“Roger Federer shooting ad with Trevor Noah” – this was the sort of headline that appeared in a lot of Swiss media back in January. The film featuring the two superstars was already creating quite a stir ahead of its release and led to part of Zurich’s central station being cordoned off. Now it’s finally become clear what all the fuss was about: following the major successes of the past two years – with two of the world’s most viewed ads, the last of which even ended up being the second-most-successful ad of the year worldwide – Switzerland Tourism and Wirz are at it again with a new global campaign.  

Did the astonishing 156 million views achieved by the previous campaigns make things a little daunting this time round? On the contrary, according to Wirz Co-CEO Livio Dainese, who feels that this success had more of an inspirational effect: “We see the bar that we ourselves have set higher and higher in recent years as an incentive and are trying to raise it again.”

At the heart of the new story once again is Roger Federer’s attempt to shoot an ad for Switzerland. After trying in vain to get Robert De Niro on board in 2021 and not quite achieving the desired outcome with Anne Hathaway in 2022, either, this year’s ad sees him trying his luck with Trevor Noah – comedian, best-selling author, producer and philanthropist. Unfortunately, he fails again, as the two co-stars foolishly board the wrong train. But this turns out to be a stroke of luck, as the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland is a wonderful experience, even when undertaken unwittingly. You can never make the wrong choice in Switzerland – this is the message the film drives home.

Directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper, the film is part of a worldwide campaign that positions Switzerland as an attractive country for rail travel. The Grand Train Tour of Switzerland shown in the film combines all the famous scenic routes on a leisurely 800-mile round trip that takes visitors to Switzerland’s most familiar points of interest.  

The tour is a spectacular opportunity to explore Switzerland sustainably, according to André Hefti, Chief Marketing Officer of Switzerland Tourism: “A unique offering of this kind needs to be distinguished with a unique campaign; that’s why we were happy to once again have absolute top stars such as Roger Federer, Trevor Noah and Tom Hooper in front of and behind the camera.”

The main ad is flanked by several other advertising media with the slogan “I need the ride of a lifetime. I need Switzerland”, promoting a range of train travel offers and experiences. The campaign focussing on digital moving images will air worldwide, with the main markets being the US, India, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Greater China, the UK and Germany.  

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