Blog
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A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
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A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
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A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
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A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
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A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
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A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
-
A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
-
A short time ago, we started our company. We chose to borrow the name of that most beautiful of Alpine villages, dominated by the Matterhorn. It’s a place of natural wonder, of cobalt blue skies and pristine glaciers. At Zermatt, your mind is free to reach elevated thoughts. Here, we create advertising, design, websites and social media. And, above all, ideas.
BLOG
Recent Work
Verdion
Berkeley
Filmore & Union
Savills – New Year Ad
Savills – Notting Hill Launch
Ascot – New Site
Why choose us?
Always a tough one. We work in a business that’s all about people and personal chemistry.
So – why us?
In the beginning, there is the word. Zermatt is an agency run by a writer. We are lovers of singular strategy, powerful advertising art direction, and beautiful design. We believe that great writing has taken a backseat in communications of late.
Why? An obsession with being ahead of the curve, rather than craft skills. An orientation towards platforms, not people. The blistering speed of technical change. Myriad reasons. Whatever the cause, our aim is to put words back as the driver.
In all our work. In advertising. In design. Online. And of course in Social Media, surely a writer’s medium.
And here are 5 more prosaic reasons we think you will like us:
- You’ll find us focused, down-to-earth and affable. You’ll get ideas with altitude, not attitude.
- There is a rigorous simplicity about everything we do. You’ll get big, simple ideas. Not big edifices of marketing jargon.
- Our strength lies in helping brands find their ‘voice’: the unique way of talking/being that defines the company. We channel the essence of your brand or company – we don’t bolt on something that isn’t already there.
- Our word-driven work moves easily across media platforms.
- We’re in Kensington. Great for shopping!
When you start a new agency, you get a chance to look at the world and build a completely new product.
It’s tough: what should an agency think, say, do?
The funny thing is, it’s much more difficult when the brand is your own company. Rather than one that belongs to your clients.
However, a great place to start is your beliefs. And there are 3 that we believe very strongly:
Belief One: It's time to embrace writing again
This may seem a strange place to start, but our industry’s writing has become blanded out. Take a look at these telecoms company straplines:
You’re better, connected.
The power of now.
Life’s for sharing.
They’re the lines of the UK’s 3 biggest telecoms companies.
Where’s the personality?
Please contrast with:
Finger lickin’ good.
Hey Tosh, gotta Toshiba?
The Sunday Times is The Sunday Papers.
We know which trio of lines we find more engaging. And it’s not just about straplines, it’s print copy, websites, posters and especially social media. Great writing sells everywhere. More than it ever did. The power of words is infinite. It’s time to celebrate words.
But then of course we would think this. We’re an agency run by a writer.
Belief Two: Strategy has reached overload
Please refer back to the telecoms straplines in ‘Belief 1.’ They’re evidence of another trend we believe has gone to far, undermining the ‘cut-through’ of communication.
Creative strategy is over-planned, over strategised. Planners – now the elite of the advertising and digital industries – are the focus of agency teams.
Agencies love coming up with proprietorial planning processes (!), and most of them sound like Matt Damon movies or political manifestos: The T Syndrome, The Next Way, The Orinoco Flow, etcetera!
The truth is, all agencies follow the same process:
Interrogation > Strategy > Creative > Execution. Simple as that. As agencies, we’re all trying to scream how different we are but we’re not really. The only genuine differences are the People, Talent, and Ideas.
Scary, but true.
But back to our main point: Creative work shouldn’t be analysed, focus-grouped and re-hashed until there’s no energy or passion to it. Over-rationalising kills The Zing. And it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that Zing.
Really, this business is so simple. Nike did without arcane planning for 3 decades. It toppled adidas and Puma and became No.1 in the world. Along the way it created the greatest legacy of creative work of probably any brand save Apple.
So at Zermatt we strategise, analyse, research. But the thinking is always simple, always direct, and we give the creative idea all the room it needs to live and breathe. No more strategy overload.
Belief Three: It's not about us. It's about you.
A while back, a client company asked us to sit in on some presentations by five marketing agencies.
In came the agencies, bristling with attitude. And they talked about themselves. Endlessly. Their way of working, their team ethos, even their office.
My client friend listened patiently, but I could almost read her mind. ‘We’ve got a recession, the competition have upped their ante, the Chairman’s pressuring the Marketing Dept to deliver, our sales force don’t believe in our campaign, and our retailers are giving us the runaround.’
The last thing she needed to hear was about us, us, us from the marketing agency.
So we keep it all about you. Your challenges, opportunities, goals. In budget, on time, and with a sense of humour.
