Heart and soul for craftsmanship
To mark its 20th fiscal year, By Heart Kommunikation has expanded its management team and staff. Othmar Küng and the production specialists from Pixeldisko have joined the creative workshop.
When Markus Bircher and Hans Siegwart sat at the table with Othmar Küng for the first time, the owners of By Heart had a good feeling. The agency was teaming up with the production specialists at Pixeldisko for a client project. "My impression was that, for once, this was not an aloof agency that wanted to realize itself, but was responsive to the other party," says Hans Siegwart. He was not wrong, as it turned out.
For five years, the brand management and design agency regularly cooperated with the Multimedia Factory. For Emmi Caffè Latte, for example, By Heart renewed the entire brand presence, Pixeldisko subsequently transported the brand ideas into the digital world.
For a few weeks now, By Heart and the Pixeldisko team have been going their separate ways. Othmar Küng, founder of Pixeldisko, came on board as Managing Director and member of the Board of Directors. "Like us, Othmar is a doer," Siegwart says, explaining what the three managing directors have in common. "One who approaches brands with a seriousness and care."
As of now, around 16 employees are working for By Heart. Othmar Küng has taken over the interface function as Supervising Head and will accompany the entire process from strategy and conception to implementation. Hans Siegwart leads the creation as CD, Markus Bircher is responsible for the service part as Managing Head & Copy - for strategy, brand consulting and text.
Brand specialists and producers
By Heart's strength originally lay clearly in the area of brand management and brand creation. However, in order to offer customers everything from a single source, external specialists were often brought in. This worked out quite well thanks to close partnerships. But the ambition to cover a larger area of value creation grew steadily at the agency. "If you create the core of a brand, you shouldn't leave the realization out of your hands," says Siegwart.
By Heart is convinced that the fascination of a brand cannot be theorized. It arises in the implementation. "Whether a brand works is not decided on the strategy paper, but on the individual word, on an image, on the way I talk to the target group in the social community," says strategist Bircher.
To follow and determine every single step is therefore the claim of By Heart. They are the craftsmen who still stand in the workshop themselves and work on the implementation. Creative director Siegwart, for example, likes to look over the shoulders of the crew during the shoot, and strategist Bircher still writes the texts himself. "We want to prevent our thinking from suddenly getting lost at one point."
This attention to detail is visible, for example, in the poster sujets for the fashion company Burger with sexy posing couples, in the image campaign "Das Bild der Frau" for the women's magazine Annabelle, in which prominent Swiss women had themselves photographed without makeup. Or at Paul Kehl. By Heart completely developed the PKZ Group's own brand, built it up together with the PKZ design team and positioned it as "fashion for the active, sporty man".
"As a brand, it's essential to speak the same language across all platforms," Bircher explains. As soon as you cede individual areas, you relinquish control to a certain extent. It was therefore nothing other than a "logical consequence" for the owners to integrate the production area into their own agency sooner or later.
Continuity in the creative workshop
There have already been several opportunities for mergers and cooperation. However, it has not really worked out so far.
The only possible partner was someone who shared their fascination for craftsmanship and their demands. Both were the case with the founder of Pixeldisko. With Othmar Küng, another craftsman joins By Heart. One who has internalized the "office mentality" and is just as attentive to detail as Bircher and Siegwart. "If you believe that nuances ultimately make a brand shine, it would be negligent not to control the various disciplines and process steps yourself," says Küng, who learned the design trade from scratch in a print shop.
In fact, the agency By Heart and Pixeldisko have become the company By Heart. However, Pixeldisko will continue as a brand. Clients who specifically demand expertise in creative productions and implementation in print and digital - which is what Pixeldisko has made a name for itself with over the past eight years - will be served directly on request. "Just as there is Armani and Emporio Armani," says Siegwart, "we have By Heart and Pixeldisko." So it says on the business card, "By Heart & Pixeldisko."
Giving up the By Heart brand was not up for discussion. Siegwart and Bircher, who launched By Heart with partners in 1994, wanted to continue the agency in the same spirit. "The agency was successful and there was no reason to do everything differently," Bircher says. "Rather, we wanted to make sure we could continue to bring our strength in brand management and brand creation and be best equipped to meet today's demands," Siegwart says. To some extent, this also meant rejuvenating the agency - with a generation that has grown up with digital media.
Down to the last detail
By Heart wants to hold on to its manageable size. "Small but mighty," as the agency is described by clients. To be only as big as it can continue to accompany processes from A to Z. "The customer has us not only at the beginning, but also at the second and third meeting," says Bircher. "And he knows: We're doing it." From the first question (What makes the brand? What does it stand for? How can it assert and develop itself in the market?) - until the poster is on the wall, the commercial is "on air," the website is online.
"You can compare our work to haute couture," Siegwart says. "There, the fashion designer changes the seams with his own hand shortly before the fashion show until the dress fits perfectly." In the same way, he says, brands need accompaniment and fascination until the very end.
"We receive the best possible support in the areas of branding, conception and strategy, as well as in all the creative implementations," explains Simone Schäfer, Head of Communications at PKZ BurgerKehl & Co. "I can recommend the agency to any client who values personal consulting and wants a lot of heart and soul in their daily work."
By Heart returns the compliment: "Our work is only possible because our clients are serious about their brand and don't just want to go for a fun flash in the pan," Siegwart says. "PKZ, Navyboot, Beldona ... Our clients have a strong brand understanding themselves," says Bircher. The same is true of the Pixeldisko agency, which will in future complement By Heart's brand portfolio with clients such as Canon, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox.
At the moment, a chocolate brand is being honed in the creative workshop. For Camille Bloch, By Heart is breathing new life into the traditional Ragusa brand and making it accessible to a young audience (here it goes to the article). "A dream customer," Bircher says. "Camille Bloch looks at every hazelnut in the Ragusa," says Siegwart. "And we on every stroke, every word and every nuance of color," adds Küng.
Isabel Imper
