“Find Your Own Truth. Somewhere beyond the Advertising World.”
As co-founder of the Berlin based agency Heimat/TBWA, Guido Heffels has a deep understanding of not only the German market but also of creating work that is fresh, relevant and exciting. With his current role focusing specifically on work for the HORNBACH brand, it’s with this partnership that he’s able to flex his creative muscles.
Delving deeper into innovative and creative minds of the German industry, this interview comes as part of production company REKORDER’s ongoing sponsorship of the German Edition with LBB. Each piece in the series will use a reflection from a REKORDER director as a springboard for the conversation. In this particular interview, our starting point comes from the insight of one of the production company’s directors, as follows:
“I would love to see more content that radiates artistic freedom and dares to take risks, breaking the moulds of the conventional expectations associated with traditional advertising across all industries,”
says Nur Casadevall. “Content should have the flexibility to go into diverse tones and modes of expression, even more artistically liberated so that it surprises you when you see it.”
LBB’s Nisna Mahtani posed these ideas to Guido to hear more about his thoughts on the topic, and more.
LBB> When it comes to artistic freedom and taking risks, how do you channel that into your creative process? Where do you find that inspiration to take a leap of faith?
Guido> The more you think about it, the more difficult it gets. The easiest way is to realise why you are doing a job in the first place and, based on your result, what the result of your daily work should be: To give a brand or product a credible advantage in terms of perception and uniqueness. Wouldn't it make more than sense for every client to use the greatest possible creative advantage to achieve precisely this original uniqueness? Or to put it another way: wouldn't it be maximally negligent not to do just that?
Of course, creative freedom is in no way a free ride. On the contrary, it entails the maximum obligation to explain the thought process in detail, to share, to take clients by the hand and, on this basis, to awaken new paths and new potentials - a long-forgotten virtue of the communications industry. You've never really been able to captivate anyone with pie charts. Phrases such as ‘It's cool’, ‘That's how it's done now’ or ‘Something with hip-hop’ are also rather weak arguments.
LBB> Speaking of traditional advertising, how can work today build upon what’s already been created and elevate it further? Have you seen any examples of this?
Guido> It is a natural process that the work of the past forms the basis for the work of the present in terms of content. The great progress is probably that the boundaries between entertainment, PR, moving images etc. in a wider context have long since disappeared. The playing field and therefore the possibilities for staging are now many times larger than they were years ago. That sounds great, but of course includes the ‘danger’ that, unfortunately, anything is possible. It's good for those who have a clearly defined goal and don't care whether this is better achieved with traditional or whatever advertising. Personally, I couldn't even say what traditional advertising is. It's smarter to differentiate between good and stupid. Or between enriching and annoying. Between useful and self-indulgent.
LBB> On your personal journey of creativity, you co-founded HeimatTBWA\ in Berlin. What initially made you want to join the industry and what’s kept you here over the years?
Guido> I am mono-thematically focused on the client HORNBACH and in charge of the output. The agency is now managed by a new generation. You have to make room for that. When I started here, the industry was still more of a catch basin for stranded entrepreneurs and career changers. There were no targeted training centres where you could learn ‘advertising’. That's why I was so fascinated by the complexity of the people in the ad world. It was a weird wonderful subculture that left maximum room for individuality. It was naturally more diverse than what people are desperately trying to force these days.
LBB> Across the over 20 years of experience that you have, can you tell us a little bit about how the industry has changed and what excites you about the creative landscape today?
Guido> Meanwhile, it's been around 30 years, but, hey, thanks for the kindness. This time naturally leads to a very romanticised and sometimes very optimised version of the past. The possibilities of communication today are of course very different to those of years ago. Meanwhile, due to the technical progress, I have the feeling that the industry would like to see its consumers as Pavlovian dogs.
In other words, people can be conditioned if you just throw this or that treat at their feet. If you think this development through to the end, you can theoretically hand over the steering wheel to AI right now. Fortunately, however, humans are a wonderfully capricious species that is in no way predictable in its thought models and actions. Thank God.
LBB> Specifically focusing on Germany, what are some of the exciting trends that come out of cities like Berlin and how do they add to the creative process?
Guido> As soon as developments can be summarised under a trend label, it is already too late. A few years ago, ‘customer-centric’ was being touted as a major new trend. That made me laugh spontaneously because I asked myself, what had previously been the focus of advertising efforts –brands themselves? Ha ha. I'm still a big fan of the indestructible trend towards maximum relevance. Incidentally, it doesn't matter whether it comes from Berlin, New York or Auckland. The supposed creative centres are now virtually connected in real-time.
Trends that only come from X, Y or Z over a certain period no longer exist. What's more, I always see the greatest opportunity in those things that go against every trend - trends go out of fashion far too quickly for me.
LBB> Is there a piece of advice that you received early on in your career that you’d like to share with people today?
Guido> I have always tried to stay as far away from the industry as possible. That protects you from all those people who are full of tips but usually have no evidence to show in terms of their work. I looked for my role models in completely different areas anyway. Joseph Beuys, William Burroughs or even Raymond Pettibone, whose declared determination I always found very attractive.
