"We're moving on, just doing it differently"

Werbewoche: Dennis Lück, congratulations on the Hat trick! 

Dennis Lück: Yippieh, sensational news. Thank you very much!

Your conclusion, looking back on the 2019 award year?

We have won consistently with a large number of campaigns - eleven of them. That shows me that we are on a good course as an organization. The hat trick is a reflection of our investments in creative quality, in young talent, in internal training opportunities and also in tools to measure our quality. But the awards are "only" the consequence, not the goal. Now, of course, we are celebrating, but only briefly. After that, we're a bit dissatisfied again and want to get much better. (laughs)

Which announcement of a win made you the happiest?

(thinks about it for a long time) It's almost difficult to pick out a winner here. There would certainly be "Best of Swiss Web" to mention, the evening was the absolute hammer and unforgettable! We didn't know that we would go home with three golds and were completely surprised there. Then the ADC Switzerland, the "home competition" - there I learned about the widespread success not on the big stage, but as an organizer in the quiet closet with a piece of paper in my hand, quite confidentially. Undivided joy, but no less great. And of course, as always, Cannes. You're shaking all day, the expectations and the pressure are enormous, and when some spy from the jury finally calls and says, "Hey, you've got something!", you explode every time, because it's such a great release.

When Dennis Lück (right) was informed about the hat trick by Werbewoche, he was in Los Angeles - and was so happy that he let Enrique Salgado (left) from Ocean Front Tattoo get a tattoo.

In your opinion, are there any awards that have become more important or lost importance in the last year? Or is it still the same cake that doesn't change?

I think the cake is changing radically right now. This change is also taking place in our company. You can feel some awards: I feel ADC Switzerland, Edi, the SDV Award, BoSW, BoSA, Cannes Lions. I'm on the spot, I can be present. At the same time, there are awards or even crumb cakes that you don't feel at all.

For example?

I'll just call them The Webby Awards or the One Show. Sure, they have great significance, are considered hard to win, all wonderful. We would absolutely have to submit because of the ranking factor. But the connection is missing. Somewhere in a dark closet, it's decided that you win gold. But you don't even go to the award show because it takes place too far away or you don't even know if the festival still has a show. That's where I personally miss the emotional connection.

The emotional attachment to an award influences where it is submitted?

Yes, it has a direct impact with us. We set a new filter in 2020: We submit where we enjoy and where it makes sense for us and our customers. Awards and ranking position are then the consequence, but not the primary goal.

There are voices in the industry calling for a distinction in the ranking between campaigns that stem from real day-to-day business and those that one might assume are geared toward awards. In your opinion, does that make sense?

Personally, I couldn't care less. I don't think this distinction makes any sense at all anymore. The rules of the game are the same for everyone. For me, the decisive factor is whether a piece of work is paid for or whether an agency has proactively poured money into it. All eleven of the jobs we won in 2019 were paid for by the clients. That makes them day-to-day business - period, out.

For Amnesty International, the agency broadcast sounds of war over Radio 24 during the annual siren tests. The action gave listeners an oppressive feeling.

In today's times, when people tend to submit rather cautiously, you could go a long way with such proactive work. Doesn't it bother you when you have to compete against this with work from day-to-day business?

No, it doesn't bother me because I could do it if I wanted to.

Even if you were to be overtaken by an agency that cleared everything with a single award campaign because, for example, it used HIV blood to print a special edition of a gay magazine in Austria?*

No, somehow it really doesn't bother me. Granted: HIV magazine a few years ago distorted everything there was to distort. Still, it was a terrific piece of work. I think we need to get rid of these "it bothers me" thoughts. Everybody can do what they want. And that's also our resolution for the next few years: we do what we want. We focus on working with our customers. And then we'll see how far we get with that.

In 2018, Jung von Matt also launched the Horizon-The company won a record ranking. Is it anchored in the JvM DNA that you want to position yourself via awards and rankings?

(thinks about it) In the past, Jung von Matt had the ambition to win in rankings. If you take part, you want to be number one. So these results don't come out of the blue. Both in Switzerland and in Germany. But that was yesterday. Today, we participate in awards because it's competitive, it's fun to compete, both nationally and internationally. We have moved away from submitting to every nonsensical competition. And if that affects the position in the ranking, then so be it. We are now ready to accept that.

So is my guess that you'll be taking an award break in 2020 wrong?

This is wrong, my wording is: We only do what we ourselves consider sensible.

So an award break light.

(laughs) No, the word break is wrong. We continue, just in a different way. More selectively.

"Invisible": Samsung's #SeeColor feature lets color-blind people see colors correctly. The spot by Jung von Matt/Limmat showcased the innovation. Result: Awards and 4 million views.

