The Motz from Butz: Swisscom has an advertising disease
No sooner had Swisscom’s heart-and-soul campaign (see Motz, Oct. 7, 2011) been launched with much fanfare than it found a new home.
What is at stake here: Swisscom, one of the largest advertising clients in Switzerland, does not know what it wants to represent. No positioning, no advertising idea, just trial and error is the motto. Our money is simply thrown out of the window. After all, Swisscom has once again called for an advertising round, and it has now also chosen a new agency: Heimat Berlin. They are now going to reinvent advertising. A punch in the face for the Swiss advertising scene, as if Dr. Spillmann, Dr. Bodin, Dr. Ruf, Dr. von Matt, Dr. Collioud or I hadn't figured out where Swisscom was ailing and what kind of prescription it needed.
My advertising theory: First, we should find out what it is that Swisscom has an image problem. Does it have a bacterial or viral disease, or is it a cancer? Based on this finding, a treatment method or an advertising strategy and a precise briefing must be created.
The advertising doctors are then to find out from this the most effective medicine against this finding. In other words, find a long-term, creative implementation that gradually advances the healing process. The most decisive part for a recovery is continuity. As an advertising doctor, I would prescribe this medicine for at least ten years. Swisscom has undergone far too many facelifts in recent years. We know from practical experience that this has not always turned out favorably. You can see how unsuccessful the new Swisscom logo looks. But that's just it: First you operate, and then you have to make corrections.
The new campaign launched seven months ago and praised to the skies by Swisscom executives as the optimal advertising solution has thus turned out to be the wrong treatment method. Now the advertising agency Heimat from Berlin has taken care of the patient Swisscom and also brought the budget to their sanatorium. Heimat is not a bad agency. Whether Swisscom has been inspired by the quirky Hornbach campaign? We'll see, but we can't hope. I'm not sure that the Swisscom problem can be cured with advertising. Swisscom is upsetting the Swiss hotel industry and acting as a brake on free surfing in hotels. Bad for tourism. On the other hand, it lowers the surfing and telephone charges incurred abroad from 80 to 75 centimes/minute. From European providers like Vodafone or Telecom, surfing offers are up to four times cheaper. In any case, I wish you a speedy recovery. My pick of the week is the FCB, which is continuing to churn away cheerfully and successfully despite winning the championship.
Theophil Butz, once a star advertiser (Ringier), now an inspirer and now a mothballer. "Not an easy role, but a necessary one, which I perform here every fortnight." Please send any relevant information to [email protected].
