Nominated "Advertiser of the Year": Matthias Kiess, TBWA\Zurich
The TBWA\Zurich boss places great emphasis on creativity and strategy, making his agency increasingly successful. He is also committed to promoting young talent in the advertising industry.
Matthias Kiess and his team have succeeded in getting rid of TBWA\Zurich's reputation as a pure McDonald's agency. In the last two years, the company, based in Zurich's Seefeld district, attracted attention primarily through the prominent portfolio additions of Coop and Porsche, the ADC Gold Rain and high placements in the creative rankings. Matthias Kiess restructured the agency and, not least as a result, put it on the road to success. The graduate pharmacist, who came to advertising via detours, has thus truly earned his nomination as "Advertiser of the Year" 2020 according to the "Advertiser of the Year" jury.
The Zurich native has led the Swiss branch of the internationally active TBWA network since 2012 as an open and present agency boss. "Our culture is based on human values," says Kiess. "We cultivate a collaborative culture and not an ego society." The 52-year-old sees himself as an "enabler" of his 50-plus employees, providing guardrails and agreeing on objectives - but also giving them the freedom to work in a self-determined way. Kiess has once again made strategy a top priority at the agency. "I don't believe in the great heralded demise of agencies," says the father of three. "If we keep our edge in strategy and creativity, the demand for our service will not diminish."
However, Swiss advertising should become bolder and more accentuated, thinks Matthias Kiess. "Today, advertising is often performance-driven. But many KPIs can't capture emotional connections that arise when a brand appears charming, surprising and different." The advertiser is committed to shining a light on the advertising industry's reputation to attract young talent. "In an agency, you have much more creative freedom than in most companies. You experience exciting things and can help shape a lot of things." Diversity is also not a trendy word on the agenda, he says, but has long been part of everyday life. Kiess says, "No matter where you come from, no matter who you are: as long as you're motivated and bring quality, you're welcome here."
Campaigns TBWA\Zurich
Coop
With the image campaign for Coop, TBWA\Zurich has united brand themes such as freshness and store density, but also seasonal themes such as grilling and raclette fondue under one roof since the beginning of 2019. The claim "For me and you" was reloaded with Coop employees in a central role.
McDonald's
One of TBWA's favorite tools is called D-Live, an organized and editorially planned way to launch contextual communication. For McDonald's as a family restaurant and football partner, the YB vs FCB game on Mother's Day 2019 was therefore a welcome occasion for this rather unclassical work.
SwissPass Smile
TBWA\ launched the travel and experience platform Smile.swisspass.ch with SBB. The agency develops services, offers and content, manages and designs the site and promotes it with an integrated campaign. One highlight is the Märlitrax, self-created fairy tale podcasts that turn the train window and thus the Swiss landscape on the moving train into a stage.
Werbewoche: What was your first thought when you heard about the nomination for "Advertiser of the Year"?
Matthias Kiess: To be honest, I was very surprised, as I had never given any concrete thought to this. Of course, I was pleased because it shows that continuous performance is rewarded.
What would you want to achieve as "Advertiser of the Year"?
Well, there are probably several answers to this question. First of all: courage, courage, courage. I miss the big stories in Switzerland a bit. The stories that move people. We shouldn't just think about performance and customer journeys, but rather about how we can win people's hearts for our customers. The world has become more demanding and complex. This creates many pitfalls that are unfortunately becoming more widespread and often overdramatized in the media - I'm not talking exclusively about social media. The proper classification of events and topics is taking place less and the short-lived sensation-driven story is in the foreground. That's where we, too, have a responsibility to pick up people's dreams and needs and to do so to a degree that can do justice to the social and ecological framework. Advertising helps to create new value systems that respond to the new normal.
Another point that is very important to me is the desire for more recognition for our industry. There are a lot of professional people with their heart and soul working for us who deliver respectable results. And this in an environment that is fast-moving, multi-faceted and very innovative. So actually, it's exactly the right place for young talent that we need to win back.
What does advertising mean to you?
For me, advertising is the economically controlled art of seduction. Art because it still involves a good idea and solid craftsmanship. Seduction because we are target-driven and want to achieve the most successful results possible with our actions. Advertising is demanding and the components strategy and creation must never be missing.
Where do you see the biggest current challenges in the advertising and communications industry?
In addition to the usual things we all know - digital transformation, cost pressure, migration of media budgets to American big players - I would like to focus on the issue of young talent. The demands on us advertisers are constantly growing, but we have difficulties getting the right and competent people on board. This is due on the one hand to the choice of adequate training opportunities and on the other hand to the declining attractiveness of the industry. This is not only self-inflicted, but we are not doing too much to change this.
What are you particularly good at - and what do you let your team take the lead in?
I think I'm a good judge of character and can quickly build trust and make people feel secure. At the same time, I think entrepreneurially and try to be strategic about the things we do and serve as a sparring partner and enabler for the team. I have so many highly qualified specialists on the team that I can't even keep up with, and they do their job better than I could ever do it. Bringing these experts together to create great ideas on a common basis is what I see as my job.
What have been your career highlights since spring 2019?
The year 2019 was characterized by phenomenal growth, which was primarily caused by the acquisition of new customers from Coop and Porsche. At the same time, in the second half of the year we were able to add Bell and the SME segment for Zürcher Kantonalbank to our portfolio. At the same time, we restructured our agency and formed agile units as well as the strategic unit "Brand & Business Strategy", which is increasingly establishing itself as a special competence of TBWA\Zurich. From a creative perspective, the creative ranking published in January 2019 with us in second place was of course top, crowned by the numerous gold cubes from ADC for the 50 Years Big Mac campaign in April 2019.
Who or what has had a particular impact on you professionally?
Interestingly, I was able to work with women who were my superiors for large parts of my career. At the very beginning, I worked for a large pharmaceutical agency that was successfully managed by a very ambitious and entrepreneurial woman and, thanks to its unique position, was the clear market leader in the Swiss market. At a later point in time, I had the privilege of managing the Feldschlösschen brand under Franziska Gsell, now CMO IWC, at Feldschlösschen Getränke AG, which was a great challenge not only from a communications point of view, but also from a product management point of view. At that time, we already won ADC Gold with the legendary advertising campaign "Today we drink to..." for the Feldschlösschen brand with the films.
Mattias Kiess has been working for the Swiss branch of TBWA since 2004 and has held the position of Managing Director since 2012. Coming from a family with a scientific background, Kiess initially studied pharmacy. However, he abandoned his dissertation and work in a pharmacy, first entered pharmaceutical marketing and finally found his fulfillment as Senior Brand Manager at "Feldschlösschen" before finding his true calling as an advertiser at TBWA\Zurich. The 52-year-old lives on Lake Zurich in Oberrieden with his wife and three teenage children, from where he rides his e-bike to work every day. Kiess is involved in the local ski club and as a Chilbi organizer. He also enjoys cooking creative menus for family and friends, and spends his time on his mountain bike or around the water.
Information on all nominees and the "Advertiser of the Year" election can be found at here. The online election will start on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 via newsletter. All subscribers to the Werbewoche and m&k newsletters are eligible to vote. Register here for free. The final winner of the "Egon" trophy will be determined 50/50 by the newsletter readership and the "Advertiser of the Year" jury.
7 Questions for Matthias Kiess
