The one-man trio
Michael Kamm plans to expand his Agence Trio, based in Lausanne, to Zurich next year.
Michael Kamm wants to conquer Zurich next year with his Agence Trio in Lausanne.10 years, 20 years, 30 years: the editorial team of Werbewoche is currently inundated with reports about proud anniversaries of advertising agencies. After the somewhat wild period of the ongoing crisis, the situation seems to have stabilized again. However, none of the jubilant agencies has experienced as many changing economic cycles, crises and repeated upswings as Agence Trio in Lausanne. The French creative kitchen celebrated its 75th birthday last October. This makes Trio the oldest advertising agency in Switzerland. It was founded on October 19, 1931 by Jean-Pierre De Trey and the two graphic designers Fred Waefler and André Hirsch. These three owners are behind the name Trio. Today, the company is managed by Michael Kamm. He also owns the majority of the agency with 20 employees. Kamm had to take over Trio in 2004 completely "unplanned and spontaneously": Hansjörg Lippuner, the last remaining patron of the old guard alongside Werner Rudin and Georges Perrin, was unexpectedly surprised by death in his beloved office. For Michael Kamm, it "just had to go on somehow". Next year, however, the sole boss wants to be "open to new partners" again. The aim is to have "three to five people" as future pillars of the agency.
Restructured in this way, Michael Kamm will also be able to build on enough strength for his second major goal in the coming year. Trio wants to open a branch in Zurich.
"You need that local feeling - on both sides," Kamm is convinced. Currently, around 60 percent of his customers are from French-speaking Switzerland. The prestige budget for Loterie Romande will soon be added to this. 40 percent come from German-speaking Switzerland. But: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to efficiently implement cross-media campaigns from French-speaking Switzerland in German-speaking Switzerland," says Kamm.
In Zurich, the agency boss wants to set up the branch himself. He is therefore currently not only looking for a suitable office, but also an apartment for his family with five children. The establishment of this branch in Zurich is an important strategic decision for Trio. However, Kamm also sees the move as equally important for his personal life.
For the past few years, the advertiser and his family have lived in the countryside in close harmony with nature in a house with lots of animals. Now he wants his children to experience the other side of life, namely the spirit of a big city. For Michael Kamm himself, the expansion to Zurich is a return to his roots. This is where he literally "grew up with advertising".
His father Hanspeter Kamm ran an agency on Weinbergstrasse in Zurich in the 1970s. Today he lives as an artist and makes "funny objects out of wire". Michael's grandfather probably also gave his grandson something of the artistic side. That was the well-known photographer Emil Schulthess.
Even as a boy, Michael "helped out" a lot in his father's agency, for example posing for photos and cutting paper for the graphics.
When he was ten years old, his parents separated. Michael moved first to Biel and then to Lausanne. That didn't make life any easier. But today he is perfectly bilingual. He no longer knows why he didn't pass his A-levels. But he remembers that even as a young adult he still "really wanted to get into advertising".
That was in the emerging era of the Macintosh. Kamm "tinkered" on such a computer for ten years as a graphic designer. At first he had his own company. Later he worked for a prepress company. When the Internet came along, Kamm helped to set up an Internet service for graphic designers and worked in this field for around three years.
In 1995, he founded an agency for events and trade fair construction together with an architect and a designer. "Pretty quickly, the young company was able to take on good projects," he recalls. Clients included the Swatch Group, for example. After four years, however, things became economically "critical" and they had to give up in 2000.
The CI for this event agency was designed by Trio at the time. The advertisers therefore repeatedly gave Kamm various mandates. So it was almost logical that he moved to a Trio office after the end of the trade fair construction to complete this work. Only three months were actually planned. Since then, however, he has never left. His knowledge of the Internet was discovered at the agency. Kamm was allowed to set up the interactive department. Trio later bought an online game agency and "quickly won a budget for Ovaltine". With SMS games, online advertising and the first cross-media concepts, this not only brought new strength to Ovomaltine. Trio also experienced a strong upturn after the agency was in a dangerous crisis in the 1990s.
"Michael, you could actually take over the management," said the patrons in 2003. The rest is history. In 2006, Trio was again awarded the Grand Prix Romand de la Création.
Andreas Panzeri
Restructured in this way, Michael Kamm will also be able to build on enough strength for his second major goal in the coming year. Trio wants to open a branch in Zurich.
"You need that local feeling - on both sides," Kamm is convinced. Currently, around 60 percent of his customers are from French-speaking Switzerland. The prestige budget for Loterie Romande will soon be added to this. 40 percent come from German-speaking Switzerland. But: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to efficiently implement cross-media campaigns from French-speaking Switzerland in German-speaking Switzerland," says Kamm.
In Zurich, the agency boss wants to set up the branch himself. He is therefore currently not only looking for a suitable office, but also an apartment for his family with five children. The establishment of this branch in Zurich is an important strategic decision for Trio. However, Kamm also sees the move as equally important for his personal life.
For the past few years, the advertiser and his family have lived in the countryside in close harmony with nature in a house with lots of animals. Now he wants his children to experience the other side of life, namely the spirit of a big city. For Michael Kamm himself, the expansion to Zurich is a return to his roots. This is where he literally "grew up with advertising".
His father Hanspeter Kamm ran an agency on Weinbergstrasse in Zurich in the 1970s. Today he lives as an artist and makes "funny objects out of wire". Michael's grandfather probably also gave his grandson something of the artistic side. That was the well-known photographer Emil Schulthess.
Even as a boy, Michael "helped out" a lot in his father's agency, for example posing for photos and cutting paper for the graphics.
When he was ten years old, his parents separated. Michael moved first to Biel and then to Lausanne. That didn't make life any easier. But today he is perfectly bilingual. He no longer knows why he didn't pass his A-levels. But he remembers that even as a young adult he still "really wanted to get into advertising".
That was in the emerging era of the Macintosh. Kamm "tinkered" on such a computer for ten years as a graphic designer. At first he had his own company. Later he worked for a prepress company. When the Internet came along, Kamm helped to set up an Internet service for graphic designers and worked in this field for around three years.
In 1995, he founded an agency for events and trade fair construction together with an architect and a designer. "Pretty quickly, the young company was able to take on good projects," he recalls. Clients included the Swatch Group, for example. After four years, however, things became economically "critical" and they had to give up in 2000.
The CI for this event agency was designed by Trio at the time. The advertisers therefore repeatedly gave Kamm various mandates. So it was almost logical that he moved to a Trio office after the end of the trade fair construction to complete this work. Only three months were actually planned. Since then, however, he has never left. His knowledge of the Internet was discovered at the agency. Kamm was allowed to set up the interactive department. Trio later bought an online game agency and "quickly won a budget for Ovaltine". With SMS games, online advertising and the first cross-media concepts, this not only brought new strength to Ovomaltine. Trio also experienced a strong upturn after the agency was in a dangerous crisis in the 1990s.
"Michael, you could actually take over the management," said the patrons in 2003. The rest is history. In 2006, Trio was again awarded the Grand Prix Romand de la Création.
Andreas Panzeri
