Onliner
As Head of Interaction at Mediacom, Philipp Augenstein finds working in Switzerland extremely exciting because the online media industry here is still on the verge of a major breakthrough.
People First. That's Mediacom's motto. A hackneyed concept? After all, people - and therefore customers, consumers and employees - are not the focus of a media agency! But Philipp Augenstein can prove us wrong and present an individual person behind the slogan in various respects.
A few hours before our interview, an annually recurring ritual took place at Mediacom. "The project is called "If I ran the company. In all 111 Mediacom offices in 87 countries, a contest is held at exactly the same time: "What would I do if I could run Mediacom myself?" Each employee has two minutes to present his or her ideas. The management awards a prize to the best suggestion. Sensible ideas are implemented wherever possible. In addition, the winners from all over the world also take part in the international final. There, the best suggestion will definitely be put into practice. And rewarded with an appropriate prize.
Purchasing power - and innovation
Today, having ideas is the sought-after competence at Mediacom. The recipe for success is strategy. The foundation for this continues to be concentrated purchasing power. In Switzerland, Europe's leading TV buyer has been able to secure the best conditions for its customers such as Procter & Gamble, IKEA, BAT, Mars, Coca-Cola, Bayer Healthcare, Nokia and Mediamarkt.
guarantee.
That was also one of the reasons why Mediacom came to Zurich around twenty years ago. At the time, its major customer Procter & Gamble wanted to have more influence on media purchasing directly on site. As more international customers arrived, they soon also wanted to know: "Do the Swiss tick differently than Germans?"
So slowly the strategy has been established. The office has grown. Initially, however, Mediacom's only policy in Zurich was to be able to serve primarily international network customers directly on site here. In the meantime, the business model has changed. Mediacom is also aggressively pitching for national customers in Switzerland.
The first players have already been acquired with Amag and Bongrain. Externally, the growth is reflected in the move from small premises on Bellerivestrasse to a trendy loft near Hardbrücke. Here Mediacom has invested a lot of resources and manpower. The number of employees has grown to 45. Most of them are no longer buyers, but strategists. "What's the point if you're great at buying, but ultimately haven't understood the customer's goal?" says Augenstein. In TV, for example, Mediacom has pushed hard for the introduction of PIN data, or "person-specific usage data," in the Swiss market and plays a supporting role in the selection process. The special unit Interaction is also dependent on more data as a basis for planning. For this reason, Augenstein is helping to establish the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) in the research department, among other things. There, he will soon orchestrate a major research campaign designed to provide arguments and insights for advertising on the Swiss Internet.
Channel planning in digital media
"People First" - behind the slogan, we can increasingly see a human being defined as precisely as possible on the customer side as well, instead of simply an anonymous mass. "In strict compliance with all data protection regulations, of course," adds Augenstein. The best opportunities for such targeted advertising within a cross-media strategy are offered more and more every day in digital media. Since 2007, Mediacom has been building up these competencies in Zurich with its own department. Philipp Augenstein has been Head of Interaction from the very beginning. In just over a year, his department has grown to four people. The company is already on the lookout for further specialists.
Augenstein sees a great need for his consulting services because the potential for online advertising in Switzerland is still being exploited much less than would actually correspond to the high level of technical development and dissemination. He cites dynamic in-game advertising as just one example. In Germany, Mediacom used this new medium for Coca-Cola as early as 2005. In Switzerland, Augenstein only followed suit in 2007 - but still as a Swiss premiere - and together with Goldbach also delivered the first quality research. Since then, other clients such as Nokia, Mars and Universal Pictures have already occupied virtual advertising space in top games such as Need for Speed, FIFA Soccer or Tony Hawk's Skateboarding.
Channel planning within digital media: For the Head of Interaction at Mediacom, this is a decisive advantage over many competitors. How do you reach a manager like a 16-year-old teen? "One person's Blackberry is another person's Wii." Says Augenstein.
What has long been cultivated in print down to the finest detail with completely different publications, is still simply called Internet and banner advertising for many superficial media planners in digital media. Contact management is a foreign word for many. Augenstein wants to change that. So, for example, does payment for advertising on the Internet. Hybrid models should be on offer, as they are already established in England and Germany. In concrete terms, a certain package of ads is agreed with a marketer, but above a certain limit, only the sales actually generated via the Internet are paid for. Anyone who thinks and acts in this way must obviously have a creative as well as a commercial soul in addition to their technical skills.
Early interest in IT
Philipp Augenstein took his first steps in advertising as a child. He practically grew up in an advertising agency. His father owned a full-service agency with 20 employees near Karlsruhe. His mother, a trained goldsmith and design graduate, was responsible for graphics in the "family business.
"Even though we didn't work for the world's leading brands, but for the local master painter: The basic mechanisms were the same," Philipp recalls of his early impressions of the industry. During non-school hours, his favorite toy was the agency's first computer. At 13, he could already "help the adults operate the thing." Following his grandfather's advice, he later studied business informatics. When he started his career at IBM, he was able to learn purchasing at the highest level in the Hardware Sourcing department. "Negotiating appeals to me a lot and is now also one of my core competencies."
In the era of Schröder's "Agenda 2010", he was allowed to work for IBM on the project "Location marketing in the area of e-business". What can a municipality offer here? What tools and online platforms should a municipality make available? At that time, IBM was able to "profit with many orders from the public sector" during the Internet hype. When the bubble burst, Augenstein's department was dissolved.
An opportunity to further contribute his knowledge finally presented itself at Mediacom. "I now do similar work - but now for companies instead of municipalities." Augenstein was assigned to the Coke team at Mediacom Düsseldorf as a media planner for interaction. For the future, however, he was already destined to spend a year here training for his current job in Switzerland.
