NZZ am Sonntag mocks Tamedia's film project "Switzerländers
Tamedia has bought a slow seller with the film project "Switzerländers," writes the NZZ am Sonntag. The authors don't have a good word to say about the film project, for which the Tamedia titles are currently beating the advertising drum.
Ringier and SRF had rejected the project, but now the slow seller has found a buyer after all, mock authors Denise Bucher and Peer Teuwsen in a commentary in the NZZ on Sunday. Already in 2017, the documentary film project of Swiss producer Stephan Anspichler had been offered to SRF, at that time still under the "comparatively beautiful name" "Switzerland in a Day".
SRF declined for various reasons, as the media company explained to the newspaper. First, the financing plan was too opaque, and second, SRF felt that the format was "somewhat outdated. For example, the trend towards vertical video was neglected and only landscape format was used. In addition, the project was seen more on the web than in the cinema.
For the Swiss version of the format, which was first launched by Ridley Scott in 2011 and has since been carried out in several countries, director Dani Levy has dropped out, with Michael Steiner replacing him. In contrast to Scott's original, in which 80,000 people took part, interest here is low, writes the NZZ on Sunday. The "PR tsunami" of 20 minutes and Tages-Anzeiger has so far failed to make an impact. There have hardly been any submissions so far and what has been submitted is unusable, says an "insider".
"One would not want to be in the skin of Michael Steiner's editor. Nor in that of the director, who has to lend his name to this amateur video compilation," the authors dismiss the widely announced project.
And if "Switzerland's biggest cinema project" turns out to be a flop, Tamedia will still profit - namely from the registration data, which can be used for personalized marketing and advertising measures.
Whether "Switzerländers" will be a success or, as expected by NZZ on Sunday predicted flops , the future will show. The project has only just started (Werbewoche.ch reported). In 2020, it will be shown in the cinema.
