W&V agency profile: “A1 Studio Design”

The new beginning also involves clarifying once and for all what Peter Schmidt Group really stands for. The new commitment is: We create consumer and corporate design for premium brands. Jil Sander, Hugo Boss and Joop are three brands that the agency developed in-house – although a long time ago. Over the years, the agency's expertise with premium lifestyle and fashion brands atrophied. At the same time, Peter Schmidt Group built up an impressive client portfolio as lead agency for Deutsche Bahn, Mercedes-Benz and Nivea. Other clients include Henkel, Linde, Postbank, Douglas, Rewe, Panasonic, Shiseido, Canton, Mey and many more.

“Premium was always part of our DNA,” says agency head Cottrell, speaking from a purely historical perspective. But as time went on and Peter Schmidt Group kept getting bigger, the agency aimed for the mass market. Now Cottrell and his new colleague Goetz see an opportunity to resharpen the agency's focus. “Premium brands in particular are currently experiencing strong pressure to transform,” Cottrell says. Consumers have different needs than in the past. Nowadays they ask questions about the values a brand represents, and what responsibility for society and the environment a company carries. Social responsibility is the new premium. Start-ups that come from this worldview (...) have been able to compete with established brands.

If you want to help companies who feel their existence threatened because the value parameters of consumers are changing, you have to be fast, flexible and up to date. From the outset it was clear to Cottrell and Goetz in order to achieve that, they needed to build an agency that is agile and diverse.

Written by Conrad Breyer, W&V editorial staff

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The five-page article appeared 2 June 2021 in W&V Magazine Nr. 6. You can order W&V Magazine here or view the ePaper with a W&V+ subscription here.