It is unique - the women's magazine Annabelle and each of its readers. This is both the message and the slogan of the new campaign. "When I took over as Editor-in-Chief of Annabelle almost two years ago, there was one thing in particular that I wanted to change about the magazine and online offering - I've been with the magazine for 16 years and really like our mix of reportage and lifestyle," explains Silvia Binggeli. "I wanted to get closer to our readers again, to be more of a friend and confidante." The Zurich agency Byheart set out to convey this claim. The idea: the campaign was to portray various Annabelle readers, each one a personality with rough edges.

Potential models were quickly found: Following a casting call on Annabelle online, around 200 people applied to be the face of the Annabelle campaign - women between 19 and 72, singles, mothers, girlfriends, mothers and daughters and even men responded to the call. The editor-in-chief and agency only had to choose the right testimonials, as different women as possible with very different biographies and passions. Because, according to the subliminal message, today's women cannot be pigeonholed, each lives confidently according to her own values and realizes her personal wishes and goals. The housewife and mother stands next to the committed single woman, the young trendsetter next to the worldly 72-year-old. They all have one thing in common: they are unique, just like you and me.

The mood makes the shoot

"Once the concept was in place, we had to find the right photographer for the shoots," says Hans Siegwart, CD and partner at the Byheart agency. "It's exciting to create sophisticated campaign images together with women who don't stand in front of the camera every day."

In the end, the choice fell on the Swedish photographer Jörgen Brennicke, who stood out from all the photographers in the running with his work, his empathy and his flexibility.

With joy and concentration: Impressions of the photo shoot with photographer Jörgen Brennicke, recognizable by the pink shirt.

"We were all very excited before the first shoot," says Silvia Binggeli. "With a company like this, the first few minutes decide whether it's going to be good or not. The mood and chemistry between us, the photographer and our models has to be one hundred percent right. And then there's the personal form of the day. Of course, we did everything we could to make the women feel comfortable. And they should have a say in the styling so that their appearance is also authentic." And lo and behold: everything was perfect. Carmela, Franziska, Debora, Irene, Kaya, Lucie & Michèle, Maria, Marieta, Michelle, Noëmi and Sara & Kafi felt comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera. After just under thirty to forty minutes per person, the subject was in the can. Naturally beautiful. Beautifully authentic.

The result: the brand label "Annabelle" and the claim "She is unique" run across the large-format photo of each woman. In the small print at the top left, the viewer also learns the name of each woman and what moves her. And, of course, that she reads Annabelle.

The campaign subjects will be placed in various print titles and used on subscription cards; there will also be a cinema spot and various online campaigns. Eleven different subjects will be used initially, but the idea could conceivably be expanded to include further subjects and campaigns.

"Women deserve to be the center of attention for once"

In demand: Werbewoche spoke to Annabelle's editor-in-chief Silvia Binggeli about the background to the new campaign and their belief in print.

WW: Silvia Binggeli, you will have been editor-in-chief of Annabelle for two years on July 1, 2015. Did you time the campaign to this date?

Binggeli: It wasn't planned that way, but it still fits well. It simply took a little time to get everything up and running. Last year, we conducted a readership study that gave us important insights into our readers. We combine background reports, socio-political topics with lifestyle, which is now unique among women's magazines in the German-speaking world. This includes, for example, a report on a courtroom draughtswoman in Guantánamo, a report on young women going on jihad, a report on Curriculum 21 or the minimum wage initiative. In addition, our readers also want to read about everyday topics such as: Love, family, job, fashion, beauty. The challenge, however, is to make such classic topics exciting; you can't be afraid of banal topics, you just can't make them banal.

How are Annabelle's readership figures developing?
They have just come out and unfortunately they are not encouraging - like everywhere else. We had a small upswing in 2013, gaining around 2% readers. Unfortunately, this is not a long-term trend. But we continued to lose readers this year - from 242,000 to 222,000 - which is not good. But some of our competitors saw even greater declines, so we have to put this loss into perspective. This is a structural development. It is not due to the product. Nevertheless, we have to analyze the loss of readers and counteract it.

