Havas Germany's CCO on the city's unique art scene, where to get the best sushi around town and a campaign designed to highlight the remarkable.
Why do I love Düsseldorf? Well do I? I must admit I have this love/hate relationship with this city. Not because I grew up in Cologne which is supposed to be the evil neighbour down the river Rhine. It’s rather that I feel Düsseldorf is the city of missed opportunities.
But hey! This is not the time to complain, but to invite every one of you to come, visit and find out for yourself. There is enough to see, feel, eat, drink, experience and gossip about here. Whether it’s spending a fortune at the German Champs-Élysées (Parisians, just ignore), spending a night and some brain cells getting drunk in the old town with old beer (that’s the name, trust me) or spending quality time digging into the art scene that might have lost its magic to Berlin but is still good enough to wow you.
Oh, and then there is Carnival, a crazy time to come or to avoid Düsseldorf, depending on your personal fetish.
Print is dead. Well, I guess there is some truth in this statement. Unfortunately, this also leads to less focus on and less love for great print advertising. Luckily, you always find exceptions, so here we go. Look at this powerful idea DDB created for Stabilo last year. Simple but strong. Answering not only the functionality brief (you can highlight stuff with a highlight marker!) but adding a clear brand statement to the actual gender debate.
Art was and still is part of this city. There are numerous museums and galleries worth dropping by and spending some serious time at. If you want to experience something unique, I would recommend visiting K21 and especially the Tomás Saraceno Exhibition. Surely not for people with fear of heights but absolutely mind blowing.
Sometimes ideas seem very obvious once they are executed and rolled out. But one of the most important skills of a creative person is seeing the obvious and turning it into something powerful and meaningful. Grey did exactly that by putting the evil disease Parkinson into the spotlight using the most sympathetic national football team on the planet: the Iceland-sons. Take a look and you might say: “pretty obvious”. I say: “f***, why didn’t I see that before?”
You love Japanese food? Sushi addict? Well, come to Düsseldorf! I guess you won´t find many cities outside Japan where authentic Japanese food is available at this quantity and quality. Did you know that Düsseldorf is the biggest Japanese town in Europe outside Japan? It’s hard to pick the best place, since the quality is extremely high at most restaurants. I go for KIKAKU because it’s been here forever, and it’s still packed every day. It is not posh, but it is the original.
Düsseldorf has not only a long tradition of great agencies as well as still being home to all major networks but it’s also the biggest advertising city in Germany in terms of revenue. I hope no one minds that I have selected a piece from Havas; everything else would have been a surprise, I guess. Havas is supporting the homeless organization fiftyfifty for some years now. Last year, we collaborated with Getty Images and developed an idea to shift perception and to support the fiftyfifty street magazine vendors. The idea not only picked up a lot of advertising awards, it started a national and international conversation.
Eric Schoeffler is Executive Creative Director of Havas Europe and Chief Creative Officer of Havas Germany. He is a member of ADC Germany, D&AD, One Club and FC Bayern Munich (for those who really want to know) and served on most international juries like the Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clios, Andys, Lynx and AdStars, to name just a few. Eric is a father of two girls, a vegetarian and a vinyl junkie.
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