Have you seen it?

 
Congress Among the 50 top creatives at the "Summit of Creativity" congress, Frank Bodin from Euro RSCG also gave a presentation. Topic: "Why the most beautiful communication comes from Switzerland."  
WW: "Häsch es gseh?" was the title of your presentation in Berlin. What did you have to see?Frank Bodin:
The title is not mine, but was given. I made fun of myself a bit because of that. Obviously, the Germans think that we in Switzerland talk like that. I pointed out that this phrase "Häsch es gseh?", which is perceived as Swiss, is a prejudice. That's why I changed the title to "Creativity Swiss made. "What image of Switzerland did you want to convey with it?I wanted to advertise Switzerland as an advertising location and clear up a bit of prejudice in this respect, too.
Which works did you choose?I showed two things. On the one hand, the latest creative works from Switzerland. These are the ideas that were awarded gold, silver and bronze at the Swiss ADC a few weeks ago. These works have not yet been published in book form and are available for viewing by German colleagues. I have not looked further back in the advertising history, because the German professional audience knows of course the best Swiss advertising of the past years. The second side - and I think this is just as important - is the fact that creativity is not limited to our oh-so-important advertising heritage. I also wanted to weave in other aspects - real inventions from Switzerland. This starts with the zipper and goes on to the Birchermüesli and the WWW - because without the Cern in Geneva, there would be no World Wide Web. With such things I wanted to present creativity as one of the important resources and thus the real capital of our country Switzerland.
Did the message get through? No German is waiting for a Swiss to steal his customers. But the response was great, and I received an exceptionally warm welcome.
There are voices calling for the ADC of Germany, Switzerland and Austria to join forces. What do you think of this idea? The German ADC has shown such aspirations and has been inviting its neighboring countries to its competition for some time. In this regard, I have two souls in my chest. On the one hand: every country needs its national championship. Especially in Switzerland with its different language regions, we already have enough of our own. A national competition is also important for our own identity. On the other hand - and seen from a global perspective - it is already the case: We have a large language region. I think it is absolutely important that Germany, Austria and Switzerland should therefore put their heads together more. That's why I'm making an official proposal today: Each ADC holds its national competition every year - and in addition, one of the three ADCs takes turns hosting the international competition and organizing a festival.
The opening is mutual?Exactly. Next year, Switzerland will host such a competition and congress. The year after next, the event will take place in Vienna. I see such a rotation as an enriching concept for German-language advertising.
The three days in Berlin were accompanied by a gigantic march. Aren't we in Switzerland too small for such a project? In a country where so many global corporations such as Nestlé, Novartis, UBS, Swatch and others have their headquarters, something like this must be possible. An innovative example of cross-border cooperation for major events is just around the corner - the European Championship. I would like to thank my German colleagues for this event in Berlin. They said to themselves: "Think big". But we Swiss can do that too. The last event for the Effie was a bit smaller, but there was glamour here too in Studio 1 of the TV, and the Swiss ADC Festival is always a big event too. I think the Germans and Austrians would love to come to us as well ...
They already come to work ...Exactly. Why shouldn't they also come for a congress and competition? The world has become more global. We Swiss have to open up a bit. There must at least be a discussion about how far Swiss ADC should also open up to foreign entries.
You have now won gold in Berlin for the campaign with Greenpeace. Have you submitted cross-border before?It wasn't just me who won, but primarily Greenpeace and then the team from Euro RSCG Zurich, which was involved together with me. The fact that my very first international award, which I was practically allowed to claim for myself alone, also came from ADC Germany is a nice coincidence. That was the Kreuzchen campaign for Tibet at the time, and we picked up several nails at once. So many, in fact, that we ended up sixth in the agency rankings with a single campaign. That was the beginning of a worldwide flood of awards from New York to Cannes.
Interview: Andreas Panzeri