Verdion
Berkeley
Filmore & Union
Savills – New Year Ad
Savills – Notting Hill Launch
Ascot – New Site
Savills – Definitive Guide to Selling/Letting
Savills – Seasonal Ads
The Dorchester
Ascot – International Advertising
Savills – Chelsea Launch
Ascot – Brochures
CocoonU: E-Commerce Site
The Ritz
Canterbury of New Zealand
Nuvo
Savills – We have the power to move you campaign
The Prince Edward
Ascot – Brand Identity
Nike: England Rugby Boot Launch
The Sunday Times
A new name, a new brand, a new website.
For the past six months we’ve been working on the new name and brand for the company that was formerly Helios Europe. They’re a major and growing player in European logistics warehousing, with offices in Vienna, London and Dusseldorf. Looking for a name in the 21st Century is made doubly difficult by the need to [...]
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Helios Europe: Zermatt’s B2B portfolio grows
We’ve been appointed by Helios Europe on a major new branding, design and digital job. The result won’t be out there until March, but we’ll show you then. Helios Europe is a major player in European B2B logistics, and already has a substantial presence in several key markets.
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Zermatt and the streets of San Francisco
Zermatt have been appointed to handle all design and digital work by emerging Yorkshire food brand Fillmore & Union – named after the famous ‘Frisco streets. Filmore & Union brings a new level of nutritional nous to their restaurants, their café/deli and take-home operations. With edgy interior design and the best-looking staff this side of [...]
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A NEW TECHNICOLOR WEBSITE FOR ASCOT
We’ve just created the third iteration of Ascot’s website. Ascot Underwriting is one of the most prominent international insurance businesses at Lloyd’s of London. Our team has worked with Ascot for 10 years, and the new website is the latest step in a relationship that goes right back to the development of their kaleidoscopic brand [...]
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NOTTING HILL
Following hot on the heels of our Savills Chelsea launch, our new campaign for the opening of Savills Notting Hill is now running. Our goal was to capture Notting Hill’s unique personality: at once both charmingly bohemian yet confidently cosmopolitan – as witnessed by the countless uber retail and gourmet brands that have flocked there [...]
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MARMITE YOU HAVE TO LOVE
This is by far our favourite Jubilee ad. It’s for MA’AMITE. (Brilliant). The illustration style and the heraldic use of the Corgis are great. The look on the ‘hate’ Corgi’s face is just classic. It’s all underpinned with the suitably regal strap line: ONE EITHER LOVES IT. OR ONE HATES IT.
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WOULD YOU SPEND A PENNY ON FACEBOOK?
So Facebook is worth $104 Billion. Or at least that was the plan before its flotation a couple of days ago.
One and hundred and four billion bucks generates a lot of jealousy, and tends to polarize emotions. But Facebook has always been a bit Marmite.
I loved it at first – I remember when my daughter got invited very early on when it was invitation only, with the site all pristine and perfect. And then like a virus from a Hollywood blockbuster, it infected the mainstream en masse, and everyone seemed to be on it.
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WE’VE GONE ALL CHELSEA
The launch of Savills new Chelsea office was a dream job to get, but a tough brief.
Think Chelsea and images that pop up include the football team, the Swinging Sixties, Mary Quant and maybe Margaret Thatcher.
However, our target audience for this has been people that actually live there. The local’s Chelsea is very real and eclectic: the river, the statues and churches, the characterful pubs, the undeniably cosmopolitan/European feel that dominates Chelsea in 2012.
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M&S WANDERS OFF COURSE
There are so many reasons to love M&S.
Cornish Cruncher Cheddar. Percy Pig sweets (and their sublime alter-ego Reversi-Percys). Twenty quid Oxford Cotton men’s shirts with detailing that wouldn’t let down Ralph Lauren. Conran home goods. Lusciously prepared foods ideal for cheating at dinner parties.
New boss Marc Bolland is instigating change at a rate of knots, strengthening the sub-brands like Autograph, introducing Deli’s (excellent) and a plethora of new initiatives.
That’s great. Marks and Sparks needed it. They had indeed lost their spark.
But I do think in hiring Marcel Wanders, they wandered a little off course.
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AVA GARDNER WAS A GREAT BEAUTY, BUT HERE’S ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL AVA
This is really a blog about creativity. But what the heck, we wanted to post a gratuitous baby pic of our favourite new arrival, Ava. She’s the 5 month old daughter of our client CocoonU’s MD, Vanessa Streeton. We were having a serious meeting last week up in Harrogate, but were endlessly distracted by Ava’s [...]
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We’d love to meet you and hear about your brand, your challenges and your opportunities. Despite our name, we can’t offer you Alpine vistas, fields of edelweiss, or a plate of Rösti.
We can however offer you a latte here in Kensington, and a big helping of enthusiasm.
Please do drop us a line, give us a call or fill out the contact form below and we will get back to you.
Zermatt, 58-60 Kensington Church Street, London W8 4DB
info@welcometozermatt.com +44 (0) 207 368 1637
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