"Advertising becomes Usevertisin"

WW: Mr. Eicher, in an interview you said that the aim of your work is to enter into dialogue with the consumers and target groups of a brand or product through spectacular and unconventional stories. What if the product to be advertised is completely unspectacular and conventional?
David Eicher: At its core, every product and every service has a story that can be dramatized. We use these stories to generate offers that are useful for consumers and offer them added value. After all, people want something in return for the attention they pay to a brand. Teens in particular use different media channels in parallel and prefer to be involved rather than simply consuming. Advertising is becoming usevertising. When I say spectacular or exciting story, it doesn't always have to be something as funny as a viral spot or an extravagant campaign like Nike. It can also be something that simply integrates users into the development of new, innovative products or services. In this respect, I really believe that every product, every brand, every service offers the opportunity to develop consumer-involving concepts.

You also said that alternative advertising can only be effective if it is strategically embedded in the overall communication package. That doesn't exactly sound like a lot of creative freedom.
Klaus Brandmeyer, the former head of the Institute for Brand Technology in Geneva, used to talk about the genetic code of a brand. There is a core message, a central idea, a core positioning that every product and every brand stands for and that you want to convey to your audience. This can be done in the traditional way, via the POS, events and, more recently, via web-based channels. The aim is to make the core idea a common thread running through all activities. We often work together with the lead agencies of large companies. They provide the initial direction and we then use our expertise and creativity to convey the core message using our own means. At the end of the day, a cohesive brand image should reach the consumer. It makes no sense for each agency to tell its own story that is not part of a central brand message.

Is there still a need for education on the part of companies with regard to the possibilities of alternative forms of advertising?
Yes, for sure. Firstly, it is not only in Germany that many marketing decision-makers' careers have been closely linked to traditional media. As a result, there is also a certain fear of contact with the new media. These can only be overcome through professional expertise. And this is where we hit the nerve of the second point: many agencies that have previously held this advisory role often have the same reservations as their clients. This is why these new topics are sometimes neglected. However, these are essential in order to position oneself as a modern, contemporary brand. To reach target groups that can no longer be reached via other channels. Alternative advertising must be integrated into the marketing mix and online must be recognized and established as a second leading medium. This will also change the pecking order within agencies.

You often mention young people in connection with online advertising. Are the opportunities on the web limited to this target group?
No, no matter whether B2B or B2C, no matter how old, how conservative or how progressive the target group is, there are always opportunities and tools in the online or social media sector to involve customers. One example: We manage the entire social media activities for Ferrero's Mon Chérie brand in Germany. Here we are talking about consumer groups in the 45 to 50-plus age bracket. The brand now has almost 59,000 fans on Facebook. If you look at the interaction rates, the Mon Chérie page is always among the top ten of all brand pages in Germany. The will to engage with a brand, to move in its world, is just as present among older people. After all, social media marketing is not about appealing to teenagers. It's about making offers to consumers of all ages that they find interesting and that bind them to the brand. The aim of every brand must be to grow the fan base around the company as much as possible. The quality of customer relationships must be intensified and optimized in order to ultimately convert the occasional consumer into a brand ambassador.

Listening to you, one gets the impression that traditional communication is an obsolete model.
Social media is not completely replacing traditional advertising, but rather complementing it. Television continues to record growth, particularly in the up to 14 and over 50 age segments. It is only in between that age group that traditional formats, especially print, are struggling. The sudden announcement of new products and offers can certainly be better advertised via traditional channels. Not least because they work with completely different budgets. Brand emotionalization certainly also works better via large-scale moving image offerings such as TV. I can do everything else better via the Internet. The advantages are obvious: good measurability, more precise delivery of the advertising message, more diverse opportunities to interact with the target group, more cost-effective and I can act based on success. These are all things that speak in favor of new forms of advertising.

There has been a Zurich branch since the beginning of October. Why Switzerland in particular?
We have been supporting Swiss companies from Germany for many years. This means that we not only work for the German market, but also for the Swiss and international markets of these customers. These include Mammut, Ricola, Orange and now also Migros and Kraftfoods Switzerland with Tassimo. We wanted to improve the quality of service for our customers by ensuring this local presence. We also recognized that there is a market for alternative advertising in Switzerland, but not yet a full-service offering that comes close to what we offer.

Have you already acquired new customers?
We have three pitches in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to present ourselves in my two preferred sectors - the automotive industry and the financial sector. But I also want the team to be properly constituted first, for the processes to be established so that we can go out with a clear conscience and say: We have a 20-strong team here. And that will be the case in November.

Zurich today, London tomorrow?
We are already supporting international campaigns from Germany and Zurich. Of course, where the haptic perception of a product is concerned, it would make sense to be able to handle shipping in the respective country. It is already our intention to build a pan-European network. But for now we are taking this step, i.e. we want to establish the Zurich location first, see if it works as we imagined, and then we can talk about further expansion.
Simone Fankhauser

In a nutshell
In 2000, photographer and advertising manager David Eicher founded Webguerillas GmbH, a full-service agency for alternative forms of advertising. Today, the Munich-based company employs over 60 people. Its services include viral campaigns, social media activities, guerrilla, word-of-mouth and mobile marketing as well as concepts for blogs and websites.