Andreas Panzeri
A few hours before our interview, an annually recurring ritual took place at Mediacom. "The project is called "If I ran the company. In all 111 Mediacom offices in 87 countries, a contest is held at exactly the same time: "What would I do if I could run Mediacom myself?" Each employee has two minutes to present his or her ideas. The management awards a prize to the best suggestion. Sensible ideas are implemented wherever possible. In addition, the winners from all over the world also take part in the international final. There, the best suggestion will definitely be put into practice. And rewarded with an appropriate prize.
Purchasing power - and innovation
Today, having ideas is the sought-after competence at Mediacom. The recipe for success is strategy. The foundation for this continues to be concentrated purchasing power. In Switzerland, Europe's leading TV buyer has been able to secure the best conditions for its customers such as Procter & Gamble, IKEA, BAT, Mars, Coca-Cola, Bayer Healthcare, Nokia and Mediamarkt.
guarantee.
That was also one of the reasons why Mediacom came to Zurich around twenty years ago. At the time, its major customer Procter & Gamble wanted to have more influence on media purchasing directly on site. As more international customers arrived, they soon also wanted to know: "Do the Swiss tick differently than Germans?"
So slowly the strategy has been established. The office has grown. Initially, however, Mediacom's only policy in Zurich was to be able to serve primarily international network customers directly on site here. In the meantime, the business model has changed. Mediacom is also aggressively pitching for national customers in Switzerland.
The first players have already been acquired with Amag and Bongrain. Externally, the growth is reflected in the move from small premises on Bellerivestrasse to a trendy loft near Hardbrücke. Here Mediacom has invested a lot of resources and manpower. The number of employees has grown to 45. Most of them are no longer buyers, but strategists. "What's the point if you're great at buying, but ultimately haven't understood the customer's goal?" says Augenstein. In TV, for example, Mediacom has pushed hard for the introduction of PIN data, or "person-specific usage data," in the Swiss market and plays a supporting role in the selection process. The special unit Interaction is also dependent on more data as a basis for planning. For this reason, Augenstein is helping to establish the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) in the research department, among other things. There, he will soon orchestrate a major research campaign designed to provide arguments and insights for advertising on the Swiss Internet.
Channel planning in digital media
"People First" - behind the slogan, we can increasingly see a human being defined as precisely as possible on the customer side as well, instead of simply an anonymous mass. "In strict compliance with all data protection regulations, of course," adds Augenstein. The best opportunities for such targeted advertising within a cross-media strategy are offered more and more every day in digital media. Since 2007, Mediacom has been building up these competencies in Zurich with its own department. Philipp Augenstein has been Head of Interaction from the very beginning. In just over a year, his department has grown to four people. The company is already on the lookout for further specialists.
Augenstein sees a great need for his consulting services because the potential for online advertising in Switzerland is still being exploited much less than would actually correspond to the high level of technical development and dissemination. He cites dynamic in-game advertising as just one example. In Germany, Mediacom used this new medium for Coca-Cola as early as 2005. In Switzerland, Augenstein only followed suit in 2007 - but still as a Swiss premiere - and together with Goldbach also delivered the first quality research. Since then, other clients such as Nokia, Mars and Universal Pictures have already occupied virtual advertising space in top games such as Need for Speed, FIFA Soccer or Tony Hawk's Skateboarding.
Channel planning within digital media: For the Head of Interaction at Mediacom, this is a decisive advantage over many competitors. How do you reach a manager like a 16-year-old teen? "One person's Blackberry is another person's Wii." Says Augenstein.
What has long been cultivated in print down to the finest detail with completely different publications, is still simply called Internet and banner advertising for many superficial media planners in digital media. Contact management is a foreign word for many. Augenstein wants to change that. So, for example, does payment for advertising on the Internet. Hybrid models should be on offer, as they are already established in England and Germany. In concrete terms, a certain package of ads is agreed with a marketer, but above a certain limit, only the sales actually generated via the Internet are paid for. Anyone who thinks and acts in this way must obviously have a creative as well as a commercial soul in addition to their technical skills.
Early interest in IT
Philipp Augenstein took his first steps in advertising as a child. He practically grew up in an advertising agency. His father owned a full-service agency with 20 employees near Karlsruhe. His mother, a trained goldsmith and design graduate, was responsible for graphics in the "family business.
"Even though we didn't work for the world's leading brands, but for the local master painter: The basic mechanisms were the same," Philipp recalls of his early impressions of the industry. During non-school hours, his favorite toy was the agency's first computer. At 13, he could already "help the adults operate the thing." Following his grandfather's advice, he later studied business informatics. When he started his career at IBM, he was able to learn purchasing at the highest level in the Hardware Sourcing department. "Negotiating appeals to me a lot and is now also one of my core competencies."
In the era of Schröder's "Agenda 2010", he was allowed to work for IBM on the project "Location marketing in the area of e-business". What can a municipality offer here? What tools and online platforms should a municipality make available? At that time, IBM was able to "profit with many orders from the public sector" during the Internet hype. When the bubble burst, Augenstein's department was dissolved.
An opportunity to further contribute his knowledge finally presented itself at Mediacom. "I now do similar work - but now for companies instead of municipalities." Augenstein was assigned to the Coke team at Mediacom Düsseldorf as a media planner for interaction. For the future, however, he was already destined to spend a year here training for his current job in Switzerland.
Andreas Panzeri
Augenstein realized in-game advertising for Coca-Cola as a Swiss premiere.
