Head of the week: The interactivist
Ralf Doller has made his breakthrough with Interagis.com. Eighteen months after founding the company, he provides a glimpse into the company’s project portfolio and discusses the partnership with Interone Worldwide.
Ralf Doller has been working in dialog marketing for over twelve years. He doesn't like to hear the word direct marketer. He prefers the term dialog designer, because it expresses what it's all about today: multi-stage campaigns that turn a potential customer into an interested one and keep him as an existing customer. To this end, the agency he founded, Interagis.com, works offline as well as online in the sense of "interactive marketing.
Ralf Doller was co-owner of Alex Schmid Direct for years before he went into business for himself 18 months ago. Since then, he has deliberately kept the success stories surrounding his interagis.com under wraps. But "a lot has happened.
interagis.com has found new offices in a house full of creative companies on Zurich's Hornbachstrasse. In addition to the four permanent employees, freelance specialists have to be called in on a regular basis. Among the first clients are Allianz Suisse, Visana, Sunrise, RE/MAX and the Engadin St. Moritz tourism organization. "To work for top brands, we need to understand the advertising campaign in order to develop solutions based on it that also lead to the appropriate response. This makes us an ideal partner for advertising agencies," explains the dialog designer, who maintains good contacts with agencies.
Ralf Doller graduated in business administration in St. Gallen in 1986 with a thesis on direct marketing. Even before entering the professional world, he was fascinated by the discipline of direct. With "great euphoria," Doller founded the student association Com,ma. For this community of interest around communication and marketing, he organized company tours and also brought in the first marketing orders for students. The highlight was a student trip to New York. "It was a tradition at St. Gallen to go on a trip in the eighth semester. But we were the first to fly to America," he is still pleased today. In the Big Apple, the Swiss were eager to see an American advertising agency and found open doors at TBWA. One of the other visits was to City Bank, known for its marketing campaigns.
In Switzerland, the students were invited to the Direct Marketing Symposium in Montreux. "We were allowed to attend because our professor Weinhold predicted a great future for direct marketing and this discipline played a correspondingly important role at his institute." Up to 3,000 DM specialists from all over the world made the pilgrimage to Montreux. Well-known companies such as IBM presented successful projects. There are other disciplines in the wide world of marketing than just classic advertising, he found at the time.
Through his work as Com,ma president, Doller has come into contact with many companies. Immediately after graduating, he was made an offer by Metro International. As a trainee, Doller wanted to put his theories into practice for the first time at the holding company of the Metro stores in Baar. However, his "euphoria after graduation" was curbed by practitioners who always "knew better". Nevertheless, he doesn't regret the experience: "If you want to be successful in marketing, you should have been on the front line of sales yourself once in your life."
After one year, Ralf Doller moved to Siemens. Here he learned a lot of new things once again as an assistant to the management in the marketing department. "The marketing manager was a seasoned salesman and knew from the ground up what selling meant. I was able to accompany his successes and was also allowed to contribute the theory," Doller recalls of his development in a "wonderful team.
Nevertheless, over time the world at Siemens became too technical for him. "Anyone who wasn't an engineer had no future in that corporate culture back then." Doller saw more opportunities for himself in the agency world. He first worked at Marc Rutschmann, where he primarily served cantonal banks, then quickly found his way to Alex Schmid Direct, where he was co-owner and senior consultant for eleven years. "It was a great time to grow from a small agency to a handsome size and to look after top brands."
Schmid and Doller were already fellow students in St. Gallen. During their time together at the agency, they initially grew thanks to their work for Schweizerische Kreditanstalt. That was the time when direct marketing agencies also had to deal with brands and campaign ideas for the first time, in order to develop solution proposals within the framework of these campaigns. "That was new for the industry, which until then had stubbornly relied on past experience and had no understanding of a concerted use of different media," says Doller, who was also allowed to sit on the Cannes Lions jury for his division in 2005.
Dialog design instead of sales promotion
Sales-related campaigns are still very much in demand today. But: "Whereas consumers used to respond well to every sales promotion because the markets were not yet saturated, multi-stage campaigns are necessary today," Doller knows. Since you can run any campaign through a wide variety of channels, Doller - instead of making compromises - wanted to implement more and more of his own ideas. That's why he founded Interagis.com. As the name suggests, the Internet has a greater role here than in Doller's earlier work. "Often a campaign starts on the Internet and is sustained over the Internet," he explains. Specifically, Doller is talking about participation portals, RSS info services or widgets, e-mail services, blogs and campaign microsites.
"Because of the ten times larger market, these techniques were always a bit more sophisticated in Germany than here in Switzerland." For this reason, it was important for Ralf Doller to transfer German know-how to Switzerland. "Through experience in large markets, many foreign agencies simply know more than they do here in Switzerland." It was therefore part of the concept of his foundation to seek cooperation with a major international player. After evaluating three "very reputable networks," Interagis.com now works with Interone Worldwide from the BBDO network. The cooperation is uncomplicated and does not require Doller to report to Germany. But he can count on the network's international specialists when it comes to interactive brand experiences or Web presences that need to function worldwide in different languages. Interone employs over 600 people around the globe. Doller is this partner's representative for Switzerland and has already visited several potential customers with CEO Marcus Kikisch. "I can open up the market for Interone. Always against the background that corporations with Swiss headquarters are looking for an international agency."
