New ways of a mediation

She more or less introduced art buying in Switzerland. In the meantime, this field has changed a lot thanks to the new possibilities with search engines and image databases on the Internet. "Do something different!", Lilo Killer therefore told herself.

After 24 years in art buying, Lilo Killer wants to bring her experience to agencies with new ideas. She has developed a concept for a new kind of pool for the placement of photographers.

"I wanted to start with 15 photographers and contacted 24 for a test. 23 were immediately enthusiastic." They can now be found on a new portal www.lilokillerfotografen.ch. On this, Lilo Killer sees herself primarily as an interface between agency and photographer. On the one hand, she advises agencies on the particular skills and specialties of their photographers, and on the other, she advises them on fees and copyrights, on organization and production.

"I establish contact between client and photographer, clarify availabilities and obtain initial information and quotes." She attaches particular importance to ensuring that the photographers in the pool complement each other well in their specialties and that she arranges for both renowned names and younger, as yet lesser-known talents. She aspires that in her pool "every art director will find at least one or two photographers they don't know yet."

Do not give up wins

Lilo Killer got her start in the world of film and photography at Pueblo Film. Based in Zurich, this production supervised the worldwide distribution of the feature films of Alexander Salkind, who produced the three "Superman" films in Hollywood as well as successes such as "Santa Claus" and "Supergirl" in the 1980s. For these and "Superman III," Lilo Killer oversaw various film fiduciary mandates and had contact with producers and lawyers all over the world. When the inevitable breaks between two assignments became "too boring", she hoped for more action in an advertising agency.

At Klöti, they wanted to see a diploma from Sawi for that. "I didn't even know what that was, though." Nevertheless, the autodidact didn't let go. When the trial period with the Sawi woman failed, the second chance came for Killer. In her job as an assistant, the newcomer had to write many protocols "and thus learned how advertising works."

Lilo Killer also showed similar assertiveness when a new CD from Germany was hired at the agency and asked for art buying. Because such a novel department was not yet known in Zurich, Killer had to place an ad. "When I described the requirements, I found this new job much more interesting than my previous job. So I applied for it myself right away." However, the managing director didn't want to lose her - and so the thwarted assistant just quit.

At exactly the right time - because Young & Rubicam was now also looking for an art buyer. "Anyone who knows what that is should get in touch," the ad said. Since Lilo Killer had just had to type up such a job description herself, she called Hansjörg Zürcher and explained: "I've known what art buying is for three weeks.

The following two years at Y&R were a "very fantastic time. Lilo Killer was able to learn the craft "on the job" alongside up-and-coming creatives such as Martin Spillmann, André Benker, Roland Scotoni and Matthias Babst.

"Times worked a bit differently back then. I was often amazed at how Martin Spillmann and Hansjörg Zürcher would spend a whole day playing chess - and in the evening they would suddenly present the complete ideas for an entire campaign," recalls Killer.

Her first art-buying job was for "Painted Faces" by Kodak. She had to get as many colors as possible in the city and then tested them on her own face for possible allergies. Afterward, Killer would have been allowed to supervise the models later used in the photo shoot in the Seychelles. "I'd never been to the Seychelles before, and working with photographer Hans Feurer would certainly have been a dream job." But because a film had to be pushed in Zurich at the same time, Killer demonstrated professionalism and, to the incredible astonishment of her colleagues, voluntarily gave up working on the dream beach.

"I'm very conscientious," says Lilo Killer about this behavior, which sometimes didn't quite fit into the world of an advertising agency, which at the time was still often seen as "chaotic" - but was more in demand than ever, when even the industry of "wild creatives" had to constantly evolve more in the direction of hard work.

When Y&R merged with Advico in 1990 and moved to Gockhausen, Lilo Killer had just moved to the countryside on the other side of the lake. Commuting through the city twice a day was not very tempting. In addition, as an art buyer, she wanted the bookstores, photo studios and junk stores to be closer to her. So Hansjörg Zürcher had to let her go "with a heavy heart". His testimony became legendary in the industry: "If Lilo Killer is standing in front of you now, in all her size, with her charm, with all her skills and knowledge, and she applies to you, for example, as an art buyer, then hire her on the spot. You'll make the coup of a lifetime."

The own style

Since then, Lilo Killer has never had to show this letter of recommendation. "Because I was one of the first art buyers in the industry, that's how people knew me." Her next stop was at Wirz Werbung. There she was also to build up the newly emerged art buying. However, her longing for the feature film had not completely died down yet either. Therefore, at the same time, there was an option at T&C Film for a production management position on "Jazz" by Daniel Helfer. But they were still waiting for the money from the film subsidy. During this phase, Lilo Killer worked for a year on various commercials until she was wooed away once again by Wirz Werbung, where she was in charge of art-buying and FFF from 1992 to 1999.

"That was a very exciting time at Wirz. I experienced André Benker as a CD for the second time after Y&R. Danielle Lanz was there and designed a stationery for me, with which she won silver at the ADC." Jost Wirz was also pleased with the cube. However, he said, "Why do you need a stationery?" - "If it's no use - it's no harm," was Lilo Killer's answer. However, another good offer from Jean-Etienne Aebi and thus two years at Publicis were to intervene before Lilo Killer took her step into self-employment in 2001.

"I wanted to work more according to my style, carefully and at my own pace, and less factory-like, as is often unavoidable within a large agency," she says today about her motivation. With her one-man business, Lilo Killer has since been able to work as an art buyer for almost all the major agencies.

As a test with some of these agencies in recent months has shown, their new offer with the photographer pool is now also already arousing a great deal of interest. Andreas Panzeri