The accelerator
Christian Toberer successfully conveys useful content with his agency Weissgrund.
Christian Toberer successfully conveys useful content with his agency Weissgrund.
He used to be an international orienteer. You can only win if you have a lot of experience and the courage to keep looking for new paths in any terrain. Now the former orienteering runner Christian Toberer has also ventured into a new area professionally: he is also positioning his agency in corporate communications. 29 years ago, Gaudenz Tscharner, who was known as a left-wing green, founded the TSR campaign office. Toberer has been on the board of directors there for 15 years. Ten years ago, he took over the agency and now manages
It has enjoyed constant success ever since. "Small, fine and right in the middle of it all", the company on Zurich's Bellerivestrasse has been generating
years with half a dozen employees and a constant fee of around CHF 1.2 million per year.
One of the agency's most conspicuous pieces of work is the communication support for the congestion problems during the six-year construction phase of the Baregg tunnel. Until two years ago, Toberer and his team also played a decisive role in helping to transform Zurich's public transport company VBZ "from a means of transportation for old people to a modern lifestyle product".
develop. Other customers were or are Pro Helvetia, Bakom, the University of Zurich and ETH, the WWF, as well as Swisscom Mobile and IKEA.
One of the agency's specialties could be described as "communication on projects and topics". Toberer is interested in the thrust
PR and advertising do not. "Today, we need to engage with topics. Much more than inflated packaging."
Just under two years ago, the campaign office founded a subsidiary to primarily serve new clients with demanding corporate communication needs. Under the name Weissgrund, the aim was to "try out what happens for a year".
A lot has happened, as the entire agency has been called Weissgrund since this summer. Corporate developer Gaby Wyser was head of communications at national association level and at VBZ before joining Toberer as a partner. The most important thing for the corporate culture at Weissgrund, however, is that the agency "brings together a lot of life experience". Toberer is convinced that this has a positive effect on the content of the campaigns. The agency therefore deliberately enables working models that "are normally almost impossible to implement in advertising". For example, there are part-time positions at Weissgrund that are filled by fathers or mothers.
Toberer points to current prevention campaigns against addiction and sexual assault in sport as typical work for his agency. "These are sensitive topics where you can't just come up with any old advertising. You're dealing with victims and perpetrators and have to use more subtle arguments to get someone to seek help."
Toberer can use "a discontinued study program" as a reference for such topics.
I can offer a degree in psychology and journalism," he says. At Ascom, he spent over four years building up the advertising and communications department for a division. Before that, he wrote operating instructions for an agency and learned to "convey content that people can use", as he describes his work today.
Christian Toberer believes that today it is more important to deal with topics than to use pompous packaging.
He used to be an international orienteer. You can only win if you have a lot of experience and the courage to keep looking for new paths in any terrain. Now the former orienteering runner Christian Toberer has also ventured into a new area professionally: he is also positioning his agency in corporate communications. 29 years ago, Gaudenz Tscharner, who was known as a left-wing green, founded the TSR campaign office. Toberer has been on the board of directors there for 15 years. Ten years ago, he took over the agency and now manages
It has enjoyed constant success ever since. "Small, fine and right in the middle of it all", the company on Zurich's Bellerivestrasse has been generating
years with half a dozen employees and a constant fee of around CHF 1.2 million per year.
One of the agency's most conspicuous pieces of work is the communication support for the congestion problems during the six-year construction phase of the Baregg tunnel. Until two years ago, Toberer and his team also played a decisive role in helping to transform Zurich's public transport company VBZ "from a means of transportation for old people to a modern lifestyle product".
develop. Other customers were or are Pro Helvetia, Bakom, the University of Zurich and ETH, the WWF, as well as Swisscom Mobile and IKEA.
One of the agency's specialties could be described as "communication on projects and topics". Toberer is interested in the thrust
PR and advertising do not. "Today, we need to engage with topics. Much more than inflated packaging."
Just under two years ago, the campaign office founded a subsidiary to primarily serve new clients with demanding corporate communication needs. Under the name Weissgrund, the aim was to "try out what happens for a year".
A lot has happened, as the entire agency has been called Weissgrund since this summer. Corporate developer Gaby Wyser was head of communications at national association level and at VBZ before joining Toberer as a partner. The most important thing for the corporate culture at Weissgrund, however, is that the agency "brings together a lot of life experience". Toberer is convinced that this has a positive effect on the content of the campaigns. The agency therefore deliberately enables working models that "are normally almost impossible to implement in advertising". For example, there are part-time positions at Weissgrund that are filled by fathers or mothers.
Toberer points to current prevention campaigns against addiction and sexual assault in sport as typical work for his agency. "These are sensitive topics where you can't just come up with any old advertising. You're dealing with victims and perpetrators and have to use more subtle arguments to get someone to seek help."
Toberer can use "a discontinued study program" as a reference for such topics.
I can offer a degree in psychology and journalism," he says. At Ascom, he spent over four years building up the advertising and communications department for a division. Before that, he wrote operating instructions for an agency and learned to "convey content that people can use", as he describes his work today.
Christian Toberer believes that today it is more important to deal with topics than to use pompous packaging.
Andreas Panzeri
