The word man
Thomas Meyer has taken over the Malstube agency and renamed it Meyer Werbung. He is planning more guerrilla marketing campaigns.
Thomas Meyer has taken over the agency Malstube and renamed it Meyer Werbung. He plans more guerrilla campaigns. "Girl smell is a wonderful poison. Even a very little of it sends me into paralyzing raptures and gives me the odd fantastic hallucination," Thomas Meyer reveals. Once he's "poisoned," he knows how to lyricize: "Love is the wild dance over thin ice and the hovering flight into the seething volcano." Or: "Love is the pass ride without brakes, the jump into the bear enclosure and the nap on the pilot's seat." Quite poetic words from someone who has just introduced himself as a new young entrepreneur with the simple name Meyer Werbung. Let's look back.All these sentences can be found in the book "Die Federhure" by Thomas Meyer. Before he could no longer avoid this profession of a word worker, Meyer tried to be a good son to his parents by studying law. Although advertising interested him much more even then. But how does one become an advertiser? The people in charge at Schweizer Werbung (SW) will be happy to hear the answer: Jung-Meyer discovered in their brochure that the profession of copywriter exists. The rest is told without many words: Internships at Wirz, Hostettler and Fabrikant, GGK.
In 1997, he found his first real job with this agency in Zurich. In other words, "The legal career was in the toilet with that."
At GGK, junior lyricist Meyer not only found "a very good teacher" in Markus Rottmann. He also gave him the impetus to go public with his own underground texts in Zurich. Meyer developed a website that could be described as "the first blog" of the Zurich advertising scene. Meyer signed his texts with Hans Schmerz. He got the idea for this pseudonym at the cinema during the credits of the film "Alien". A certain John Hurt plays in it. The rest is translation. Later Meyer worked for the magazine Kult.
Meyer also ran "guerrilla advertising" for his pioneering website a few years before the big trend. He scattered stickers everywhere with just one mysterious web address on them: www.hansschmerz.ch. In the meantime, Meyer had landed at Advico and sent this address - without further text - also to Reini Weber. He thought, "We want that for WHS." Meyer thought, "I want that, too."
In his year at WHS, Meyer "went from junior to semi-senior" and, in addition to Switzerland Tourism, was also allowed to contribute to the legendary campaign for the Tagi, for example. Those were the headlines with the claim: "We'll stay tuned."
Copywriter or journalist? Meyer also wanted to get to know the world of media better and switched to City-Blick. For this sister product of Blick Online, he was allowed to report on the work of the airport police as a roving reporter or, for example, "train" to become a streetcar driver in a crash course at VBZ. "All things I always wanted to do," says Meyer, who naturally regretted that City-Blick was discontinued after six months. The journalist with an advertising soul - or vice versa - went back to WHS, but was allowed to continue writing columns for Blick online as a freelancer.
"There were always people who thought I had to choose between purpose-free texts and advertising copy. But I'm still convinced today that I don't have to choose," says Meyer. With the end of WHS and "a sacking at Euro RSCG," the situation was then clarified anyway. Meyer applied to Facts as a producer in 2005 and was hired as head of copy.
"Sex and language" - those were the two topics that most interested Meyer in his part-time job as a journalistic writer. Today, it's "love and language. In addition to his two books "Die Federhure" and "Die Federhure ff.", his first text also appeared in the magazine of the Tages-Anzeiger in 2000. Since then, he has enjoyed guest privileges there once every year and occasionally writes for Weltwoche. "Such and other side jobs in the media will remain, otherwise I'm doing something wrong," says Meyer, who then once again shuttled back to advertising when the role of head of copywriting "fell victim to a structural change" at Facts.
Meyer subsequently bought into the Malstube. He had already provided the name for this graphic studio of Fabian Gruber in 2001. Since then, he has worked there as a freelancer, while Malstube has increasingly developed into a full-service agency. The most important customers are still Hostpoint and the online marketplace Piazza. For the latter, Malstube caught the eye with the funny story "Sorry, but their marital problems rather not". Later, it was possible to get rid of stupid gifts via Piazza.
When Fabian Gruber said a few months ago that he no longer wanted to do advertising - "and also implemented this opinion" - Meyer just as quickly took over the paint shop 100 percent.
The partner's exit provided Meyer with the opportunity to "find a new decision for everything. What's the name of the agency? Who do I do it with and where?
"That's when I changed everything right away," Meyer states. Instead of working with new partners, he wants to work only with freelancers. "Discussions bore me, which is often interpreted as arrogance. But it's a fact: I prefer to work alone." If he has an idea, he wants to develop it as far as possible without outside influences and, consequently, convince the customer of it himself. "The idea has to be good enough for me to sell it."
He also didn't think the name Malstube was as appropriate anymore. "Let's say it as banal as it really is: Meyer does advertising, so let's put it on the board that way."
And in which area of advertising does Meyer want to be active in the future?
