The PR specialist
As managing director of Jung von Matt/Public Relations, David Schärer intends to continue exploring the impact of PR, advertising, and the web.
move. The "living room" from the Jung von Matt/Limmat agency will be
of the Pfauenbühne in Zurich's Schauspielhaus. The
The advertisers' "living room" is a living room designed by market researchers.
prototype of how Swiss families live on average. Now the
director Christiane Pohle turns this standard room into a play space for a
dramaturgical project. The conversion of the room from advertising
David Schärer is not entirely innocent when it comes to art. The managing director
PR at Jung von Matt/ Limmat has made its mark on the "memory of the project".
good contacts in the cultural scene. An activity that his
Always working as a PR specialist in the most diverse facets
has influenced. "Culture, or subculture, is the means by which
which describes the state of a society. And that is
also important for our profession," he says.
David Schärer came to public relations in a roundabout way. He has
in Basel after two years studying at the School of Design
"successfully aborted". With a "mediocre talent for
visual communication", he did not want to be a "mediocre graphic designer in
become a mediocre agency". Although the
art school offered her a tempting exchange semester in Ireland.
However, a job as an assistant at the
Press office at Theater Basel. How do you deal with difficult people?
How can stars be convinced at the theater, why despite rehearsal stress?
an interview on television is important? A lot of "learning by doing",
is how Schärer describes this exciting time. Despite long hours in the office
he still found time for the PR assistant at the SPRI. Later
a degree as a federally certified PR consultant has also been added.
Schärer has always been interested in culture in his private life. During the
School of Design, he successfully participated in the Performance Days in
Solothurn. In the subculture sector, he was also a co-founder of
of Basel's biggest club rock festival B/Scene. "It was very
attractive to communicate for a cultural product. I wanted to
but also sometimes sell a yogurt or a soft drink," explains the
Career changer, why he then switched to Jung von Matt/Limmat.
He read in Advertising Week that the company, then still known as Honegger/von
Matt agency wanted to expand its PR unit.
It was founded in 2000 in response to a customer request.
Ikea wanted everything from one agency. "They started back then,
to work with integrated concepts within a company. With a
common guiding principle for all disciplines, we wanted to achieve greater efficiency
for the campaigns," recalls Schärer.
Four years later, the very young man dreamed of a career as a rock star.
dreaming PR man once again lives out the feeling of the wild years
want. He set up his own business and founded the David
Schärer Agenda Setting. One important client was a public
Company that was taken over by a foreign company.
"PR is about attracting attention and sometimes also the
On the contrary," he says.
He has also made a lobbying campaign on the Rhine knee a sustainable topic.
Case concerning the Rhine port in Basel. He later completed this project
with Jung von Matt. The Basel parliament has already
convinced by the new ideas in the field of urban planning. Now
a group of experts is reviewing the next steps. Schärer has
forged alliances for this, highlighted potential in the media and thus
the topic in public debates.
"Recalling brands" was another specialty. Agenda
Setting has brought Aromat into the media as a "Swiss achievement".
and posthumously styled the advertising figure Knorrli into an icon.
With Knorrli on hand, Schärer then returned to Jung von Matt
when he returned in 2005 as the new head of the in-house PR agency
was hired. At the agency on the Limmat, this five-person unit is now responsible for the
Example budgets for Hug or Knorr Vie. The campaign for fruit
and vegetables in a portion bottle has just been shortlisted for the
Crossmedia Awards. Jung von Matt PR also serves as
media office for Jura and looks after all aspects of fully automatic coffee machines.
Corporate Communications.
Schärer developed the idea of the "Trojan Horse" at Jung von Matt
convinced to work as Head of PR together with the classics on a
creative platform. "In an increasingly tough
This is the agency model of the future," he is convinced.
convinced. He estimates that 50 percent of his work today involves projects in
cooperation with the units for advertising, the rest is
classic PR. Whereby the cliché of the "gray eminences who are in the
pulling the strings in the background" is outdated for today's PR. "It
needs a comprehensible craft in order to put topics on the agenda.
to be able to bring."
You can't force something on the media that they don't want. "PR
works in a similar way to advertising: you need a good idea, a
Relevance in the message, then you can also create a forum." In
In this sense, he wants to create an event to generate publicity.
obtain. "If you come up with good stories, the media are
open." A network of relationships helps, but today there are more and more
fluctuation in the editorial offices, and in the end it is usually
an editorial meeting. "We are in a daily pitch with 300
Agency reports or people who want to place a story.
We must therefore offer relevant and comprehensible content or
Also those that entertain."
For example, the living room in the theater. Next to this must
Schärer will soon be moving a second time. With his wife -
a freelance stage designer - and their two children, he moves
from Basel to Kilchberg in the near future. "I can't imagine leaving the
commute for another 35 years", is the new important man in the
Agency on the Limmat convinced.
Andreas Panzeri