With a new campaign?
The new campaign is of course also one of the measures we are using to retain readers and attract new ones.

The subjects of the new campaign all show women, some with their sons. You don't show adult men - although it is well known that Annabelle also has male readers. Why is that?
We even have quite a few male readers, 18% after all. We even recently published a men's special, a whole magazine just for men. I'm all for having campaign subjects featuring men - because we like men, we need them to drive social change, for example to create better conditions for working mothers. Absolutely. We discussed this aspect, but ultimately decided that we would only show women in the first wave. But the men are still to come.

The women in the campaign subjects are all well styled. Is there also the sleepy Annabelle reader with tousled hair, no make-up and perhaps in a slightly bad mood? And wouldn't she be better suited to creating closeness with your readers?
Of course there are, we're all like that: Sleepy in the morning and sometimes in a bad mood. But should you stage it? I don't think so. Our campaign is designed to make people want to read Annabelle and make them happy. It's different in the magazine itself, in the stories and reports. There, the bad-tempered, perhaps desperate, but also the committed, critical reader appears as a matter of course. Of course, it would also have been an approach for our campaign to show unstyled women in their favorite retreat. This is how Annabelle is often consumed, as the feedback we receive shows. But our readers also want to see a beautiful world from time to time, to be inspired and encouraged to dream. Thematically, on the other hand, we pick them up in their real world. That's why I often get personal in my editorials, telling them about my world when I've just woken up and am still tangled up.

Which subject appeals to you the most?
I was closely involved in the development of the entire campaign and followed the creation of each subject. That's why I'm attached to every single motif. I think it's great that women are at the center of the campaign, in all their diversity, with different ages, types, desires and world views. Women deserve to be at the center of attention in all their diversity. I am very proud of the overall work.

The personalities shown in the campaign play with role models: the pregnant mother with short raspy hair who feels most comfortable behind the stove, the young girl with a pink dyed mop of hair who wants to take over the world. Now, however, Generation Y is apparently striving for old patterns again: she fulfills herself behind the stove, he pursues a career. How does this fit into your campaign?
We had a story in the magazine about career women returning to the stove because the dual role of motherhood and career is too much for them and the infrastructure is simply not right. Or banal: Because they feel like it. It's crazy that we now have to justify this again. But the great thing is that we are freer than ever to decide what we want to do and what we don't want to do. And we want to make people aware of this with the campaign and also celebrate it. The campaign concept allows us to add further subjects. For now, however, we will run the eleven subjects and see how the campaign is received.

Will the campaign, the search for more proximity to the reader, also change something about the magazine?
In terms of content, we have already implemented a great deal of this proximity. But now we also want to communicate this. The Annabelle brand is a huge asset, everyone in Switzerland knows Annabelle, their grandmother and mother already subscribed to Annabelle, we have very loyal readers. But that is also a challenge. Because young people have a brand in their heads that has already accompanied grandma and mommy - then it's probably a bit old-fashioned and not for me. So we also have to get younger readers to open the magazine. That's why it's important for the new campaign to show readers of all ages.

Young and print - do you believe in it?
Yes, the longer it takes, the more difficult it gets, but we're not doing too badly: young people between 18 and 30 make up a considerable proportion of our readership, we can still make gains among 30 to 40-year-olds and we're quite stable at the top. Of course, young people are primarily attracted to the Annabelle brand via online and social media. That's why we are currently revising our digital offering. Nevertheless, I believe that the variety of communication options we have today will mean that people will be very happy to pick up a magazine again for a change. And in the women's magazine segment, print with its tactile feel will remain important due to the situations in which people read them. Of course, we need a service-oriented online offering and an e-paper. We must not close our eyes to technological developments. But hysterically preaching the demise of print in magazines won't get us anywhere.

Interview: Anne-Friederike Heinrich