"A damn good feeling"

The writer Raymond Chandler once said that advertisers and chess players are the ones who waste their creative talent most senselessly. In 2010, Matthias Freuler said to himself that he didn't want to squander this gift quite so pointlessly in the future.

For 30 years he worked as a copywriter, concept designer and CD in classic agencies. "At some point you've seen it, at some point everything repeats itself. The Mobiliar campaign with the damage sketches, for example, we had once invented at Aebi Strebel, later I worked on it at Publicis and then, last but not least, at Wirz. If you only ever work at top 10 agencies, at some point you feel like you're in the movie "Groundhog Day. Always the same clients, the same colleagues, the same assignments and the same awards."

That's why, after ten years as Executive Creative Director at Wirz, it was a good time to finally do something else. However, it was clear to Freuler from the start: "Cutting vines in Tuscany or writing books in Ibiza is not my thing. I want to continue doing what I do best and love doing most: concocting ideas. Same, but different!" Looking for a job that would bring him more in the future, Freuler finally found what he was looking for at Spina's Civil Voices, an agency that specializes in clients and engagements from the NPO sector. In his career so far, he has certainly managed to "polish up the image of one or the other major client a little or to increase sales". But today Freuler knows that he gets far more satisfaction from doing something meaningful and sustainable for WWF, Solidar, the Salvation Army or Amnesty International.

"It's a damn good feeling when you come home from work in the evening and know that today you may have saved a few people from starvation, a few animals from extinction, or a few square meters of tropical forest from being cut down."

Matthias Freuler has already worked on campaigns for the Brockenhaus, the Salvation Army and the Tibetan Community during his time at Wirz. "But fundraising is really new territory for me. Not only can I use my creativity there, but I also learn something new every day." What's exciting about this is that at Spina's Civil Voices, nothing is ever done "out of the blue." Every mailing is tested and only when it has been proven which approach is the best is a mailing generalized. Each year, the specialist agency runs around 180 mailings. Spina's Civil Voices employs 30 people. The agency near Zurich's Volkshaus is organized with a "very flat hierarchy." Lorenz Spinas is the owner, managing director and executive creative director in personal union. "Then on the next level come the 29 of us," Freuler says with a grin. Some specialists come from NPOs and have already worked there as fundraisers. Others come from advertising agencies. Freuler acts as a CD on individual projects, where he can contribute his many years of classical experience. "My strength is certainly in creating campaigns. But in the meantime, I've also become quite adept as a fundraiser."

Stunning with Clooney and Blatter

Freuler has already attracted the attention of a very broad public with two viral films. His parody with George Clooney, who is beaten to death by a Nespresso light panel, promotes fair trade in coffee cultivation. The clip for Solidar Suisse has so far been clicked on Youtube over 900,000 times. The latest viral film, featuring Sepp Blatter as a samba dancer, which aims to draw attention to the fact that over 150,000 locals are to be displaced for the construction of a stadium at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, currently stands at 350,000 clicks. "Both Solidar films were about collecting electronic signatures for the corresponding petitions."

While the Blatter spot was realized with a professional ballet dancer under a custom-made silicone mask, a Clooney was found practically on the doorstep for the Nespresso parody: in the Zurich Brockenhaus. Serge Kaspar works there as a customer consultant and really does look almost better than the real Clooney. Nevertheless, Kaspar does not want to become a "look alike", but at most "model something on occasion" with his own personality. An amateur world star from the chop shop is admittedly not the new norm. Nevertheless, the switch from Wirz to Spina's Civil Voices has also changed a lot in terms of production and media. "In the past, I created elaborate commercials that were later brought to the people with a large media budget. They were shown to the target group at the best 'Tagesschau', 'Meteo' and '10vor10' times, but were not always actually seen by the target group. Or if they did, then perhaps only because they were too lazy to pee. Today I create films that have to be so exciting, funny, new or different that people watch them voluntarily and ideally recommend them to others. That requirement is infinitely greater, but also much more interesting." In most cases, he says, there is so little money available that a good idea is imperative for the message to find its way to people. "For a creative, this starting position is great." Seeding is also immensely important, of course. Whether a YouTube film sits on 3,000 views or the counter goes up to several hundred thousand "can very well be influenced - but not forced," Freuler knows.

Freuler's relationship with creative prizes has changed somewhat in his new job. "I participated in all these competitions for years and I still think that prizes are an incentive to do something good. Institutions like the ADC, Cannes or Clio are extremely important so that better work really gets made. Unfortunately, it has become apparent in recent years that the works that win competitions often have no relevance on the market. Instead, more and more work is being submitted to ADC, Cannes & Co today for which there was never a commission. Very often, not only is the commission fictitious, but there is also no corresponding client, or the client knows nothing about the fact that a work was submitted in his name. The main thing is to win a prize. In the long run, that's just no fun anymore."

Almost every agency that wants to be among the top 10 in the annual creative rankings today makes special efforts to realize so-called gold work. "The creation of pure fake work is now part of everyday life and is firmly integrated into the work planning. For me, Ruf Lanz and Spillmann Felser are pleasant exceptions when it comes to creative work for real clients," says Freuler.

But this is not meant to sound radically award-starved. After all, Freuler created two classics with Lovely, the polysportive milk cow, and as the "father" of the Mobiliar damage sketches, which are still in use today. But after an estimated 258 awards won, Award No. 259 just isn't quite as sparkling anymore. "Our clientele at Spina's Civil Voices couldn't care less about awards anyway." Nevertheless, Freuler remains in ADC. On the school board, he continues to take exams and debrief the young talents. The events and parties of the scene are also no longer his thing. "In my role as CD, I had to represent and was contacted by many people." Afterwards, he says, anyone who takes a step back quickly realizes that few of the many "close friends" remain. Those friendships, however, are really close and good and lasting. All the rest became "business friends, whom I honestly don't miss much either ".

He enjoyed spending a few "creative days" in New York with his family last month all the more for it. "It was a special experience to stand in Times Square with my 15-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son. To be so in the middle of this huge advertising hullabaloo and to be totally lulled and drugged." Advertising, as Matthias Freuler has once again discovered, can exert an almost magical fascination. You just have to do it for the right thing. Andreas Panzeri