Zurich vampire folk
Publicis heads into the forests of Transylvania for the ZVV's night network
Publicis travels into the forests of Transylvania for the ZVV night networkBy Luca Aloisi Just on the day of the international timetable change, the Zurich Transport Network (ZVV) is launching its night service. From December 15, party people will be able to stroll from location to location every two hours at the weekend. The source of inspiration for the launch lies far away from Zurich in the darkest corner of Transylvania.
Anyone familiar with downtown Switzerland knows that Zurich's weekend nights are as undead as Abraham Stoker's character Count Dracula. And not just since the Street Parade, the "Long Night of Short Stories" or the "Night of Museums".
So far, however, only those night owls who have been able to travel to and through the party city by private vehicle have been truly happy. It is no longer the police hour that determines when the magic is over and the return journey has to be made, but the timetable of the night buses. However, this restriction will come to an end from mid-December.
From the middle of this month, the "nocturnal" upgrade of the ZVV will bring Zurich's millions closer together between dusk and dawn. In order to provide access to the most important nightlife centers in the canton of Zurich, four
S-Bahn and 32 bus lines with 850 stops are served around the clock. A flat-rate surcharge of five francs is intended to cover the costs of this unique service.
Publicis positions the ZVV offer in the best MTV style
ZVV project and communications manager Hans Wälty calculated a potential target group of around 200,000 people for the canton alone - mainly young people between the ages of 16 and 25 and the young at heart. In order to win over this audience, which experience has shown to be rather skeptical about public transport, for the new offer, marketing manager Caspar Sträuli and Hans Wälty had a brochure printed in a print run of half a million copies and shot a "wild commercial".
However, this will not start until mid-January, one month after the expansion of the range. "In this way, we are avoiding the Christmas rush and hope to attract more attention afterwards," says Wälty, explaining the strategy of using cinema spots and advertisements.
For the campaign's advertising idea, the creative team led by Chief Creative Officer Jean Etienne Aebi was guided less by hard facts and more by the wildly romantic image of the most famous nocturnal creature. Under the motto "Live like a bat - first flutter around, then hang out", Publicis developed a core idea that is as astonishingly logical as it is eye-catching and could have cult potential with the target audience.
At the heart of the campaign are the passengers in the suburban train carriages. According to Stoker's legend - according to which vampires can turn into bats - the passengers adopt the spooky behavior of these creatures when they enter the night trains and, with a skillful roll, swing themselves up to the ceiling of the carriages, where they stick with their feet.
The screenplay was impressively realized by director Marc Schölermann and cinematographer Ekkehart Pollack. With their dynamic film language, rapid editing sequences and gothic scenography, they have succeeded in transferring the hypnotic effect of the notoriously light-shy Count of Darkness to Zurich's bus and rail network, even without Transylvanian mountain landscapes.
Anyone familiar with downtown Switzerland knows that Zurich's weekend nights are as undead as Abraham Stoker's character Count Dracula. And not just since the Street Parade, the "Long Night of Short Stories" or the "Night of Museums".
So far, however, only those night owls who have been able to travel to and through the party city by private vehicle have been truly happy. It is no longer the police hour that determines when the magic is over and the return journey has to be made, but the timetable of the night buses. However, this restriction will come to an end from mid-December.
From the middle of this month, the "nocturnal" upgrade of the ZVV will bring Zurich's millions closer together between dusk and dawn. In order to provide access to the most important nightlife centers in the canton of Zurich, four
S-Bahn and 32 bus lines with 850 stops are served around the clock. A flat-rate surcharge of five francs is intended to cover the costs of this unique service.
Publicis positions the ZVV offer in the best MTV style
ZVV project and communications manager Hans Wälty calculated a potential target group of around 200,000 people for the canton alone - mainly young people between the ages of 16 and 25 and the young at heart. In order to win over this audience, which experience has shown to be rather skeptical about public transport, for the new offer, marketing manager Caspar Sträuli and Hans Wälty had a brochure printed in a print run of half a million copies and shot a "wild commercial".
However, this will not start until mid-January, one month after the expansion of the range. "In this way, we are avoiding the Christmas rush and hope to attract more attention afterwards," says Wälty, explaining the strategy of using cinema spots and advertisements.
For the campaign's advertising idea, the creative team led by Chief Creative Officer Jean Etienne Aebi was guided less by hard facts and more by the wildly romantic image of the most famous nocturnal creature. Under the motto "Live like a bat - first flutter around, then hang out", Publicis developed a core idea that is as astonishingly logical as it is eye-catching and could have cult potential with the target audience.
At the heart of the campaign are the passengers in the suburban train carriages. According to Stoker's legend - according to which vampires can turn into bats - the passengers adopt the spooky behavior of these creatures when they enter the night trains and, with a skillful roll, swing themselves up to the ceiling of the carriages, where they stick with their feet.
The screenplay was impressively realized by director Marc Schölermann and cinematographer Ekkehart Pollack. With their dynamic film language, rapid editing sequences and gothic scenography, they have succeeded in transferring the hypnotic effect of the notoriously light-shy Count of Darkness to Zurich's bus and rail network, even without Transylvanian mountain landscapes.