Jung von Matt is currently alone at the top. Is there perhaps a certain saturation after three creative ranking victories?

No, saturation never occurs. A musician always needs applause, and a satisfied customer or a great award are our applause. So when we have super-good work, we submit it to Cannes or somewhere else. Then the agency and the client get the applause together. It doesn't get any better than that.

Do you currently have any promising award candidates in your quiver?

We have a worthy successor to the Ibis Insta-Sitter, which is in the making and will be ready by the end of February. We have also gained a new mandate, the German state of Saarland. And the Saarland - I solemnly promise - will become the new Graubünden here in the house. (laughs) We have some sensational work in the pipeline for this client and will be taking it to the outside world from the middle of the year. The voice-controlled Advent calendar for Die Mobiliar could also be a work that wins many prizes. In short, our quiver is well filled. But we no longer put ourselves under pressure with award deadlines. The campaigns are ready when they're ready, and when they're awesome, we submit them. We try to bring a little more relaxation into the story.

With Swissmilk's "Lovely" and Mobiliar's claims campaign, Jung von Matt also continued longstanding campaigns from other agencies last year. Do you prefer to invent ideas from scratch or does it also have its appeal to maintain the creative legacy of others?

With these two campaigns, you first have to pay an insane amount of respect to those who did them before. It's fantastic what we've been able to take on and bring into the future. In general, though, it doesn't matter to me whether I'm starting from scratch or continuing a campaign. I don't have any problems with that. After all, I and my teams can make a significant contribution to making a well-functioning campaign fit for the future. That's no less demanding.

However, one is compared with the predecessor.

Oh God, yes. Everything is compared in our dear industry. We are comparison fetishists. (laughs) From now on, we'll only compare ourselves with yesterday's self and ask ourselves: Have we become better? Otherwise we'll stop comparing, it only costs time and nerves.

"Relax we post": Jung von Matt provided "Insta-sitters" for the Ibis hotel guests. They looked after the tourists' profiles while they took a social media break.

After all, since last year you have been writing a column in the NZZ on Sunday and thus also become a public figure to a certain extent outside the advertising pie. Has your everyday life changed as a result?

Yes, it has changed dramatically. Also due to the relevance that the NZZ respectively the NZZ on Sunday in Switzerland. Unbelievable. When my column appears, I'm paralyzed for two days, because the feedback from readers comes directly to me - thank Google - and no longer to the editorial team. For me, of course, it's a huge honor to be able to write for this title. At the same time, it causes panic every time. You want to do a good job if you're allowed to write for a newspaper of such social significance. It's a great task.

The concrete and constructive approaches to solutions in your columns are often positively received and perceived. Wouldn't you one day have to go one step further and implement the approaches instead of just providing the inputs?

I have a feeling this is already the case now. Example: In my very first column, I wrote about how to bring more creativity into the education system, transferring creativity techniques we use here to the education sector. Two days later, I received an invitation to speak to 6,000 teachers at Education Day in Bern. I then received invitations for the Education Days in Graubünden and Solothurn and spoke again in front of about 3000 teachers. My speeches became more and more concrete and more solid in terms of content. As a result, I even held talks with education directors and now, next Friday, I have been invited by the canton of Aargau to talk about how to make the Matura examinations fit for the future.

Has there been any negative feedback to your columns?

Yes, sometimes the devil is loose. (laughs) For example, when I wrote about the Church, my last words were, "The best way you can help the Church now: Resign." What followed ... woah! (laughs) A little wasps' nest.

You are a self-confessed family man. Is it no coincidence that you often write about children and youth issues?

My wonderful "boss" at the NZZ on Sunday, Thomas Isler, encouraged me to develop the columns out of my life. He said: Get away from your job, away from communication and advertising, let it go! Grab topics that occupy you, in your life, in your everyday life. I listened to that.

Your children are five, eight and ten years old, so they are at an age when they are increasingly exposed to advertising. Has the fact that your advertising could also "hit" your children changed anything about your day-to-day work?

(considers) Yes, but more on the day-to-day work with my children. I think you have to educate the children to have a neutral view. So that they can distinguish between exaggeration and truth and make up their own minds. That doesn't have to do explicitly with advertising or with my job, but rather with society as a whole.

Are your children interested in your advertising?

Yes, they know exactly what I do and often find it funny. Sometimes they ask enthusiastically, "Dad, is that from you?" and I grudgingly say, "Noooo, that's not from me ..." (laughs)

Another look ahead. What will 2020 be like? 

This is already evident from the win in the creative rankings: It will be a year of surprises. So let's all look forward to it.

Among other things, "A Touch of History" for Samsung won ADC gold. Students search through the smartphones of historical personalities and learn about their lives in a playful way.