Head of the week: "I can expand my general knowledge for a fee"
Iwan Weidmann has been Creative Director at Grey Worldwide since April
Iwan Weidmann has been Creative Director at Grey Worldwide since AprilHead of the week "I can expand my general knowledge for a fee"
Iwan Weidmann has found his professional home port in Rüschlikon on Lake Zurich. Although he had actually planned to only sail the advertising seas without a permanent position. However, the 36-year-old could not turn down the offer to join Grey Worldwide as creative captain. "I've never really felt at home anywhere before," admits Weidmann, "but everything is just right at Grey: the people, the professionalism, the team spirit. I think I fit in really well here."
Since entering the industry as a junior copywriter at Advico Young & Rubicam, Weidmann has regularly shuttled between advertising agencies and self-employment. He also used his freelance phases to make professional forays into territories outside of advertising. He paid particular attention to television: Weidmann wrote broadcasting concepts for various stations, but also wrote questions for the "Millionaire Show" on TV 3. "Advertising has never let go of me, though. I can't walk through the streets and look past a poster indifferently," he says, explaining his return to the industry.
The times as a freelancer also showed limits: "If you have ambitions to accompany a client over a longer period of time and to go through a development with them, you have to be employed by an agency. And the best way to do that is, of course, as a CD," smiles the newly minted Creative Director. He is inspired by Anglo-Saxon advertising, which is creative but always focuses on the goal of selling. Above all, he likes the versatility of his profession: "I can expand my general knowledge in advertising, to put it selfishly, for a fee."
Weidmann has taken over his new position from Remo Garbini, who remains a partner at Grey Worldwide and will in future act as AD and concept developer. Both Garbini and Grey's Chairman Stefan Vogler are familiar faces for Weidmann. He remembers a pleasant collaboration at BT&V, the former agency of the Vogler brothers.
Weidmann continues to appreciate the good atmosphere in the agency and the skills of his employees: "As CD, I only have to take on a coaching role and steer things in the right direction. It's not necessary to tell people what to do - they know that themselves," he says, summarizing his experience of the first two months. The CD sees the main task as removing the scissors from his employees' heads. He doesn't want to impose his own idea of advertising on them any more than he wants to impose it on his customers. Because for Weidmann, they are kings. Bruno Amstutz
Iwan Weidmann has found his professional home port in Rüschlikon on Lake Zurich. Although he had actually planned to only sail the advertising seas without a permanent position. However, the 36-year-old could not turn down the offer to join Grey Worldwide as creative captain. "I've never really felt at home anywhere before," admits Weidmann, "but everything is just right at Grey: the people, the professionalism, the team spirit. I think I fit in really well here."
Since entering the industry as a junior copywriter at Advico Young & Rubicam, Weidmann has regularly shuttled between advertising agencies and self-employment. He also used his freelance phases to make professional forays into territories outside of advertising. He paid particular attention to television: Weidmann wrote broadcasting concepts for various stations, but also wrote questions for the "Millionaire Show" on TV 3. "Advertising has never let go of me, though. I can't walk through the streets and look past a poster indifferently," he says, explaining his return to the industry.
The times as a freelancer also showed limits: "If you have ambitions to accompany a client over a longer period of time and to go through a development with them, you have to be employed by an agency. And the best way to do that is, of course, as a CD," smiles the newly minted Creative Director. He is inspired by Anglo-Saxon advertising, which is creative but always focuses on the goal of selling. Above all, he likes the versatility of his profession: "I can expand my general knowledge in advertising, to put it selfishly, for a fee."
Weidmann has taken over his new position from Remo Garbini, who remains a partner at Grey Worldwide and will in future act as AD and concept developer. Both Garbini and Grey's Chairman Stefan Vogler are familiar faces for Weidmann. He remembers a pleasant collaboration at BT&V, the former agency of the Vogler brothers.
Weidmann continues to appreciate the good atmosphere in the agency and the skills of his employees: "As CD, I only have to take on a coaching role and steer things in the right direction. It's not necessary to tell people what to do - they know that themselves," he says, summarizing his experience of the first two months. The CD sees the main task as removing the scissors from his employees' heads. He doesn't want to impose his own idea of advertising on them any more than he wants to impose it on his customers. Because for Weidmann, they are kings. Bruno Amstutz
