No child of sadness
Skilled and distinguished, he has been shaping the image of the most popular brand in Switzerland for five years: Migros. Advertising manager Beat Mühlemann is the first client to receive the coveted award after many years.
Advertiser of the Year Skilled and distinguished, he has been shaping the image of the most popular brand in Switzerland for five years: Migros. Advertising manager Beat Mühlemann is the first client to receive the coveted award after many years. Beat Mühlemann (55) welcomes us to his functional office on the eleventh floor of the Migros headquarters on Zurich's Limmatplatz. From up here, one has the best view of the city's vibrant and up-and-coming district, Kreis fünf or Züri West. Just a few objects add a personal touch to the sober modern décor of his office, which is bounded by white metal panels: a clothes rack, a houseplant and a golf practice set. Golfing to enjoy nature "It's a new hobby of mine," says Beat Mühlemann. There is no question of a handicap yet, he says, as he pursues this sport far too extensively for that. "Last summer, when I started, I was teeing off at the deserted Migros Golf Park at seven o'clock in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. Just being outside and being quiet does me a lot of good."
Colleagues and companions describe Beat Mühlemann as an open-minded and emotional person. He is a likeable and relaxed communicator without airs and graces, an enthusiastic advertiser with a winning charisma, to whom boredom is as much a foreign word as suspicion. His warm, spontaneous nature and positive attitude seem to be tailor-made for the image of the orange retail giant, which is being "trimmed for the future," especially with Mühlemann's work. "Leaner and more powerful" is the goal.
For Beat Mühlemann, who needs harmony, a strong sense of togetherness is at least as important as the reduction of duplications in the 8,000-man operation. The most important thing, however, remains the cultivation of the trust-building and likeable Migros brand, against which aggressive discount chains do not have much to offer except, in some cases, the price argument.
Refreshing opennessAs marketing communications manager at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB), he has been responsible for all national advertising activities for five years, effortlessly providing the brace for the implementations of the eight Migros creative agencies and finding time for his employees and colleagues. With his refreshing openness, the Bernese native gives his counterpart his full attention, so that a conversation with him is intensive and - like good advertising - efficient. If he is not directly involved in an umbrella or range campaign, then he exerts an influence, for example on specialist markets or the club school, or he works together with the specialist groups of the ten cooperatives on the giant project of the new corporate design.
Agencies have freedomThis is not enough; according to the plans of marketing boss Urs Riedener, Mühlemann will soon also be in charge of sponsorship and advertising accounting. How does that work? "You can only do that with good partners," he says, "and by focusing on the essentials." His cooperative management style helps him achieve this: he leaves a lot of personal responsibility and authority to the agencies he commissions, who thank him for this freedom with originality and initiative. "The agencies run in and out of here and work out the implementations without our involvement," he says modestly.
That is why the "Egon" trophy not only honors his work. He owes the prize to his team and the advertising agencies - Exxtra, Publicis, Weber Harbeke, Pucci Sulzer, Wirz, Inhalt & Form, Euro RSCG and the agency for the Do it + Garden specialty store, which has yet to be determined. "I'm most pleased with the award for Migros, because there has obviously been an attitude here for years that makes good advertising possible," says advertising manager Mühlemann.
The foundation for the brand's success had already been laid by his predecessors Fredy Collioud and Paul Riesen. His own merit, he says, is merely that he was able to continue their work by earning the trust of Urs Riedener and his predecessor Gisèle Girgis. "Under such circumstances, the majority of good advertising succeeds," he says. Doesn't Switzerland's biggest advertising budget also have its share in the recognition? "No," says Mühlemann decidedly. "That's a short-circuit. We do spend around 200 million Swiss francs on advertising. But a third of that goes to standardized advertising - the pork-barrel ads. Another large budget item is made up of the strategic private labels, for which we have lower budgets on average than for comparable branded products."
