RailCity really takes off
Lang Gysi Knoll Launches the New SBB Real Estate Brand
Lang Gysi Knoll launches the new SBB real estate brandBy Luca Aloisi Train by train, SBB Immobilien is converting seven major railway stations into shopping and service centers. The railroad's expanded shopping experience bears the RailCity brand, and the agency launching the SBB brand is called Lang Gysi Knoll.
Parking spaces are not an issue in Switzerland's second-largest shopping center (by sales) - it has none. On the other hand, the shopping center under Zurich's main train station has other advantages: long opening hours, Sunday sales, a central location and a good mix of sectors in the service and shopping areas. The urban travel, meeting and shopping center with its high frequencies is now to be stringently marketed.
To this end, SBB has combined its major stations in Geneva, Lausanne, Berne, Basel, Lucerne, Winterthur and Zurich HB into a separate portfolio managed by the independent RailCity division of SBB Real Estate. The aim is to successively develop and convert these into modern centers with a similar tenant structure and a cultivated ambience.
"There is no doubt that the new RailCity brand needs a natio-
nal and widespread communication that not only attracts attention, but really brings in the money," says Annette Kupferschmied, a consultant at Lang Gysi Knoll (LGK).
The Bern-based advertising agency won the mandate in a pitch about a year ago. LGK convinced with a simple, captivating solution: "We tried to dramatize the core message in a two-phase strategy," explains AD Jean-Marc Meyer. Which is: In RailCity, you can always find everything, with a few exceptions.
Everything except the Zytglogge Tower, the Bear Pit....
At the launch in Bern, posters and streetcar hangers publicize the brand by creating an intriguing link to local attractions that are not part of the RailCity product range. With the local color of the copy subjects, the viewer is involved and informed about the breadth of the product range with the "reverse evidence".
In addition to the baggage carts, escalators, ticket vending machines, and
E-boards, the creative team was able to use a great medium for the below-the-line measures: The entire train station became an eye-catching advertising medium with its 520 square meter building façade. Inscription here: "You can't buy this station." The solution: "Everything else is available in RailCity.
When and whether the pioneer - Zurich's ShopVille - will be renamed RailCity Zurich at all is still up in the air. The question is premature, says the ShopVille tenants' association. For the time being, the two landlords - the real estate administration of the city of Zurich and SBB Immobilien - will have to meet for further talks.
Parking spaces are not an issue in Switzerland's second-largest shopping center (by sales) - it has none. On the other hand, the shopping center under Zurich's main train station has other advantages: long opening hours, Sunday sales, a central location and a good mix of sectors in the service and shopping areas. The urban travel, meeting and shopping center with its high frequencies is now to be stringently marketed.
To this end, SBB has combined its major stations in Geneva, Lausanne, Berne, Basel, Lucerne, Winterthur and Zurich HB into a separate portfolio managed by the independent RailCity division of SBB Real Estate. The aim is to successively develop and convert these into modern centers with a similar tenant structure and a cultivated ambience.
"There is no doubt that the new RailCity brand needs a natio-
nal and widespread communication that not only attracts attention, but really brings in the money," says Annette Kupferschmied, a consultant at Lang Gysi Knoll (LGK).
The Bern-based advertising agency won the mandate in a pitch about a year ago. LGK convinced with a simple, captivating solution: "We tried to dramatize the core message in a two-phase strategy," explains AD Jean-Marc Meyer. Which is: In RailCity, you can always find everything, with a few exceptions.
Everything except the Zytglogge Tower, the Bear Pit....
At the launch in Bern, posters and streetcar hangers publicize the brand by creating an intriguing link to local attractions that are not part of the RailCity product range. With the local color of the copy subjects, the viewer is involved and informed about the breadth of the product range with the "reverse evidence".
In addition to the baggage carts, escalators, ticket vending machines, and
E-boards, the creative team was able to use a great medium for the below-the-line measures: The entire train station became an eye-catching advertising medium with its 520 square meter building façade. Inscription here: "You can't buy this station." The solution: "Everything else is available in RailCity.
When and whether the pioneer - Zurich's ShopVille - will be renamed RailCity Zurich at all is still up in the air. The question is premature, says the ShopVille tenants' association. For the time being, the two landlords - the real estate administration of the city of Zurich and SBB Immobilien - will have to meet for further talks.
