prescription medicines. In contrast, there are no comparable regulations for print media. Despite or precisely because of these restrictions, Publisuisse wants to "make the advantages of the TV medium better known" with targeted market activities and continuously expand its own market share.
Publicis gave Publisuisse a new look
Part of these activities is a print campaign that was launched in the trade press at the end of August. As part of the realignment of the company - from SRG SSR's advertising time broker to a more independent and flexible marketer - and the change in communication strategy, Publisuisse has parted company with its long-standing account holder Lang Gysi Knoll in Bern following an agency evaluation.
Its successor is the Zurich agency Publicis, which immediately knocked on the door of TV celebrities for the new campaign. To visualize the campaign claim "Everything looks better on TV", the team led by CD Markus Gut shows well-known faces as they are not known: without make-up, looking in the mirror in the morning. With disheveled hair and puffy eyes, talk show host Kurt Aeschbacher and weatherman Thomas Bucheli show their "true" faces to advertising clients in German-speaking Switzerland. For French-speaking Switzerland, a sleepy Lolita Morena and an unshaven Massimo Lorenzi demonstrate what can be retouched or emphasized on TV.
"Everything looks better on television because the images can be moved and accompanied by sound, which is not possible in print," says Markus Gut, explaining the claim and adding that the task was not just to develop a campaign. The aim was also "to create a motto, an attitude that can be communicated further".
The Zurich-based creative team has given Publisuisse a new graphic look: An orange background with the claim in black letters runs through all advertising material. An ingenious detail: the font bar is modeled on the shape of a TV screen. The print campaign is just the beginning, the CD reveals, with various other measures planned. One of these was already used during the AZ Cup last Friday: guerrilla stickers placed in the showers informed football-loving advertisers that even athlete's foot and orange peel skin would look better on TV.
The advertising campaign starts just in time for the beginning of fall, the time when media planning for the coming year takes place. September 11 is also approaching (see also page 18). This is a completely normal working day for Publisuisse, as Barbara Kohler explains. "However, when putting together the advertising blocks, we took special care not to schedule any 'sensitive' products such as airlines or commercials with 'critical' content."
Despite poor conditions, TV advertising was able to increase its market share by 1.4% in 2001 compared to the previous year. However, print products still hold the lion's share of 66%, as figures from Media-Focus show. While TV accounts for between 25 and 45 percent of the total advertising volume in neighboring countries, it only accounts for 18 percent in the Swiss market.
The advertising time marketer Publisuisse is therefore convinced that the potential of television advertising is not being used optimally. Barbara Kohler, Head of Marketing, explains the current "malaise" in part by the fact that TV advertising time is limited by law, namely to 8 percent of total broadcasting time and 12 minutes per hour.
In addition, there is a general ban on TV advertising for alcohol, tobacco, politics, religion and prescription medicines. In contrast, there are no comparable regulations for print media. Despite or precisely because of these restrictions, Publisuisse wants to "make the advantages of the TV medium better known" with targeted market activities and continuously expand its own market share.
Publicis gave Publisuisse a new look
Part of these activities is a print campaign that was launched in the trade press at the end of August. As part of the realignment of the company - from SRG SSR's advertising time broker to a more independent and flexible marketer - and the change in communication strategy, Publisuisse has parted company with its long-standing account holder Lang Gysi Knoll in Bern following an agency evaluation.
Its successor is the Zurich agency Publicis, which immediately knocked on the door of TV celebrities for the new campaign. To visualize the campaign claim "Everything looks better on TV", the team led by CD Markus Gut shows well-known faces as they are not known: without make-up, looking in the mirror in the morning. With disheveled hair and puffy eyes, talk show host Kurt Aeschbacher and weatherman Thomas Bucheli show their "true" faces to advertising clients in German-speaking Switzerland. For French-speaking Switzerland, a sleepy Lolita Morena and an unshaven Massimo Lorenzi demonstrate what can be retouched or emphasized on TV.
"Everything looks better on television because the images can be moved and accompanied by sound, which is not possible in print," says Markus Gut, explaining the claim and adding that the task was not just to develop a campaign. The aim was also "to create a motto, an attitude that can be communicated further".
The Zurich-based creative team has given Publisuisse a new graphic look: An orange background with the claim in black letters runs through all advertising material. An ingenious detail: the font bar is modeled on the shape of a TV screen. The print campaign is just the beginning, the CD reveals, with various other measures planned. One of these was already used during the AZ Cup last Friday: guerrilla stickers placed in the showers informed football-loving advertisers that even athlete's foot and orange peel skin would look better on TV.
The advertising campaign starts just in time for the beginning of fall, the time when media planning for the coming year takes place. September 11 is also approaching (see also page 18). This is a completely normal working day for Publisuisse, as Barbara Kohler explains. "However, when putting together the advertising blocks, we took special care not to schedule any 'sensitive' products such as airlines or commercials with 'critical' content."
