10 years ESE-ActionThis is what happened

In 2014, as part of their high school thesis, Elia Binelli and Severin Gamper created the Swiss HipHop magazine "LYRICS". At that time, they had no idea of the dimensions their first own brand would take on. The cultural scene in Switzerland quickly took notice of the passion project of the two rap fans. Even media outlets not typically focused on the scene, such as SRF, reported on it. A print magazine exclusively dealing with Swiss HipHop made big waves, as the timing was perfect. Swiss rap was at the beginning of a new heyday, and LYRICS Magazine was to become the ideal companion medium for this upswing.

What started as a print magazine became a marketing boot camp for Elia, Severin and Emanuel. They learned to apply their entrepreneurial skills – in many disciplines. From sponsorship to distribution, community building, social media, editorial management, and much more.

While their peers chose the academic path, Elia, Severin, and Emanuel ventured out on their own. Together, they built LYRICS Magazine with a lot of passion for the urban scene in Switzerland.

With plenty of perseverance, the trio "hustled" through the cultural landscape: They sprinted from festivals to events to studio sessions to business meetings, creating content and thus creating touchpoints with the community – but also with big brands. Collaborations and content projects with Feldschlösschen, Red Bull, or Boa Lingua followed. "LYRICS" established itself as a serious medium and voice for an entire scene.

"LYRICS" was always meant to be more than a magazine: The creativity of the founding trio was unstoppable. They launched the "LYRICS Awards", the most relevant HipHop prize in Switzerland. They created the "LYRICS Festival" four times, a sold-out event with the biggest names in Swiss rap. Artists like Nativ, Xen, Mimiks made appearances – and thus solidified "LYRICS" as a brand close to the community. True to the credo "from the scene, for the scene". In the following years, there was no bypassing Elia, Severin, and Emanuel in the Swiss rap scene.

In 2018, the magazine once again underlined its status as a critical journalistic platform. With the special edition "Does Rap Have a Problem", the editorial team addressed stereotypes regarding sexism, violence, drug glorification, and antisemitism in HipHop. Without pointing fingers, the articles educated – and warned. The texts were also published on the widely read news portal watson. This way, echo chambers were broken, and awareness was raised beyond the core community.

Digital-only: In 2019, the most modern HipHop platform in Europe was launched. The domain: lyricsmagazin.ch. In-house, Severin, Elia, and Emanuel conceptualized, designed, and programmed the site, which was unmatched in terms of user experience and interaction for a long time. It's a place where community meets content. With news, journalistic stories, videos, memes, and much more.

The entrepreneurial spirit was unbroken after the LYRICS successes. At the time, Elia and Emanuel were still giving rap and social media workshops at schools – thus sensitizing entire classes. This led to the vision for their second start-up: A platform focusing on personal development and relevance to life.

Since 2018, Futuro has been offering a central platform for externally led courses throughout German-speaking Switzerland. The interactive workshops are tailored to the interests of young people. With the goal of awakening dormant passions in subjects and cultures, the start-up addresses topics that accompany and concern children and teenagers in their everyday lives. Thus, horizons are broadened – and perspectives are shown.

Whether it's a youth center, public, private, or vocational school, whether during project week, regular lessons, or on a Wednesday afternoon: The workshops bring valuable variety to the daily routine of children, teenagers, and teachers.

The founding trio of Elia, Severin, and Emanuel always had the vision of providing young and creative people with a platform for self-fulfillment, both inside and outside the company. As a journalist, Dominik went through the LYRICS school, shaped the educational platform as a start-up manager, and was responsible for the day-to-day business.

In 2018, the founding trio was tasked with a new mission by a colleague: Save the bees!

The start-up Vatorex was working on delaying bee mortality. With an environmentally friendly system, they protect biodiversity – but the ambitious company needed capital for this. The crowdfunding campaign was a complete success thanks to the campaigning by ESE Agency. After just four days, the donation goal was reached. In total, the newly founded agency brought in almost 100,000 Swiss Francs for their first client, twice as much as planned.

In this groundbreaking campaign, the then young adults in their early twenties focused on the triad of "credibility – image – reach": with politicians, celebrities, and influencers. Press work and networking placed the issue of bee mortality on the agendas of major media outlets. Vatorex was featured in 20 Minuten, SRF, Tagesanzeiger, and NZZ, among others.

The success of the first campaign further fueled the drive of Elia, Severin, and Emanuel: The newcomers were able to apply their expertise and entrepreneurial experience from their other start-ups in a comprehensive digital marketing concept for the first time. The campaign marked a promising agency launch – and from then on, the projects would only get bigger. Suddenly, they were an agency.

In the meantime, Severin had built expertise in the design and programming of Webflow sites. And as a newly founded agency, contracts were needed. Preferably from the personal environment. Star Bicycle, a bicycle dealer from Winterthur, soon received website traffic from all over the world. The reason? Designers and programmers from everywhere celebrated the innovative web experience. It was also officially used by Webflow in a showcase as a "best practice" example. The site was awarded numerous prizes – innovative in UI and UX design. The awards nicely line up next to the over 20 other prizes (including from Awwwards and CSS Design Awards) that Severin has meanwhile accumulated in his palmarès.

