Heart selling instead of hard selling
Top Swiss exhibition and event creations given their due at Xaver Award ceremony.
Black and magenta were the predominant colours in Zurich's new Hallenstadion, scene of the fourth Xaver Expo + Event Award ceremony. After the followers of the Dalai Lama and the fans of DJ Bobo, Switzerland's biggest venue went on to host around 1,500 exhibition and event industry professionals who had come to pay tribute to, and most importantly to fête, their colleagues outstanding achievements and creativity. Roland Köppel, the president of Expo + Event Swiss Association, was delighted with 62 quality entries that did not always make it easy for the jury to reach their decision. For the first time, gold was not awarded in all categories. But, Köppel said, the award-winners were proof "that heart and not just hard selling can be pursued successfully".
As with the German industry award counterparts Adam and Eva, the Swiss prize is divided into the sections Exhibition and Event. Top place among the Exhibition entries in the Customized category went this year to the Swiss appearance at Expo 2005. Nüssli (Schweiz) AG were responsible for construction of the exhibition stand, designers were the Panorama 2000 group, and the principals were Presence Switzerland, the organisation that coordinates Switzerland's presence abroad.
In the opinion of the jury, the number one in modular systems was the appearance by Lonza AG at the CPHI in Brussels. Simplification was of the essence, with black and white as the only material colours used. The brainchild of Tribolet Architekten was realised by the Wuppertal-based company Ueberholz GmbH.
In the Events section the top spot in the Business category was awarded to the realisation and hosting of the FIFA Gala 2004 to mark the climax of the federation's centenary celebrations December 2004 in Zurich. In addition to overall realisation and production, managed by Freddy Burger Management as the agency in charge, many individual assignments were handled by FBM firms.
First place in the Event category Public was captured by a party idea, the M-Budget Party. Parties are costly, but not an M-Budget extravaganza. M-Budget products go easy on the exchequer by providing the best possible value for money in each case. It is according to this principle that the M-Budget Parties held by Swiss food retailer Migros work. So far the parties, which have taken place regularly in Switzerland since 2004, have all been sold out and delight thousands of mostly young M-Budget fans. The Brand Asset Valuator rates M-Budget the biggest shooting star in recent years. The entry was submitted by the agency Premotion GmbH, which took the party into the whole of Switzerland for the Migros cooperative association.
This is not to be confused with the winner of the Budget category. Four hundred guests from business and the media were invited to the launch event of the XBOX game "Halo 2". The objective was emotional infotainment to create industry hype. The whole event was geared to the game design and TV spots. A perfect blend of reality and virtuality, live event and game design was the central peg on which all activities hung. Group Worldspan was the agency responsible for the event commissioned by Microsoft Schweiz GmbH. There are some productions that simply do not fit into the Exhibition or Event matrix, as the jury also discovered, prompting it to present two special awards. One went to Orange Lightscape as a special Expo award in the Customized category. Orange Lightscape discretely communicates the message from Swiss provider Orange to 11 million visitors a year at Zurich airport. Its installation consists, among other things, of 475 individually selectable LED light rods. With it, in September 2004 the GCGroup AG created on behalf of Orange Communication S.A. the biggest-ever 3D promotional installation in Switzerland to date.
The special Event award in the Public category was won by the Giant Shirt Road Show. "At fever pitch!" was the Credit Suisse advertising message surrounding the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship. Followed with huge interest by the media, the Credit Suisse Giant Shirt unleashed a wave of outright football euphoria on its journey through nine Swiss cities in the run-up to EURO 2004. The outsize shirt was put on display again outside the team hotel in Portugal as a talisman of a very special kind. Credit Suisse had briefed Aroma Production AG with realisation.
m+a report Nr.6 / 2005 vom 23.09.2005
m+a report vom 23. September 2005