LSA and BPRA merge into one association

Happy about the merger: BPRA President Andreas Hugi and LSA President Beat Krebs (from left to right).

The merger is intended to enable Switzerland's leading communications agencies to join forces to defend their interests in a dynamic market environment.

In an increasingly complex and convergent communications world, disciplines are merging more and more. As a consequence, agencies and associations with different core competencies are moving closer together. The two associations of Swiss communications agencies, Leading Swiss Agencies LSA and the Association of Public Relations Agencies BPRA, want to take up these challenges together and proactively prepare for the future by joining forces.

With the merger, the BPRA members merge into the LSA. In the future, the LSA will thus unite the leading communications agencies in Switzerland with a wide range of disciplines and thus gain more visibility and relevance in the communications industry as well as in politics and administration.

For the newly elected LSA President Beat Krebs, who succeeds Michael Hählen, this is a positive development: "The merger allows us to represent the interests of the agency industry even better in the future. We also want to further develop the association together with the aim of jointly developing a quality label for communications agencies in order to establish a market-relevant industry standard for quality in communications agencies. In doing so, we can build on the BPRA's experience with CMS certification."

Another goal of the merger is to strengthen the presence in French-speaking Switzerland. The establishment of a "secrétariat romand" should lead to an increase in member agencies from French-speaking Switzerland in the medium term. The LSA will also expand its international network: The current representation of the BPRA in the International Communications Consultancy Organization ICCO will be continued.