Making better advertising than this, breaking through the creative and media-strategic advertising conventions, that is the strongest driving force for him. Critical questioning of traditional rules is the be-all and end-all in commercial communication for Beat Mühlemann, who sees himself as an 80-percent gut person. He says that experience in his old age has given him the confidence because you have experienced every situation in the same or similar constellation before. "While in the agency world here you don't look credible as you get older, the situation in the U.S. is exactly the opposite: there you slowly get the more demanding budgets from 50 on, which I see as the right attitude." Because of the youth craze, a lot of know-how is lost here.
lost, which the boys have to work hard for unnecessarily.
Diversity of Migros appealedMarked by three varied decades in advertising agencies, the change of front to MGB did not herald a retreat from advertising and even less a more moderate working life. "What always attracted me to Migros was the breadth of the company and the diversity of the tasks."
Actually, Beat Mühlemann would have liked to follow in his father's footsteps as a graphic designer, who often asked the children's opinion about a lettering or a brochure. "But he made such high demands on us that I could never have lived up to him," he looks back with a smile. Aesthetics were omnipresent: if the color of the socks didn't match the pants, the father would immediately send the children back to the room to put on different ones. Beat Mühlemann did not want to go through the inevitable race with his father. Instead, he recognized in Sawi the professional kinship and his chances of getting started. The agency owner Max Hofer, with whom he completed his commercial training, always quizzed him on the school material on the way to work.
Rapid rise at TBWAfter graduation, he was lured to America as an advertising country. But the quickest way to the renowned agency networks was via Paris. A slight detour for the man of pleasure. With the firm intention of making the leap across the Atlantic from there, he single-mindedly moved to the European advertising metropolis, where he soon became Chef de Publicité at TBWA. The planned stopover in the city of love turned into four years - and a wedding. Since Switzerland seemed more affordable for him and his wife to start a family, they returned to his home country.
In Zurich, he had to take the first career rung again. Undeterred, he climbed the steps and moved from one reference agency to the next, keeping his backpack behind school desks while working
further filled. On the classical consulting career he gained experience mainly at large agencies, which enabled him to supervise good campaigns - "to implement the message with a surprising dramatization". In both his professional and private life, he is not motivated by stubborn slogging. "When I do something, it's out of pleasure and joy."
His sons' opinions were important to him, as they once were to his father, even in professional matters. "After my wife died, a very close relationship developed. I asked them when it came to changing jobs, for example, how I should decide." Now his life partner is at his side in such matters. It is precisely because of this lively exchange, which allowed the sons to share in the ups and downs of being an advertiser, that it crystallizes in their choice of career that they will not go into advertising, at least for the time being.
Beat MühlemannBorn: January 8, 1950 in Bern
Place of residence: Künten AG
Marital status: widowed, two sons
Career: After graduating from business school and military service, he attended a day course at Sawi in Biel. He then moves to Paris, where he works briefly at DP Industries and then for almost four years at TBWA. He returns to Zurich in 1976 with his future wife. At Advico, his career begins as a junior consultant and leads him via McCann-Erickson (consultant) and Gebr. Schellenberg (senior consultant) as di-
plomated marketing planner to Wirz Werbeberatung, where he joins the management board as a group leader. After obtaining his marketing manager's diploma as well as management and specialist courses and a partnership with Walther + Leuenberger, he temporarily went into business for himself with the founders of the Facts advertising agency. From 1993 to 1999, he is a member of the extended management board and group manager at Publicis. In 2000, he takes over as Head of Marketing Communications at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives.
Managed budgets: Prisunic (TBWA); Schweiz. Bankgesellschaft, Züri-Leu, Mobag (Advico); General-Motors, Messerli, Unilever (McCann-Erickson); Haldengut Bier, Helvetia Lebensversicherung, Bandfix, Fenjal, Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (Gebr. Schellenberg); Toyota, Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, Heliomalt, Remy Martin, Krug Champagne, Rivella (Wirz Werbeberatung); Renault, Swisscom Mobile and partly Fixnet, Schild, Bilanz, Winterthur Versicherungen, Lista Büromöbel, Publimedia, Publicitas and Frisco Findus (Publicis).
Professional goal:Conquer a Cannes Lion.
Time for leisure: Every evening when I get home. There's something to be said for living far enough away from the store.
Coop advertising:I would do a lot of things differently there.