Hostpoint and Piazza remain loyal customers. To this end, Meyer works a lot with the Mediabox agency. Guerrilla marketing. "In this line of business, it's even more challenging to succeed because you approach people so directly that you really have to pick them up. You can't go wrong with an ad, but guerrilla is measurable and really has to work."
What about customer confidence in such a small "kitchen table agency"? "I won't be able to answer that question for another three years. But I'm confident, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it. It's a question of discipline and diligence. As much as you want and demand - that's how much you get." Or to put it again in the words of "Feather Whore," "Never would I sell my soul. But parts of my body."
Andreas Panzeri
In 1997, he found his first real job with this agency in Zurich. In other words, "The legal career was in the toilet with that."
At GGK, junior lyricist Meyer not only found "a very good teacher" in Markus Rottmann. He also gave him the impetus to go public with his own underground texts in Zurich. Meyer developed a website that could be described as "the first blog" of the Zurich advertising scene. Meyer signed his texts with Hans Schmerz. He got the idea for this pseudonym at the cinema during the credits of the film "Alien". A certain John Hurt plays in it. The rest is translation. Later Meyer worked for the magazine Kult.
Meyer also ran "guerrilla advertising" for his pioneering website a few years before the big trend. He scattered stickers everywhere with just one mysterious web address on them: www.hansschmerz.ch. In the meantime, Meyer had landed at Advico and sent this address - without further text - also to Reini Weber. He thought, "We want that for WHS." Meyer thought, "I want that, too."
In his year at WHS, Meyer "went from junior to semi-senior" and, in addition to Switzerland Tourism, was also allowed to contribute to the legendary campaign for the Tagi, for example. Those were the headlines with the claim: "We'll stay tuned."
Copywriter or journalist? Meyer also wanted to get to know the world of media better and switched to City-Blick. For this sister product of Blick Online, he was allowed to report on the work of the airport police as a roving reporter or, for example, "train" to become a streetcar driver in a crash course at VBZ. "All things I always wanted to do," says Meyer, who naturally regretted that City-Blick was discontinued after six months. The journalist with an advertising soul - or vice versa - went back to WHS, but was allowed to continue writing columns for Blick online as a freelancer.
"There were always people who thought I had to choose between purpose-free texts and advertising copy. But I'm still convinced today that I don't have to choose," says Meyer. With the end of WHS and "a sacking at Euro RSCG," the situation was then clarified anyway. Meyer applied to Facts as a producer in 2005 and was hired as head of copy.
"Sex and language" - those were the two topics that most interested Meyer in his part-time job as a journalistic writer. Today, it's "love and language. In addition to his two books "Die Federhure" and "Die Federhure ff.", his first text also appeared in the magazine of the Tages-Anzeiger in 2000. Since then, he has enjoyed guest privileges there once every year and occasionally writes for Weltwoche. "Such and other side jobs in the media will remain, otherwise I'm doing something wrong," says Meyer, who then once again shuttled back to advertising when the role of head of copywriting "fell victim to a structural change" at Facts.
Meyer subsequently bought into the Malstube. He had already provided the name for this graphic studio of Fabian Gruber in 2001. Since then, he has worked there as a freelancer, while Malstube has increasingly developed into a full-service agency. The most important customers are still Hostpoint and the online marketplace Piazza. For the latter, Malstube caught the eye with the funny story "Sorry, but their marital problems rather not". Later, it was possible to get rid of stupid gifts via Piazza.
When Fabian Gruber said a few months ago that he no longer wanted to do advertising - "and also implemented this opinion" - Meyer just as quickly took over the paint shop 100 percent.
The partner's exit provided Meyer with the opportunity to "find a new decision for everything. What's the name of the agency? Who do I do it with and where?
"That's when I changed everything right away," Meyer states. Instead of working with new partners, he wants to work only with freelancers. "Discussions bore me, which is often interpreted as arrogance. But it's a fact: I prefer to work alone." If he has an idea, he wants to develop it as far as possible without outside influences and, consequently, convince the customer of it himself. "The idea has to be good enough for me to sell it."
He also didn't think the name Malstube was as appropriate anymore. "Let's say it as banal as it really is: Meyer does advertising, so let's put it on the board that way."
And in which area of advertising does Meyer want to be active in the future?
Hostpoint and Piazza remain loyal customers. To this end, Meyer works a lot with the Mediabox agency. Guerrilla marketing. "In this line of business, it's even more challenging to succeed because you approach people so directly that you really have to pick them up. You can't go wrong with an ad, but guerrilla is measurable and really has to work."
What about customer confidence in such a small "kitchen table agency"? "I won't be able to answer that question for another three years. But I'm confident, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it. It's a question of discipline and diligence. As much as you want and demand - that's how much you get." Or to put it again in the words of "Feather Whore," "Never would I sell my soul. But parts of my body."
Andreas Panzeri
