30 years of PEIX | 30 years of "WE, YOU, US!"
In the beginning, there were five of us: four graphic designers and a consultant. We had known each other since 1987 at the School of Advertising and Design in Berlin-Schöneweide. We wanted to work together and founded the PEIX agency in the summer of 1994. A small shared office in Kreuzberg. One of our first clients: Berlin-Chemie.
We started with a small sticker. Then the first ad, the first campaign, the first award: 1995, bronze at COMPRIX, presented by Nina Ruge - Healthcare! There were already agencies specializing in healthcare, but none in Berlin. Our chance!
And what can we say! We made the most of it: Today we are still in Berlin. But in Adlershof. In our own building with around 80 creative minds. Specialized in healthcare communication.
1994
No police officer forgets their first case, every surgeon remembers their first appendectomy, and our founder, Karsten Rzepka, will forever remember his first assignment. Especially since it started quite loudly:
"1994, in the foyer of Berlin-Chemie: I was allowed to present in-house for the first time. So there I stood, excited and hoping to impress the big boss. I was wearing a large black coat and under my arm was a large black folder. Inside were the large black pieces of cardboard onto which we had pasted our work. Black cardboard, no laptop, no projector! That's how it was in the last century.
Next to me is a metal ashtray (I wish there had been a smoking ban indoors back then), beneath me is a hard, shiny granite floor, and above me is a huge entrance hall. A fantastic resonant space. The customer comes down the stairs. I hurry to meet him.
And BÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄM!!! I knock over the ashtray with my coat! It hits the granite floor with tremendous force. The bang echoes so loudly through the huge foyer that everyone on the fourth floor can still hear it. Earth open up and devour me! I go into the meeting with my head red.
Fortunately, we are still able to impress with our work. And we get the chance to present the first advertising ideas for the relieving effect of the saw palmetto fruits in Prostamol® uno."
That was the kick-off for our 30-year collaboration with Berlin-Chemie. And for PEIX it was the start in the healthcare industry. After the prostate came the thyroid and then herpes zoster. And so it went on, from below the belt upwards through the whole body.
A lot has happened since then - you can get an insight into our current work here.
We believe in that. With all our heart. Of course, a good idea sometimes occurs to a happy individual while showering, jogging, hiking, brushing their teeth or dozing on the suburban train. But that's what it is: a first, single, good idea.
Campaigns that make us smile because they are originally conceived and lovingly made, works that we like to show and are proud of, always arise in the ping-pong, in the back and forth of our thoughts.
Your idea is great. It becomes a springboard for my idea. And my idea becomes a springboard for your idea. And your idea, in turn, and so on. So our thoughts spiral upwards. To where the fun begins. To regions I can't reach as an individual. But as a team, we can do it.
Anyone who goes into a photo booth knows: This isn't going to be the glossy portrait Grandma gets for her 80th birthday. No, even as you pull the curtain aside, it's clear: This isn't about the perfect picture, but about the strip with the real feelings. The one with real life in it: shaky, funny, and someone is always only half visible or misses the chance to laugh at the right moment. But it's the pictures that stay with you: on your fridge, in your wallet, and sometimes even in your heart, like the one with your new love, taken together after a night of partying, tipsy.
The decision by our founder Karsten Rzepka and our CEO Johannes Buzási to go into a vending machine together was made very matter-of-factly at the agency. We were looking for an idea to illustrate the path that the two of them have traveled at the helm of the company over the past year and a half, since Johannes was appointed to the management board by Karsten in September 2022.
It was a bit like those photo booths:
It started with searching and finding a common picture. Sometimes one was in the foreground, sometimes the other. Sometimes one was less visible, sometimes the other. Sometimes one held his head up, sometimes the other. And whenever there was a flash, it was just a snapshot. In between: a lot of heart and a lot of dynamism.
At the end, when all the pictures had been taken and the curtain had been drawn, the machine spat out a series that you had been eagerly waiting for and you realized: Hey, it was never about the ONE perfect picture together. That might not even be possible. It was about having fun and bumping into each other along the way. And the thought remains that many different, small pictures strung together make something beautiful that you can proudly hang on your wall.
PEIX is my first job after graduating, and this first job really marked the end of a decade. Now I'm excited about the new era that lies ahead of me, and I can't think of a better start to this era than PEIX, where I already have every opportunity as a junior to find my way in this new world.
In this review, we tell our story. How we started small and made something very special out of PEIX along a path that was not always easy. Because we put up windmills instead of walls when there was a breath of fresh air. Because we always thought upwards and never forgot what our basis was. Because we have put people at the center and we believe that this is the only way to succeed.
But - there is still a lot to do. And so this book is not just a retrospective, but also a prologue to further chapters of a dynamic PEIX story:
Both we and the market in which we operate have changed significantly over the past 30 years. New players have joined us. Others no longer exist. Technologies, processes, social trends, changing values and many, many upheavals have made us think and act in new ways time and again. And this will continue.
Always.
Always.
Again.
That's why I love this industry and PEIX so much. Because there is strength and motivation in such a change, we feel a sense of purpose, task and responsibility.
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We will need these PEIX qualities in the coming years. We are facing:new technologies, AI, quantum leaps in research, new players, new fields of activity for everyone ...Our pharma world has become bigger and broader. In fact, it is more than "just" pharma. Health is in watches, in fitness videos, on TikTok and in lifestyle brands, and it is a big task to really put these achievements into practice. We sometimes put it like this: the right therapy, at the right time, in the right place. Whether it's about the wealth of groundbreaking research results in oncology, a wave of complex orphan drugs, millions of chronically ill patients who have not been reached or the expected breakthroughs in genetic engineering - communication with everyone and for everyone is more than just colorful images or marketing, no, communication is the key to keeping this highly dynamic healthcare system functioning at all and making the change a success. What's more, the tasks are huge and the structures, channels, target groups and players are extremely complex. Only those who can contribute truly creative, substantial solutions will actually be able to influence perceptions and knowledge. it may seem a little megalomaniacal, but if we do not face up to this task and assume our role as partners on an equal footing, then we will not be living up to our responsibility - and our origins. in this respect, we see our first 30 years as a good warm-up phase for what lies ahead. For all the tasks we still have to solve. For the pitches, the tough nuts, the business problems, the partnerships that we will enter into with our customers. We are grateful for that. And at the same time, we are looking forward to finding out how our origins will take us into the future.
Comprix
Long-term ranking
TOP 3
Certified Google Partner
since 2017
Member of the GWA - Germany's
leading agencies
