Wink Media beats top groups to job

Wink Media has beaten FutureBrand, Interbrand and Wolff Olins breakaway Venture 3 to win the identity work for Switzerland’s beleaguered airline, it has emerged.

The Swissair Group combined its operations with regional carrier Crossair last year after Swissair suspended flights in October 2001. The group had failed to meet debts following events of 11 September.

Venture 3 and Wink, which is part of the Wallpaper Group, went head-to-head in a final-stage creative pitch. A Crossair spokeswoman refuses to disclose whether it was paid or unpaid. Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux and FutureBrand Zurich were shortlisted.

The identity, which will be unveiled at the end of January, is understood to be ‘retro’ in style. In comparison, Venture 3’s unsuccessful creative ideas were ‘very progressive and modern’, the spokeswoman says.

‘The identity has to reflect the Swiss national image but also the international standing [of the carrier],’ she adds. The spokeswoman would ‘neither confirm nor deny’ that the new name is Swiss Air Lines, as has been rumoured.

FutureBrand Zurich was invited on to the shortlist with ‘four days’ notice’ prior to the pitch last Sunday, says managing partner Martin Amann.

Wink creative director Tyler Brûlé claims to be a ‘self-declared Swissophile’. ‘I am convinced we can put the new Swiss national airline back at the top of the world in the airline industry,’ he says.

Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux was responsible for the 1996 revamp of Swissair’s branding.