A reason to laugh: Beat Mühlemann receives the "Egon" trophy.
Publicis used an umbrella campaign to better communicate Migros' ethics to consumers.
X-ray views of purity for M's own premium Nendaz (Exxtra) water.
Lifestyle aesthetics rather than humor for the positioning of M convenience label Anna's Best.
"Gibt es auch in der Migros" subject: link between household appliances and baby food.
In 2002, Beat Mühlemann had the Migros-M sent to the Expo by the Publicis agency.
Unconventional image campaign for Migros' social responsibility.
Luca Aloisi
Colleagues and companions describe Beat Mühlemann as an open-minded and emotional person. He is a likeable and relaxed communicator without airs and graces, an enthusiastic advertiser with a winning charisma, to whom boredom is as much a foreign word as suspicion. His warm, spontaneous nature and positive attitude seem to be tailor-made for the image of the orange retail giant, which is being "trimmed for the future," especially with Mühlemann's work. "Leaner and more powerful" is the goal.
For Beat Mühlemann, who needs harmony, a strong sense of togetherness is at least as important as the reduction of duplications in the 8,000-man operation. The most important thing, however, remains the cultivation of the trust-building and likeable Migros brand, against which aggressive discount chains do not have much to offer except, in some cases, the price argument.
Refreshing opennessAs marketing communications manager at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB), he has been responsible for all national advertising activities for five years, effortlessly providing the brace for the implementations of the eight Migros creative agencies and finding time for his employees and colleagues. With his refreshing openness, the Bernese native gives his counterpart his full attention, so that a conversation with him is intensive and - like good advertising - efficient. If he is not directly involved in an umbrella or range campaign, then he exerts an influence, for example on specialist markets or the club school, or he works together with the specialist groups of the ten cooperatives on the giant project of the new corporate design.
Agencies have freedomThis is not enough; according to the plans of marketing boss Urs Riedener, Mühlemann will soon also be in charge of sponsorship and advertising accounting. How does that work? "You can only do that with good partners," he says, "and by focusing on the essentials." His cooperative management style helps him achieve this: he leaves a lot of personal responsibility and authority to the agencies he commissions, who thank him for this freedom with originality and initiative. "The agencies run in and out of here and work out the implementations without our involvement," he says modestly.
That is why the "Egon" trophy not only honors his work. He owes the prize to his team and the advertising agencies - Exxtra, Publicis, Weber Harbeke, Pucci Sulzer, Wirz, Inhalt & Form, Euro RSCG and the agency for the Do it + Garden specialty store, which has yet to be determined. "I'm most pleased with the award for Migros, because there has obviously been an attitude here for years that makes good advertising possible," says advertising manager Mühlemann.
The foundation for the brand's success had already been laid by his predecessors Fredy Collioud and Paul Riesen. His own merit, he says, is merely that he was able to continue their work by earning the trust of Urs Riedener and his predecessor Gisèle Girgis. "Under such circumstances, the majority of good advertising succeeds," he says. Doesn't Switzerland's biggest advertising budget also have its share in the recognition? "No," says Mühlemann decidedly. "That's a short-circuit. We do spend around 200 million Swiss francs on advertising. But a third of that goes to standardized advertising - the pork-barrel ads. Another large budget item is made up of the strategic private labels, for which we have lower budgets on average than for comparable branded products."
Making better advertising than this, breaking through the creative and media-strategic advertising conventions, that is the strongest driving force for him. Critical questioning of traditional rules is the be-all and end-all in commercial communication for Beat Mühlemann, who sees himself as an 80-percent gut person. He says that experience in his old age has given him the confidence because you have experienced every situation in the same or similar constellation before. "While in the agency world here you don't look credible as you get older, the situation in the U.S. is exactly the opposite: there you slowly get the more demanding budgets from 50 on, which I see as the right attitude." Because of the youth craze, a lot of know-how is lost here.
lost, which the boys have to work hard for unnecessarily.
Diversity of Migros appealedMarked by three varied decades in advertising agencies, the change of front to MGB did not herald a retreat from advertising and even less a more moderate working life. "What always attracted me to Migros was the breadth of the company and the diversity of the tasks."