Quickly, Emanuel, Severin, and Elia found their USP: Modern, innovative Webflow sites. This catapulted them into the future during the agency's early phase with 80+ SMEs. Even today.

In 2019, the CMS Webflow was still an insider tip. Today, industry leaders develop their websites with the innovative tool – and ESE is among the best developers in Switzerland.

But not only Webflow sites fit into the skill set: Webflow clients became sustainable partnerships. Emanuel, Severin, and Elia soon took care of them as a full-service agency. This includes long-term partners such as ALVICO Vils AG, Stamm Gartenbau, or F. Preisig AG.

With somewhat assertive means, Emanuel, Severin, and Elia managed to secure an appointment with Denner. This quickly resulted in a constructive, fruitful collaboration. Together, they conceived Denner's sustainability label: All for the Future.

Denner has made significant strides with their sustainability efforts, but there's still a long way to go. The ESE team formulated a communicative framework that combines commitment, proof, and goals, thus bridging past, present, and future in a tangible and responsible way.

The entire implementation of the "All-for-the-Future" campaign from the key visual, video ads, to the website was conceptualized and produced by ESE. A milestone for the young agency founders.

More than a campaign microsite: With the "All for the Future" website, ESE created a media platform relevant to the age of online journalism. The site serves as the communication base for Denner's commitment: with stories, news, and videos about sustainability. The community is informed, sensitized, and entertained. Denner becomes the first big brand in Switzerland with a Webflow website.

A year later, the follow-up to the successful campaign followed: This time, Denner focused their sustainability communication on people. Thus, store managers became poster boys, and apprentices served as authentic testimonials for Denner's commitment – across Switzerland. In three languages.

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The second big coup for Denner: For the campaign "Close to you", the agency showed how close Denner REALLY is: Just a baby's leap away. The slogan is playfully and experientially captured with the Babyrace by ESE. A specially conceived and by Severin programmed and designed mobile game lets the iconic Denner baby run across screens. The jump'n'run game Babyrace for Denner delights not only players with fun gameplay – but also with attention to detail.

The game, kept in the iconic 80s Nintendo look, is set against meticulously pixelated backdrops of Swiss cities. Whether it's the Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux, the Sechseläutenplatz in Zurich, or the Tinguely Fountain in Basel – the next Denner is just a baby's leap away.

The game challenge states: Run and jump with the baby from the TV spot faster than the countdown ticks down. It shows you in real-time how long an adult person needs to walk at a walking pace from a Swiss landmark to the next Denner store.

The lovingly stacked pixels of Babyrace were seen everywhere: on all major online platforms, but also on the cover of 20 Minuten. Conclusion: over 100,000 players hungry for high scores. ESE creates addiction potential for nostalgics as well as for our mobile generation.

In the meantime, the agency has grown to over 20 employees with 2000 position percentages.

The client projects also require sufficient space and manpower. Therefore, the year 2022 was all about growth – to over 20 employees with 2000 position percentages.

With this energy, the team celebrated with friends and family: 5 years after the official entry in the commercial register, the champagne bottles popped amidst party tunes. Above the rooftops of Winterthur.

Because hard work also demands proper relaxation, the agency organizes a team outing 12 times a year: From go-karting, wine tasting, festival visits, murder mystery dinners, Werwolf evenings to Smash-Trasher. Phew, who can keep up with that?

But the team is also on the road a lot – and at ESE, they not only learn about marketing but also get to know Switzerland. Lausanne, Basel, Zurich, Neuchâtel, Lucerne, village, and so on – we've had to disturb every Swiss idyll with our camera.

Soon Denner introduced us to its big mother: Migros. Our work for Denner had made the rounds. For the big "Support Culture" promotion, ESE Agency made its debut for Migros.

With over 15 million views on the content creations, the ESE team created awareness for Migros' funding action "Support Culture". How? With a Hollywood actor, guerrilla stunts, influencer Flavio Leu in carnival mood, and a holistic concept approach: Charisma. Content. Call-to-Action.

A highlight: An improv comedy duo, undercover as Migros employees (Spoiler: You haven't seen sales staff like this before) – between advertising and viral videos.

A little later, we let it haunt in Migros. Because ESE can do more than social media. The comprehensive campaign concept of the Migros promotion "M-Escape" came from the agency's pen: From the key visual, message concept, and communication measures were conceived and implemented. Together, they gave the Migros puzzle game an even more adventurous touch.

ESE was noticeably younger on the move for M-Budget: The concept of the TikTok format "Snack-Talk"? Stories from Gen Z - for Gen Z. In the short interviews, guests who move teenagers are featured. In an urban setting, our host Anna meets personalities that Gen Z might know from somewhere. Whether it's a soccer pro, a rap star, or a face from the 20 Minuten cover.