Then, of course, there are all the independent music labels, from Dischord in Washington to SST or Alternative Tentacles in California. Touch and Go in Chicago, Mute or Industrial Records in England and dozens more. All record labels with a very clear attitude and release policy, so you could blindly buy their releases. The labels were a constant promise of innovation and quality. That's what I call real, exemplary brand work. Without bending, without compromise.
That's the only piece of advice I'd like to pass on: find your own truth. Somewhere beyond the advertising world.
Perhaps a very helpful question from the German author Max Frisch on top. "Are you convinced by your self-criticism?"
LBB> What does leadership mean to you and how do you ensure you get the best work out of the team that you work with? Following on from that, can you share a little bit about the company culture at HeimatTBWA\?
Guido> If you want to work seriously with a client, you have to become part of the client’s brand yourself. Ideally, nothing will surprise you any more, because you have already seen all the errors and effects coming as one of many possibilities. That's the great advantage of having a few years under your belt in this business. And that's exactly what you have to weigh up to keep the greatest enemy of all creativity under control. The omnipresent fear in any form. The fear of failure, of the banal idea, of customer feedback, of the necessary argumentation, of timing, of availability, of confrontation, to name but a few. If you can keep these - completely normal - feelings outside the creative process and create an atmosphere of childlike experimentation and warm and friendly anarchy, then you are leading.
Of course, a well-founded, rich taste in music is never a hindrance.
LBB> The recent campaign you did with HORNBACH and the many, tiny rooms was a spot which cleverly made solutions out of inconvenient problems. What is your favourite part of working on campaigns such as this one?
Guido> It's always a long road that a project like this takes. Starting with the basic idea, through various possibilities of staging, which then take on concrete forms through discussions that you didn't even expect yourself.
When a true beauty then emerges from the rough rock of an idea, that's exactly the part that I love so much about my profession. It's the magic that comes from a great team and a culture of open dialogue. The list of people we've had the pleasure of working with on our projects over the years is long and still extremely impressive, even for me. As a confirmation of what has been and an incentive for everything that is yet to come.
LBB> Are there any other recent campaigns which you’re keen to talk about?
Guido> This interview is probably the wrong place to talk about ongoing yet unreleased projects. Besides, these are only Hornbach projects. As always, our reservoir is filled to the brim for the coming years. Sometimes we even push ahead with several projects in a very concrete way and then decide shortly before the editorial deadline which one should become reality. We have just shot the spring campaign with Traktor. And, as always, it is unpredictable in all its facets, eludes everything that can be found in the usual mandatory lists and, for this very reason, is yet another wonderful new chapter in Hornbach's advertising history. Guaranteed to be free of hip-hop, far removed from the popular trends of the advertising industry.
In any case, I consider the artistic level of a campaign to be the greatest, albeit usually underestimated, asset. Otherwise, it would just be advertising.
LBB> Much like most other creatives, we’re sure you have many hobbies and interests outside of work. Could you share some of these with us?
Guido> As I have always seen my job as a paid hobby, I am in a more than privileged position. It is therefore inevitable that all creative areas, from music to art to film, make up a large part of my interests.
When it comes to the musical reappraisal of my earliest youth, the most I'm prepared to invest is impossible sums in rare pressings of early hardcore or electronic bands.
Here and there I take on teaching assignments, support young bands with their releases and then of course there is the small VC company Laughing Tuna, through which we, the three HEIMAT founders, invest in young start-ups and support them on their path.
LBB> Heading into 2024 and beyond, what are some of the trends you think will take over the industry?
Guido> After all, the advertising world has successfully saved the world over the last few years and has been able to solve all emerging problems, or at least that's what it has convinced itself in all its case films and everyone has gladly believed it. Even American defence companies became saviours, with merits thrown down their throats. Companies that have a maximum share of the world's plastic waste built reefs to preserve corals, the examples are endless.
Long overdue questions will now arise. Questions of morality and ethics. Which brands should we still allow ourselves to work for? Who has to use artificial intelligence, and who can still try to break the rules with humans? Is it okay to work for manufacturers of foods that are sugary and harmful to health? Thinking on a larger scale: is it even allowed to produce and sell such things?
Of course, as always, there will be super hip trends that are mostly just old trends in a new guise. And agencies will again set up their departments for these ‘uber trends’. That was already the case with ‘Second Life’ and with NFTs anyway. This virus of despair will continue to run rampant and bring us some more nonsense. And unfortunately, prevents us more and more from driving forward relevant, cross-media ideas.
LBB> What’s something surprising that people may not know about you?
Guido> Very few people probably know that I am in the wonderful position of working together with my wife Kerstin as a producer for two decades now. Her contribution to the countless, wonderful projects during this time has been existential and exemplary. I'm not just talking about the creative product, which is what it's all about in the end.
It's more about the way we work with organisations, creatives, directors and producers outside our own Isla Hornbach. Respectful, sincere and always with a clear goal in mind. These are the factors that are beyond all budget discussions and that I feel are more characteristic of the Hornbach work than the focus on the purely creative product. It is the humanity and openness that accompanies and characterises our processes.
This, Kerstin's part in the creative product, is the key that makes this creative product possible in the first place. Very few people are aware of this, probably because I am always in the way and it deserves far more attention than the answer to a question in this interview.
