Brand Day is a new, agile traveling conference that the Berlin-based typeface and software company Monotype developed 18 months ago from its TYPO design conference. The basic idea: current marketing use cases every 30 minutes, presented by agency and brand. Previous stops of the half-day event have been Berlin, Cologne, Stuttgart, London and Munich, now followed by Zurich. The next stops are Paris and New York. The professional event seems to be well received by agencies, as evidenced by the list of previous speakers, including Pentagram, Superunion, MetaDesign, Martin et Karczinski, KMS Team, Plan.Net, Peter Schmidt Group and Mutabor.

After welcoming the audience, Brand Day curator Jürgen Siebert, Head of Marketing at Monotype, took the opportunity to introduce the topic to around 100 visitors. His passion is type and typography, which led him to the central thesis of his keynote: "Type is the only true constant in visual branding". He proved this assertion with two tests in which he involved the audience, as well as with communication examples from the Mercedes-Benz and Fritz-Kola brands. Both like to communicate exclusively with type - without color, logo and key visual - and are nevertheless immediately recognizable.

After the introductory speech, Jonne Kuyt, Creative Director & Partner at EdenSpiekermann in Amsterdam, took to the stage and presented the ambitious client Luchthaven Schiphol. Schiphol was one of the first airports to develop a smartphone app, use social media for customer service and install indoor navigation. But because the different channels led to a fragmented offering, EdenSpiekermann has been responsible for the complete overhaul of Schiphol's digital communication since 2015. The goal: to noticeably improve the guidance and support of travelers and thus increase guest satisfaction.

EdenSpierkermann was followed by Markus Dunke and James West from the design company Strichpunkt. Their latest client is the Chinese start-up WM Motor, which develops electric cars and mobility services under the new brand name "Weltmeister". The Stuttgart-based agency also brought the two Weltmeister brand managers to Zurich, Echo Dai and Mandy Zheng Min. In 30 minutes, Strichpunkt succeeded in vividly presenting both the cultural and communicative challenges of the Weltmeister project. As a visionary mobility company, WM Motor's business model goes far beyond the construction of connected electric cars. Apps and collaborations will give customers access to Weltmeister's smart, digital services, including bike rental, car sharing and an app for charging electric vehicles. "Rethinking a brand of the future from scratch is an exciting challenge," says Strichpunkt Managing Director Philipp Brune, describing the core of the collaboration.

Although the transformation of Coop Bank into Bank Cler is not a new brand case, it was refreshing to experience the rapid metamorphosis of the past 18 months again in fast motion. But Fabian Sander, co-founder and partner of Scholtysik & Partner, also brought the latest figures to the Brand Day stage, for example the fact that Bank Cler's brand awareness has tripled and sales figures are soaring following the redesign. Finally, Sander presented the latest project: Bank Cler Zak, "the first smartphone bank in Switzerland". Zak is based on a radically new platform model: the account, Maestro card and credit card are free; the app was developed from scratch for the smartphone and is more intuitive and faster to use than traditional mobile banking. Bank Cler Zak is easy to use as a mobile banking app and is comparable to Numbers26 from Germany.

The penultimate case study dealt with social media marketing, or more precisely: the relationship with customers and their promotion as brand ambassadors. For this case, Bernhard Prüger traveled to Zurich on behalf of the Monotype subsidiary Olapic, as well as its client Daniel Kugler from Weleda (Arlesheim). Olapic is a service that specializes in user-generated images from social media channels. Every day, Olapic searches through millions of newly published photos for brand-useful motifs. This down-to-earth strategy is extremely helpful and successful, even for brands such as Weleda, which have been using an official visual language online and in printed matter for decades. The UGC (user-generated content) rotating in a carousel not only generates immediate sales on the Weleda website, but also provides insights into how customers perceive the brand and which values are important to them. However, the Olapic software not only helps with statistical analysis, but also with the selection of powerful photos. In the one and a half years of collaboration, 1500 UGC photos have already been used by Weleda. "We are not concerned with the production costs of the photos," emphasizes Kugler, "but rather with making the brand more authentic and incorporating the consumer's point of view."

The Brand Day Zurich concluded with Andreas Rotzler from Interbrand, who presented the work of the global fragrance and flavor manufacturer Givaudan (Vernier). The 5 billion company is the world's largest manufacturer in its field and supplies cosmetics and food manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Colgate with flavors and fragrances as well as perfumes for Estée Lauder, L'Oréal and Yves Saint Laurent. Rotzler, addressing the audience: "On average, you come into contact with Givaudan products ten times a day ... but nobody knows that." Three years ago, Givaudan turned to Interbrand to get closer to consumers and make its own business more transparent for future employees. The aim of the rebranding was to create a new understanding of the brand among employees and all target groups. "This represents a radical change in an industry that until then had been very self-centered and primarily talked about its own technologies and ingredients," said Andreas Rotzler at the end of his presentation, summing up the cooperation with the flavour market leader. (pd/hae)

Notice: You will find all the photos of the event in the upcoming Advertising Week 19/2018, which will be in your letterbox next Friday.