Rob Holub, «First Swiss Rockstar»: When 100,000 Followers Count for More Than Talent
Bern-based musician and filmmaker Rob Holub has made «First Swiss Rockstar,» a mockumentary about the attention economy, without any funding, without a distribution advance, and without a marketing budget. In the video podcast «Soltis Studiocast,» he explains why the music industry’s “follower” criterion now applies to films as well, and why he’s marketing his film through keynote speeches.
A record label in New York tells a Swiss musician: ’Get 100,000 followers, and then we’ll talk about a contract.« That’s how »First Swiss Rockstar« begins—the feature film for which Rob Holub serves as producer, director, screenwriter, and lead actor. The number is made up, but the concept isn’t. Holub, 46, who holds a master’s degree in media and communication studies and is a former video journalist for SRF, ProSieben, and Sat.1, has experienced this firsthand. In 2016, he released the music video »Contact,« filmed in Mongolia. It barely reached an audience. »Social media became more important than the music,« he says. »The follower counts had to be right; the songs were just an afterthought.”
300 interviews, a movie that didn't work out
That experience turned into a research project: around 300 interviews on four continents exploring the question of what social media does to us. After four or five years, the documentary film developed from this material was nearly finished—but it didn’t work. The serious answers failed to capture the absurdity of the pressure to gain followers. Holub rewrote the story as a satire, with himself as the main character. Filming began in early 2023; the movie premiered in theaters on June 18, 2026, and will be available on OnePlus from CH Media starting September 3.
Authentic archival footage and staged scenes are interwoven in such a way that some members of the audience believed the main character’s arrest in Zurich was real. Holub finds this fitting: «Fake news, fake everything. Where do you draw the line?» The casting follows the same logic. Krokus founder Chris von Rohr represents the rock stardom of yesteryear, while kebab influencer Steve Merson represents today’s celebrity culture.
Half a million without funding
Production cost around 500,000 francs; including Holub’s own work, the total came to about 800,000. The Federal Office of Culture did not provide funding, and production companies were only willing to get on board from the very beginning. ’You’re not established; you don’t have a name,’ says Holub. He produced it himself because no one else would have. Swiss festivals didn’t include the film in their programs; the Zurich Film Festival wrote that it was bold, refreshing, and a nice change of pace. The NZZ am Sonntag recommended it to fans of «The Office» and «Spinal Tap.».
The Paradox of Visibility
The film criticizes the «follower» mentality—yet is at its mercy. Festivals and distributors look at a project’s reach before they even watch the film. Holub has fewer than 1,000 followers on Instagram and no marketing budget. Its theatrical release is competing with TikTok, with 300 TV shows, with everything. “If viewers haven’t heard of First Swiss Rockstar, they can’t even decide to watch it.”
Using AI to figure out which content will go viral, which name, which presentation: He could do that, says Holub. «Then I wouldn’t be true to myself anymore. That’s not my way.» Instead, the story behind the film has become a talk. Holub first shared it with ten or twenty people for free; then came unpaid breakout sessions, followed by speaking engagements. Today, he promotes the film through keynote speeches and a book with the working title «Unleash Your Inner Rockstar.» By «rockstar,» he doesn’t mean in a musical sense: “That could be an Elon Musk, it could be you as a podcaster, it could be a mother.”
What he takes away from ten years of this project sounds almost old-fashioned in an industry that measures everything in terms of reach. A single piece of feedback—that the film resonated with someone—is worth more than any statistic. And: «There’s no such thing as failure. Something just didn’t work out. You take what you’ve learned and try again.»
«Soltis Studiocast» is Christoph Soltmannowski's video podcast, produced at Castalavista Studio in Zurich-Glattpark. The episode featuring Rob Holub is available on YouTube and major podcast platforms. «First Swiss Rockstar,» 101 minutes, available on OnePlus starting September 3.
