The head coach

Bells and whistles don't come to Thomas Wildberger's office. His new workplace in the creative department at Publicis is one thing above all: bare. Neither pictures on the wall nor personal objects on the desk. "Bourgeois office individualization" is what the creative calls it when people clutter up the workplace with bits and pieces. "That kind of thing is just distracting." But after all, Wildberger's job is not to live out his creativity as an interior decorator, but to prove it as Publicis' new Chief Creative Officer. After several years in Germany, the Zurich native has returned to Switzerland.

From a huge market with over 80 million people back to manageable Switzerland, from the capital of Germany back to the city on the Limmat, from agency owner back to employee. A big change. But change is something Wildberger has always sought. "I'm a Sagittarius, and as such I always want something new," the creative says of himself. "After all, you always long for change, and you should go through with it every now and then, " is his motto. Wildberger has acted accordingly since the beginning of his career.

When the agency Jung von Matt Hamburg advertised in 1996 for copywriters and - as a joke - also for a Pamela Anderson for the position of receptionist, the then 22-year-old threw himself into a red bathing dress, put on a blond long-hair wig and posed for a job application photo with a lascivious look into the camera (see picture below: Werbewoche article from 1996). He convinced the creative agency - not only of his travesty skills, but also of the fact that his strength lies more in copywriting than in making coffee.

That was unusual, a big step and a risk, Wildberger recalls. By moving to the northern German city, he was not only leaving his parents' home in Zurich-Limbach, but also Switzerland, which was not his primary goal. But the idea of working for the then young, up-and-coming agency was spectacular, too tempting. So he started as a copywriter in Hamburg.

A good five years later, he was looking for a change again. He wanted to get out of the agency routine, be free, work for other agencies and other clients. Together with Alex Römer, who was working as a CD at Jung von Matt/Spree in Berlin at the time, he founded a freelance team in 2002. A text-text team - a combination that was unusual at the time and initially caused irritation among many agencies. Wildberger was often asked why two copywriters should be booked. Wildberger thinks that a copywriter and an AD have to be a team - an entrenched and outdated idea. The cooperation of two copywriters or conceptioners can be very enriching. In any case, Römer and he were not deterred and built up a foothold as a text-text team. In 2007, the tandem founded their own agency under the name Römer Wildberger and worked for clients such as Vanity Fair, Berliner Morgenpost, Die Welt, Natural American Spirit and Ferrero.

Now Wildberger has once again folded up his tents and left the advertising agency he helped build for Publicis. Going to a small agency was out of the question for him. If he was going to leave Berlin, he wanted to go to a large agency with a lot of interesting clients and the budgets to make films.

Still the boss

At Publicis, the top creative can also pursue one of his favorite disciplines, car advertising. During his time at Jung von Matt, he already worked for Audi, BMW and Mini and built up a car expertise in the years that followed. He calls car advertising the "supreme discipline," since it involves convincing customers to buy a very expensive product. "It's not something you just buy like a Snickers bar," he says. You have to be present throughout the process - from the decision to buy a new car to the actual purchase - and influence the customer, he says.

A period that lasts an average of 15 months. It's a shame, he says, that the trend is still heavily toward sales campaigns. "No one has the time to build or maintain an image anymore." After all, in his view, the interesting thing about car advertising is precisely the long-term aspect of binding customers to a brand so that they remain loyal to it even after they have made a purchase - ideally for the rest of their lives. Despite his fascination with car advertising - Wildberger is not a car nut. For the past six years, when he lived in Berlin, he didn't even own one.

For Wildberger, the move to Publicis also means working for a company again as an employee after years as an agency owner. It's quite a change, says the new creative director, but he doesn't see it so narrowly: "I still act as if I were self-employed. I feel Publicis is my agency, my future that I'm shaping." He wants to regain the top positions with the agency, which has slipped down the creative rankings, and ensure that advertising from Publicis becomes more creative again. He doesn't want to control this from the executive suite, which for him is a relic of the 1980s, but rather as creative director in the midst of his teams. "The people here are hot to make good stuff." When Wildberger says it like that, he could just as easily pass for a coach of a football team. And in fact, he doesn't find the creative director-head coach analogy far-fetched at all. The organization of an agency reminds him of a soccer club with a president, managers, players, a head coach and various co-trainers. And he, as head coach, has to motivate the players, the creatives to a point, to spur them on, to make advertising that causes a stir. "When people get off on advertising, they don't get off on it - that's the best thing that can happen to you. That's what Publicis needs to get back to."

The problem solver

Wildberger thinks it's bad when advertising doesn't arouse interest. Or even worse: advertising that misleads people. For example, when products are promised to keep the intestinal flora in good shape or to strengthen the immune system. Or that a detergent makes laundry even whiter. "That's so far-fetched and in some cases can't even be justified," he criticizes. Advertising must convey the truth, he says. In a surprising and unseen way.

He sees his role as solving customers' problems. "We are all problem solvers," says Wildberger. He likes to compare himself to Mister Wolf, the man from the cult movie Pulp Fiction, who has a solution ready for every problem. No matter how delicate the situation, Mister Wolf always knows what to do or who has to do what. However, Wildberger has yet to find out the best way to solve the problems of Publicis clients together with the creative team, as he has only been with the agency for a few weeks.

Fast and impatient

Last but not least, a feeling-out is necessary because he has become accustomed to the German mentality over the years. In Switzerland, things are sometimes too leisurely for him. In his opinion, many things could be done a little more quickly. Long discussions before finally getting down to work get on his nerves: "If you already know what it's all about, you can save yourself the preliminaries and get straight to work. He also learned to appreciate during his time at German agencies that idea generation is not too firmly in-depth, but more broad-based. When energy is not spent on working out a few ideas, but rather on hinting at as many different ones as possible. "On the basis of two to three advertisements and a film, you can tell immediately whether an idea works," he is convinced. "And then you can move on to the next one right away."

Wildberger often can't move fast enough. He is impatient, very much so. When he has the feeling that a strategy is the right one, he has to act immediately. Then he sometimes stands on people's toes.

Nevertheless, if necessary, Wildberger can exercise patience and delay decisions until the last minute. If the right idea still doesn't seem to have been found three days before a pitch, he doesn't get discouraged. "You just have to stay cool," he says, not without pride. If others get the jitters shortly before the presentation, Wildberger spurs his team to try again. It cannot be ruled out that the brilliant idea will come after all. In such situations, Wildberger's impatience is offset by his ambition. After all, as a shooter he is automatically ambitious.
Isabel Imper