Without limit

The launch of the start-up could not have gone better. More than 2000 people celebrated "The Vernissage" on April 25. The event featured an exhibition in the Sihlpost temporary building in Zurich, as well as music and entertainment in the Rio Bar on the other side of the Sihlbrücke. Admission was "by Invitation only" via word of mouth and of course Facebook. 

At the "Vernissage", curated and organized by Oliver Scotoni and "Shark" Dogan, 15 representatives of the Zurich "scene" - restaurateurs, actors, models, DJs, artists and graphic designers - showed their favorite Instagram photo. These cell phone pictures were transformed into acrylic paintings in the format 150 cm × 150 cm by renowned, but for this show anonymous artists from "Brush & Sons".

In addition to the art, which was generally enjoyed, the special thing about this event for Sandro Prezzi was the activation of the target groups. Due to the composition of the "artists", 15 communities could be activated at the same time. Thus, the happening also became a showcase of the who's who of the Zurich scene. In addition, a new Mercedes Benz model, the CLA, was presented in an artistic and discreet manner.

Customize Unlimited was not creative enough

For the launch of the new CLA four-door coupe, the "Untamed Installation" campaign was created internationally, an exhibition in Paris that was launched with a competition where people could upload as "untamed" a photo as possible on Instagram and were invited to the vernissage event in Paris as the winner. There, all submissions were shown via 3-D mapping projection in a white room.

"For us, that was somehow too little," says Sandro Prezzi, who was tasked with activating CLA's target groups in the area of art. "We saw a great need among the target group to stage themselves and to do so in a real, authentic and more sustainable way, not just digitally."

This is how the idea "Win your Instagram as a 1.5-meter acrylic painting" came about with Brush & Sons and the activation involving 15 celebrities as well as "The Vernissage". Unlike the international competition, here the Brush&Sons painters themselves elevate the contributors to artists and their Instagram photos to an art form. The artworks will then be shown as part of the Contemporary CODES "Brush" exhibition from July 19 to August 17 at the Europaallee Remise in Zurich.

As could be seen from reactions from the "scene" and feedback from the guests, Mercedes-Benz took a good step forward in terms of sympathy among the target groups it was aiming at. The brand enabled social moments with relevance for the "scene" and their environments. Prezzi is convinced that the competition running in Switzerland will now reach a much more precisely played target group via the community it generated. "We were also able to introduce the new car to our discerning guests in a very discreet and accepted setting. Mercedes- Benz was able to stage itself in a stylish, sympathetic and relevant way. We call this concept brand staging. Internationally, it's called branded content or brand staging," says the communications expert, summarizing the recipe for success.

"Many brands are struggling to gain a foothold, especially in the segment of urban, sophisticated lifestyle target groups aged over 30 to just under 50. In many cases, there is a lack of relevance and acceptance," Sandro Prezzi has analyzed. In the future, he wants to actively offer new solutions in this market gap with Unlimited. "As a specialist in the field of media, I have planned and bought billions of contacts in the course of my career. But also had to realize that it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve the necessary impact. Fragmentation and digitization make this a big challenge for many advertisers, financially as well. That's why people are thinking about more direct ways to reach the target groups," says the versatile Prezzi with conviction.

After his beginnings at Publicitas, on the publishing side, as consulting group manager at Publimedia in Zurich and Zenith Optimedia, he spent five years as Managing Director Zurich at Mediaedge. cia. After that, Sandro Prezzi led MEC as Managing Director Switzerland until spring 2013. "We've achieved a lot in the last few years, and with the new client wins we've brought the agency back into the top 3 in Switzerland." At the same time, however, Sandro Prezzi noted, "After 7 years at MEC and over 12 years in international media agencies, I was ready for something new again."

