Family and Watson show attitude
To mark the launch in Suisse Romande, Watson is launching the bilingual national image campaign "Show attitude. Read Watson." The broad-based campaign was developed by the Family agency.
The news portal Watson is starting 2021 with a revamped brand presence. In addition to further anchoring the brand in German-speaking Switzerland, Tarkan Özküp, Chief Commercial Officer at Watson, wants to relaunch the brand in French-speaking Switzerland. Watson.ch/fr will go live at the beginning of March.
"When everything has to come from the same mold and you don't want to do two campaigns, it's a challenge," explains Özküp. The tried-and-tested claim "News without blah blah" remains, but the new message "Show attitude. Read Watson.", it puts Watson's journalistic performance mandate at the center. "Thanks to social media, anyone and everyone can publish these days, but fake news and social fragmentation are also increasing massively as a result," Özküp continued. The mission of a purely digital news portal like Watson, he said, is to take a stand in this social dilemma environment and offer users guidance. "That can be summed up with 'Informez-vous. Affirmez-vous. Lisez Watson.', translates very well," Özküp explains.
Attitude instead of blah blah
Watson CEO Michael Wanner is looking forward to the campaign launch: "The message of the campaign gets to the heart of the matter: Inform yourself before you just mean it! Watson offers you the opportunity to inform yourself broadly and without hurdles. Those who have informed themselves should then be happy to show their stance."
The campaign features four young people between the ages of 22 and 38, captured photographically in an intimate moment by Maurice Haas. Self-confident, they call on people to show attitude.
The TV ads then go into the social media dilemma in greater depth. Watson plays with prejudices and breaks them down in four vignettes. In everyday language jargon, the protagonists think: "Women can't drive a car, sägets.", "Foreigners are all criminals, sägets.", "Pumper, händ nüt i de Birre, sägets." and "Women need a protector, sägets.". The protagonists then dissolve the prejudice themselves: "All blah blah" and anchor the message: "Show attitude, read Watson".
Broad-based measures
Watson relies on billboards, DOOH, public transport and all relevant digital formats that appeal to 20- to 40-year-olds. A national TV presence on all Swiss private stations, RTS, TF1, Comedy Central and MTV is designed to appeal more to Watson's main target group, 15- to 59-year-olds.
Responsible at Watson: Tarkan Özküp, Thomas Müller (overall responsibility and project management), Julia Neukomm (advertising), Mitch Müller (media), Davide Machado (project and strategy coordination). Responsible at Family: Claudio Catrambone (Creative Director and overall responsibility), Svenja Hässig (Account Director), Corinne Schneider (Project Management), Torsten Mass (Copywriter), Grit Wolany (Art Director), Maurice Haas (Photographer). Responsible at Stories (Production): Cédric Marville (Head of Strategy Storytelling), Samuel Morris (Director), Vera Matta (Producer). Responsible at Bubbles&Sons (postproduction): Marc Ambühl (Editor), Marina Starke (Color Grading), Tro (Music, Sound), Jingle Jungle (Voice Recording). Responsible at Mediaschneider (Media): Janine Nussbaumer (Strategy, Media and Purchasing). Responsible at Webrepublic (SEA): Yannick Vollenweider (Search and App Campaigning).
