"The possibilities and impact of personalized advertising are overestimated"

1. what inspired you to enter the advertising industry?

Like most people, I got into it by chance. When I was still a student, there was a flyer at the university with the headline "Become a writer for toothpaste". It was a competition/copytest from Scholz&Friends Berlin. The prize was participation in a copywriting workshop. I thought I could just give it a try.

2. how has advertising changed since you started?

Everything has to be even faster and cheaper, while at the same time meeting ever higher demands. For example, a movie has to work in 45, 30, 15 and six seconds. Of course, you have to be able to understand it without sound and it should be optimized for mobile. And please show the product in the first second. And the main message too. The whole thing should be in Cinemascope, 16:9, 1:1 and in portrait format. In each case in two versions for a/b testing.

3. what would you work for free?

My mother occasionally asks me if I can help her create invitation cards or other texts. I don't usually charge her anything for this.

4. the best testimonial ever?

Obviously Roger Federer. Otherwise pretty much every Swiss company wouldn't use him, would they? Otherwise: John Cleese for IBM was fantastic.

5. Do you fall for advertising? When?

As a 13 or 14-year-old, I saw an Axe commercial in which women fell in love in droves with a guy who applied the deodorant. I went straight to the supermarket the next day to get some. But it didn't have the desired effect. Since then, I've become a bit more cautious about advertising messages.

Have you ever thought about leaving the advertising industry?

Sure. Like most creatives, I often oscillate between "I have to get out of this madness" and "Wow, I actually have the coolest job in the world".

7. which advertising medium do you find disgusting?

"Abominable" is a harsh word. After all, we earn our money with it. But 30-second YouTube prerolls that can't be skipped make me a bit nasty. And consumers probably do too. Fortunately, you don't see them that often anymore.

8. name a campaign that has recently caught your attention in a positive way - but was not created by you.

I really like the Pro-Infirmis film by Thjnk.

9. when you have an idea, how do you know it is good?

I can sense it when a small wave of euphoria flows through me as I write down the idea. But I don't know if it's really good until much later, when the campaign is already running and friends from outside the industry give me their honest opinion.

10. what role do awards play in the advertising industry?

Awards are a nice affirmation for creative people. Unfortunately, the joy they bring has a very short half-life. Nobody is interested in my Cannes Lion from 2015 anymore. Not even me.

What is currently overestimated?

The possibilities and impact of personalized advertising. On the one hand, I don't think the algorithms are quite as clever as the tech companies sometimes claim. On the other hand, I'm not sure whether the average consumer doesn't find it rather creepy when the banner knows so much about them. What's more, creativity usually falls by the wayside with programmatic formats, as everything has to be modular.

12. which professional colleague would you take with you to a desert island?

My friend Danusha Kuchtova, who is a junior copywriter at Inhalt und Form. Whereby ... Johannes Raggio seems like someone who knows how to build a hut and make a fire by hand. Perhaps he would be more useful. No, of course I'm taking my girlfriend with me.

Johannes Raggio comes across as someone who knows how to build a hut and make a fire by hand.

13. what goes through your mind when you see a campaign on the street that you wrote?

"Why don't people stop, look at my masterpiece in awe, take photos with their smartphone and post them on Instagram with the hashtag #wow?"

Jan Kempter is a newly appointed Creative Director at Publicis. The 32-year-old from Graubünden previously worked as a copywriter at the agency for several years. He also worked at Scholz&Friends Berlin, Scholz&Friends Zurich and Jung von Matt/Limmat. His star sign is Capricorn and, according to him, he makes the best spaghetti carbonara in the world.

Interview/Editorial team: Ann-Kathrin Kübler