The chief tourist
As the new head of marketing at Switzerland Tourism, Markus Rege wants to focus next summer on attracting more women to Switzerland.
of Switzerland Tourism next summer, especially more women in the
Switzerland. "Dear women, why don't you spend the
World Cup summer in the mountains. There, where the men are less concerned with football
but more about you ..." This tongue-in-cheek text is accompanied by
The new Switzerland Tourism spot shows an attractive alpine dairyman making hay,
a friendly conductor in the cable car, a stunningly good
a charming mountain guide and a well-built woodcutter.
milker looking confidently into the camera.
"It's fun to travel to Berlin with this kind of promotional material.
can," says Markus Rege happily. Since Wednesday of this week
With the ITB International Tourism Fair, Berlin hosts the largest trade fair
of the international tourism industry. First three days for
the professional buyers. Then two more days for the
holiday-hungry public. Switzerland presents itself in Berlin
officially for the first time with the new commercial and the upcoming
Summer campaign by Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett. For the new manager
Marketing at Switzerland Tourism, the stay in the Swiss
trade fair stand will only be brief, however. "The nice thing about the new job is that
I do all my work around the world to a large extent from
from my desk in Zurich."
Successfully selling trips and planning relaxing vacations instead of
continue to rush through the area themselves, today is the big
Markus Rege's passion. He has been with Switzerland Tourism since January
responsible for marketing. "With a strong brand to the
taxiway is always good," he says proudly, taking note of the fact that
its product - or our country - has just been re-ranked by the Nation Brands Index.
was voted into second place - behind England and ahead of Canada,
Italy, Sweden, Germany and Japan. "That shows an increase,
as well as the pleasingly positive and above-average
increased overnight stays for the start of the winter," analyzes
he. The trend will make his work easier, even if Rege is already
was always convinced by the strong arguments in favor of the Swiss brand.
His first professional approach to Switzerland as a vacation destination was
Rege with a thesis on the Grisons hotel industry. The studies
economic geography, he has worked partly as a tour guide for
treks through the Corsican forests. However, before he fully
tourism, he wanted to use his "training time for something else".
extend" as a market research trainee at the then Kreditanstalt.
"This introduction to marketing was very valuable," says Rege. Besides
the fun of being the main sponsor of the Tour de Suisse three times.
he mentions the introduction of a student account and the
first cinema promotions in 1987, which have had a lasting impact on the film image to this day.
of Credit Suisse.
A little more alternative in the public eye was the
Image of his next employer. Rege switched from the bank to the
Swiss Student Travel Service SSR and therefore from a
segment responsibility to marketing management. "SSR Travel was at that time
still a wild cooperative in the spirit of the ideals of 1968," recalls
he is. But if you work in a cooperative with self-administration and
co-determination, then you learn to lead for life. "My
Leadership know-how and the whole way of leading people comes from
of that time. Whoever can assert themselves ..." Rege has the marketing
professionalized at SSR and not just a partnership with the
UBS through - "a red rag" - but also the first
"Ferienflirt" advertising campaign with the then newly founded Guye agency
& Partner.
When the now successful brand
"student travel service" was sold to STA Travel, also attracted regular
a new challenge. In 1998, he moved to the
Swissair. The international look was a new addition here. Lively
working for the foreign market for the first time and taking responsibility for
international campaigns. With Advico Young & Rubicam
he supervised "Faces" with the slogan "Swissair - The refreshing airline".
After Halifax, this became the "White Campaign", the last one before
the grounding. In between, Rege also traveled two years weekly to
Belgium and worked with Paul Reutlinger for Sabena and Swissair.
and the Qualiflyer Group is responsible for advertising with eleven airlines.
Like all members of the Swissair family, he was deeply affected by the grounding.
"I too have demonstrated against UBS and CS and tried to
to save Swissair," he recalls. Or the episode where there was no
more money for paper and he, as Head of Market Communication with
drove his car to AY&R, where the agency was offering its most important client
helped out with a few boxes of urgently needed office supplies.
The purchase of the domain name swiss.com in the
USA. "These were tough negotiations with lawyers who were up to their eyeballs in
and only wanted to talk about millions at first",
recalls Rege.
With the sale of Swiss to Lufthansa, a merry-go-round has begun in management.
where Rege now serves as Vice President Marketing
& Communications no longer wanted to ride along. More
satisfaction during this time until his entry and professional
Topper at Switzerland Tourism brought him various mountain marathons
or the conversion of a former print shop in the Zurich district
4 into a habitable loft.
Andreas Panzeri