The ideal combination

During this phase of the reorientation, various conversations with Oliver Scotoni took place. Prezzi had already worked with the inventor of Rundfunk.fm several times before. And since Scotoni also found the constellation of implementing ideas together with a new partner extremely exciting, they finally joined forces to form the Unlimited agency on May 1, 2013. The third member of the group is Harun Dogan, who has made a name for himself beyond the scene as an urban and street artist under the name Shark, but also with his design agency "Raw Cut. For example, as curator and artistic director of the exhibition series "Grafik". The fourth partner is Nadja Stäubli, who has attracted attention beyond the country's borders as a photographer, active DJane, artist and designer - most recently with her label "Schönstaub" for high-quality design carpets.

"We are a team of experienced and well-connected creatives from the fields of art, music, cinema, design and lifestyle," explains Sandro Prezzi, who, as a graduate communications manager, is responsible for consulting and, as managing director, for the management of the agency.

Together, the quartet offers "tailor-made and target group-oriented solutions. For their implementation, further individually specialized subbrands are to be created in the future in addition to the existing products Rundfunk.fm, Cinema Unlimited, Brush & Sons, The Vernissage.

At Brush & Sons different artists provide their arts and crafts qualities, but remain anonymous. Brush & Sons is thus an arts and crafts manufactory "entirely in the style of the Dutch schools such as Rembrandt during the Baroque era".

Today, the talents can also be booked for design tasks in the hospitality industry or architecture. "With Brush & Sons, we have a pool of specialists in a wide variety of styles. The respective quality control is guaranteed by Shark as curator and artistic director ", explains Prezzi.

"We create content that is tailored to the needs of the target group, we are quite strict in our interpretation and hardly allow ourselves to be restricted - just Unlimited," says Prezzi about the strategy of the start-up. He therefore does not see his company as a classic event agency, "which implements according to order, with the focus on the client". The more creative offering is called "quality content," and that has its limits in terms of marketing possibilities. "If it becomes too flat, it will be ignored by the target group and is therefore not in the interest of the client. After all, the bait should taste good to the fish, not the angler."

The party goes on

"Since Oliver Scotoni brings his products and projects to the new company and has always been committed to quality, we can already show well what we mean by quality content. " Rundfunk.fm shows impressively how a "radio station" can become an urban cult happening with international broadcasting. Based on the claim to play only the best quality music, Rundfunk.fm has managed to become the beat and rhythm of a city with all its components, i.e. location, gastronomy, atmosphere, activities such as flea markets, for 30 days at a time. 300 boutiques, hairdressers, bars, etc. now use the sound of Rundfunk.fm.

Scotoni's "Cinema Unlimited" will also be integrated into the new constellation in the future. In this new edition of open-air cinema, the audience can enjoy the films via radio headphones. With sound as a radio signal, open-air cinema also becomes possible in completely new locations, which can also be in the context of the films being shown. In 2012, for example, "Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" was shown at Oberen Letten, which, with its past as a drug center, provided an impressive backdrop for the film evening. This summer, 70 events are planned in Zurich alone, not only in Frau Gerold's garden but also in the Mythenquai swimming pool and in Sihlcity.

An important element of the business model of "Unlimited" is that the agency develops its own ideas and products without being commissioned to do so, aligns them with target groups and only then specifically seeks commercial partners for financing.

The commitment to art for Mercedes will continue in the summer with the "Brush Magazine" campaign. In July and August, Zurich will be able to see the "world's first magazine" that is "exclusively painted. On 6000 square meters in the remise of the Europaallee 100 pages of a magazine are produced, which the spectators can walk through. All "pages" are 1.3 meters × 1.7 meters and hand-painted. "This gives the edition of the magazine - there will be exactly one copy, the original."

The advertisements, some of which can still be booked, are also realized by Brush & Sons in oil, acrylic, watercolor or pencil drawing, depending on the requirements. At the heart of the "magazine" are paintings, photographs and texts on the theme of "Rock 'n' Roll". These paintings will be created by renowned artists and will be sold afterwards. The photographs are painted analogously by the Brush&Sons artists, the texts are designed by graphic artists and also painted by hand.

The mega-event brings together three projects, "Brush," Rundfunk.fm and Cinema Unlimited, which freely interpret the theme "Rock 'n' Roll" in a dynamic program of events. Around 80,000 visitors are expected.

Andreas Panzeri