"Having the courage to raise emotions"
Interview with AME Gold winner Daniel Meier, Creative Director Honegger von Matt
Interview with AME Gold winner Daniel Meier, Creative Director Honegger von MattAggressive price advertising is hardly worthwhile in Switzerland. This is one of the reasons why Honegger von Matt opted for the anti-snob appeal in the snob campaign for the furniture store Ikea. This is better received in Switzerland, as he explains to WerbeWoche.the "Don't be a snob" campaign has struck a nerve in Switzerland. How was the idea for the campaign developed?
Daniel Meier: Peter Keerberg joined Ikea Switzerland a year and a half ago. Together with him, we researched what the biggest obstacle to growth was for Ikea in Switzerland. It quickly became clear that quality was what most people criticized about Ikea. In further research, however, we found that it was less about purely material quality, but that quality is mostly associated with prestige and status. For example, a Rolex is considered to be of higher quality than a Swatch, even though the Swatch is more accurate. The same applies to Mercedes, even though Japanese cars perform better in the breakdown statistics. This gave rise to the Snob campaign. We wanted to show that the pretext of quality is mostly about prestige, and take this attitude ad absurdum.
What you were successful with ...
Meier: What was surprising was that the campaign made waves very quickly. We then also did a few things in the area of guerrilla marketing, such as setting up the website where you could test whether you were a snob. Almost everyone is a snob in one way or another. This allowed us to make the topic topical in socio-political terms. In a second phase, we targeted snobbish behavior in a more subtle way. The commercials were recognized extremely quickly. At the same time, a lot has also happened at Ikea. That's also the reason for this award. For the AME, you also have to enter the figures for measurable success. Visitor numbers have developed positively and tests have shown that Ikea has become significantly better known compared to the furniture market as a whole. According to the studies, the image of quality has also increased.
How was the collaboration with the customer?
Meier: The customer played a major role because he had the courage to advertise unconventionally. Keerberg also takes a very analytical approach to everything. Ikea also always had the bigger goal in mind. Although Ikea is considered to be very price-aggressive, we never mentioned prices in all our communication. That has now paid off. Perhaps Switzerland is also a special case; overly aggressive price advertising is more promising in other markets than here.
What does it mean to you to have won this award?
Meier: Firstly, it's a special collaboration with Ikea, which is actually the ideal case for us in terms of how we like to work with customers. It was intensive teamwork. Other customers give you a briefing and then you turn up a little later with a solution that they say yes or no to. However, we had many meetings and worked out the solution together. This is ultimately more successful because everyone is behind it. At the very beginning, we also experienced headwinds, objections that we couldn't do this, that there were many wealthy people in Switzerland who could be offended. But then you can't get nervous and you have to have the courage to stir up emotions. Seen in this light, this award really means a lot to us. It's a nice confirmation that we were right.
Interview: Thérèse Balduzzi
Daniel Meier: Peter Keerberg joined Ikea Switzerland a year and a half ago. Together with him, we researched what the biggest obstacle to growth was for Ikea in Switzerland. It quickly became clear that quality was what most people criticized about Ikea. In further research, however, we found that it was less about purely material quality, but that quality is mostly associated with prestige and status. For example, a Rolex is considered to be of higher quality than a Swatch, even though the Swatch is more accurate. The same applies to Mercedes, even though Japanese cars perform better in the breakdown statistics. This gave rise to the Snob campaign. We wanted to show that the pretext of quality is mostly about prestige, and take this attitude ad absurdum.
What you were successful with ...
Meier: What was surprising was that the campaign made waves very quickly. We then also did a few things in the area of guerrilla marketing, such as setting up the website where you could test whether you were a snob. Almost everyone is a snob in one way or another. This allowed us to make the topic topical in socio-political terms. In a second phase, we targeted snobbish behavior in a more subtle way. The commercials were recognized extremely quickly. At the same time, a lot has also happened at Ikea. That's also the reason for this award. For the AME, you also have to enter the figures for measurable success. Visitor numbers have developed positively and tests have shown that Ikea has become significantly better known compared to the furniture market as a whole. According to the studies, the image of quality has also increased.
How was the collaboration with the customer?
Meier: The customer played a major role because he had the courage to advertise unconventionally. Keerberg also takes a very analytical approach to everything. Ikea also always had the bigger goal in mind. Although Ikea is considered to be very price-aggressive, we never mentioned prices in all our communication. That has now paid off. Perhaps Switzerland is also a special case; overly aggressive price advertising is more promising in other markets than here.
What does it mean to you to have won this award?
Meier: Firstly, it's a special collaboration with Ikea, which is actually the ideal case for us in terms of how we like to work with customers. It was intensive teamwork. Other customers give you a briefing and then you turn up a little later with a solution that they say yes or no to. However, we had many meetings and worked out the solution together. This is ultimately more successful because everyone is behind it. At the very beginning, we also experienced headwinds, objections that we couldn't do this, that there were many wealthy people in Switzerland who could be offended. But then you can't get nervous and you have to have the courage to stir up emotions. Seen in this light, this award really means a lot to us. It's a nice confirmation that we were right.
Interview: Thérèse Balduzzi