Actually, Beat Mühlemann would have liked to follow in his father's footsteps as a graphic designer, who often asked the children's opinion about a lettering or a brochure. "But he made such high demands on us that I could never have lived up to him," he looks back with a smile. Aesthetics were omnipresent: if the color of the socks didn't match the pants, the father would immediately send the children back to the room to put on different ones. Beat Mühlemann did not want to go through the inevitable race with his father. Instead, he recognized in Sawi the professional kinship and his chances of getting started. The agency owner Max Hofer, with whom he completed his commercial training, always quizzed him on the school material on the way to work.
Rapid rise at TBWAfter graduation, he was lured to America as an advertising country. But the quickest way to the renowned agency networks was via Paris. A slight detour for the man of pleasure. With the firm intention of making the leap across the Atlantic from there, he single-mindedly moved to the European advertising metropolis, where he soon became Chef de Publicité at TBWA. The planned stopover in the city of love turned into four years - and a wedding. Since Switzerland seemed more affordable for him and his wife to start a family, they returned to his home country.
In Zurich, he had to take the first career rung again. Undeterred, he climbed the steps and moved from one reference agency to the next, keeping his backpack behind school desks while working
further filled. On the classical consulting career he gained experience mainly at large agencies, which enabled him to supervise good campaigns - "to implement the message with a surprising dramatization". In both his professional and private life, he is not motivated by stubborn slogging. "When I do something, it's out of pleasure and joy."
His sons' opinions were important to him, as they once were to his father, even in professional matters. "After my wife died, a very close relationship developed. I asked them when it came to changing jobs, for example, how I should decide." Now his life partner is at his side in such matters. It is precisely because of this lively exchange, which allowed the sons to share in the ups and downs of being an advertiser, that it crystallizes in their choice of career that they will not go into advertising, at least for the time being.
Beat MühlemannBorn: January 8, 1950 in Bern
Place of residence: Künten AG
Marital status: widowed, two sons
Career: After graduating from business school and military service, he attended a day course at Sawi in Biel. He then moves to Paris, where he works briefly at DP Industries and then for almost four years at TBWA. He returns to Zurich in 1976 with his future wife. At Advico, his career begins as a junior consultant and leads him via McCann-Erickson (consultant) and Gebr. Schellenberg (senior consultant) as di-
plomated marketing planner to Wirz Werbeberatung, where he joins the management board as a group leader. After obtaining his marketing manager's diploma as well as management and specialist courses and a partnership with Walther + Leuenberger, he temporarily went into business for himself with the founders of the Facts advertising agency. From 1993 to 1999, he is a member of the extended management board and group manager at Publicis. In 2000, he takes over as Head of Marketing Communications at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives.
Managed budgets: Prisunic (TBWA); Schweiz. Bankgesellschaft, Züri-Leu, Mobag (Advico); General-Motors, Messerli, Unilever (McCann-Erickson); Haldengut Bier, Helvetia Lebensversicherung, Bandfix, Fenjal, Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (Gebr. Schellenberg); Toyota, Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, Heliomalt, Remy Martin, Krug Champagne, Rivella (Wirz Werbeberatung); Renault, Swisscom Mobile and partly Fixnet, Schild, Bilanz, Winterthur Versicherungen, Lista Büromöbel, Publimedia, Publicitas and Frisco Findus (Publicis).
Professional goal:Conquer a Cannes Lion.
Time for leisure: Every evening when I get home. There's something to be said for living far enough away from the store.
Coop advertising:I would do a lot of things differently there.
A reason to laugh: Beat Mühlemann receives the "Egon" trophy.
Publicis used an umbrella campaign to better communicate Migros' ethics to consumers.
X-ray views of purity for M's own premium Nendaz (Exxtra) water.
Lifestyle aesthetics rather than humor for the positioning of M convenience label Anna's Best.
"Gibt es auch in der Migros" subject: link between household appliances and baby food.
In 2002, Beat Mühlemann had the Migros-M sent to the Expo by the Publicis agency.
Unconventional image campaign for Migros' social responsibility.
Luca Aloisi
