From DNA to Do-Re-Mi. Sure sounds like Basel.

The line came to me after a conversation at the piano. My daughter is learning music, and one evening earlier in 2025 we were chatting about scales. She asked why the notes have names, and I found myself explaining how I learned music growing up through Do-Re-Mi. No letters, no formal theory. Just the solfège syllables from The Sound of Music. It was simple, melodic, and it stuck.

The Eurovision project itself had started much earlier.

In June 2024, when the possibility of Basel hosting the Eurovision Song Contest first emerged, I began exploring the opportunity for Novartis to play a role in what would likely become one of the largest cultural events ever hosted in the city. I'd been involved in sponsorships during my career, so over the following months, I was involved in the early outreach and pitching that ultimately led to Novartis becoming a global partner of Eurovision 2025, with the sponsorship formally secured in the autumn.

Once the partnership was in place, I was asked to lead the Corporate Affairs workstream across communications, marketing, creative and media. At that stage the team was deep into shaping the public expression of the sponsorship, including branding and out-of-home campaigns across Switzerland and beyond.

An agency had just sent over some advertising copy ideas, some strong and usable with a bit of fine-tuning. What we didn’t yet have was a line that truly anchored the message in our hometown. Something that connected a global pharmaceutical company to one of Europe’s most flamboyant cultural events in a way that felt surprising, but genuine.

Around the same time, I kept thinking back to that conversation at the piano.

The connection between structured knowledge and creative expression. Between the science of sound and the magic of melody. Between learning something technical and feeling something emotional.

That’s when the line arrived

“From DNA to Do-Re-Mi. Sure sounds like Basel.”

It wasn’t just a clever turn of phrase. It reflected something I’ve come to recognise more broadly, that even strong ideas depend on the conditions around them to surface properly. It captured the spirit of the sponsorship, a bridge between Novartis’ world of science and the Eurovision world of music and emotion, where both are rooted in curiosity, creativity and connection. It didn’t hurt either that the phrase echoes a signature tune from a musical set in the Alps.

Basel is a city of both molecules and music. Of research and rhythm. The line gave us a way to say that clearly and simply.

I was pleased to see it selected and deployed widely, appearing on billboards at the city entrance, across transport hubs including Basel SBB, and most prominently as part of the Eurovision Village experience. At that scale it must have generated millions of impressions during one of the largest cultural events ever hosted in the city.

My daughter saw it too in many places across Basel, and it was rather nice for her to see what her father does for a job. I don’t claim ownership of the campaign. But I do take quiet pride in having written the line. And like many good ideas, it emerged during a completely unrelated moment.