When Ralf Doller went into business for himself, he set himself a deadline for when he wanted to inform the media about his new work. "Without the big name behind me, I first wanted to see if it would work," he reveals. But now Doller is proud that Interagis.com is doing well in the marketplace. "It's a fun job to build something on your own. Especially because our customers are not contacts from the past, but newly acquired." In addition, he says, there is a very upbeat atmosphere at his agency. "We laugh a lot and are always in a champagne mood, even if we don't drink any," he says happily.
Andreas Panzeri
Ralf Doller was co-owner of Alex Schmid Direct for years before he went into business for himself 18 months ago. Since then, he has deliberately kept the success stories surrounding his interagis.com under wraps. But "a lot has happened.
interagis.com has found new offices in a house full of creative companies on Zurich's Hornbachstrasse. In addition to the four permanent employees, freelance specialists have to be called in on a regular basis. Among the first clients are Allianz Suisse, Visana, Sunrise, RE/MAX and the Engadin St. Moritz tourism organization. "To work for top brands, we need to understand the advertising campaign in order to develop solutions based on it that also lead to the appropriate response. This makes us an ideal partner for advertising agencies," explains the dialog designer, who maintains good contacts with agencies.
Ralf Doller graduated in business administration in St. Gallen in 1986 with a thesis on direct marketing. Even before entering the professional world, he was fascinated by the discipline of direct. With "great euphoria," Doller founded the student association Com,ma. For this community of interest around communication and marketing, he organized company tours and also brought in the first marketing orders for students. The highlight was a student trip to New York. "It was a tradition at St. Gallen to go on a trip in the eighth semester. But we were the first to fly to America," he is still pleased today. In the Big Apple, the Swiss were eager to see an American advertising agency and found open doors at TBWA. One of the other visits was to City Bank, known for its marketing campaigns.
In Switzerland, the students were invited to the Direct Marketing Symposium in Montreux. "We were allowed to attend because our professor Weinhold predicted a great future for direct marketing and this discipline played a correspondingly important role at his institute." Up to 3,000 DM specialists from all over the world made the pilgrimage to Montreux. Well-known companies such as IBM presented successful projects. There are other disciplines in the wide world of marketing than just classic advertising, he found at the time.
Through his work as Com,ma president, Doller has come into contact with many companies. Immediately after graduating, he was made an offer by Metro International. As a trainee, Doller wanted to put his theories into practice for the first time at the holding company of the Metro stores in Baar. However, his "euphoria after graduation" was curbed by practitioners who always "knew better". Nevertheless, he doesn't regret the experience: "If you want to be successful in marketing, you should have been on the front line of sales yourself once in your life."
After one year, Ralf Doller moved to Siemens. Here he learned a lot of new things once again as an assistant to the management in the marketing department. "The marketing manager was a seasoned salesman and knew from the ground up what selling meant. I was able to accompany his successes and was also allowed to contribute the theory," Doller recalls of his development in a "wonderful team.
Nevertheless, over time the world at Siemens became too technical for him. "Anyone who wasn't an engineer had no future in that corporate culture back then." Doller saw more opportunities for himself in the agency world. He first worked at Marc Rutschmann, where he primarily served cantonal banks, then quickly found his way to Alex Schmid Direct, where he was co-owner and senior consultant for eleven years. "It was a great time to grow from a small agency to a handsome size and to look after top brands."
Schmid and Doller were already fellow students in St. Gallen. During their time together at the agency, they initially grew thanks to their work for Schweizerische Kreditanstalt. That was the time when direct marketing agencies also had to deal with brands and campaign ideas for the first time, in order to develop solution proposals within the framework of these campaigns. "That was new for the industry, which until then had stubbornly relied on past experience and had no understanding of a concerted use of different media," says Doller, who was also allowed to sit on the Cannes Lions jury for his division in 2005.
Dialog design instead of sales promotion
Sales-related campaigns are still very much in demand today. But: "Whereas consumers used to respond well to every sales promotion because the markets were not yet saturated, multi-stage campaigns are necessary today," Doller knows. Since you can run any campaign through a wide variety of channels, Doller - instead of making compromises - wanted to implement more and more of his own ideas. That's why he founded Interagis.com. As the name suggests, the Internet has a greater role here than in Doller's earlier work. "Often a campaign starts on the Internet and is sustained over the Internet," he explains. Specifically, Doller is talking about participation portals, RSS info services or widgets, e-mail services, blogs and campaign microsites.
"Because of the ten times larger market, these techniques were always a bit more sophisticated in Germany than here in Switzerland." For this reason, it was important for Ralf Doller to transfer German know-how to Switzerland. "Through experience in large markets, many foreign agencies simply know more than they do here in Switzerland." It was therefore part of the concept of his foundation to seek cooperation with a major international player. After evaluating three "very reputable networks," Interagis.com now works with Interone Worldwide from the BBDO network. The cooperation is uncomplicated and does not require Doller to report to Germany. But he can count on the network's international specialists when it comes to interactive brand experiences or Web presences that need to function worldwide in different languages. Interone employs over 600 people around the globe. Doller is this partner's representative for Switzerland and has already visited several potential customers with CEO Marcus Kikisch. "I can open up the market for Interone. Always against the background that corporations with Swiss headquarters are looking for an international agency."
When Ralf Doller went into business for himself, he set himself a deadline for when he wanted to inform the media about his new work. "Without the big name behind me, I first wanted to see if it would work," he reveals. But now Doller is proud that Interagis.com is doing well in the marketplace. "It's a fun job to build something on your own. Especially because our customers are not contacts from the past, but newly acquired." In addition, he says, there is a very upbeat atmosphere at his agency. "We laugh a lot and are always in a champagne mood, even if we don't drink any," he says happily.
Andreas Panzeri
