Walker is newcomer of the year
Agencies In the competition for the Advertising Yearbook, the Zurich-based advertising agency Walker was named «Newcomer Agency of the Year 2006» for Switzerland and Austria.
Agencies In the competition for the Advertising Yearbook, the Zurich-based Walker advertising agency was voted "Newcomer Agency of the Year 2006" for Switzerland and Austria.Every year, Econ Verlag awards prizes to the best advertising campaigns from Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the Advertising Yearbook competition and selects the Newcomer Agency of the Year. For 40 years, the Jahrbuch der Werbung has been the standard work for special industry-specific advertising from German-speaking countries. The awards ceremony and book presentation will take place this year on March 1 in Berlin. As Newcomer of the Year, after KSSJ and SFLB in recent years, Walker is once again an agency from Zurich that has won the award in the Switzerland-Austria region. Newcomer agency for Germany becomes Con Carne, Cologne. Walker, who in these days also reached place 2 as advertiser of the year, became thereby in only four years somehow the "Walker of Fame". Started to walk on the famous boulevard of stars has "the smallest advertising agency in the world" with a budget for the toilet duck. The big noise about the quiet little toilet could not remain without effect. In two years, the campaign for the WC duck has turned the demographically weakest target group into the strongest one within the clientele. The young and out-migrating consumers have come back. Sales for the duck grew by double digits.
Pius Walker's agency won several awards with its campaigns for other Düring products at the New York Festival, at the Klappe in Germany and at ADC Germany and Switzerland, and also represented Switzerland at Cannes in 2005 with a place on the film shortlist.
"We like to work for customers who want to be among the very best. Customers who know that their brand is unique and therefore must not be advertised with standard solutions", is thus more than just well-worded self-promotion in Walker's philosophy.
This also convinced Hans Beer in the summer of 2005. He switched from the customer side to Walker and has since been selling their advertising instead of consumer products. In addition to simple consumer products such as the WC duck, Walker's tasks have now also included flowers for Fleurop, mineral water from Passugger and human rights with Amnesty International. The agency, which is still small, can therefore no longer be considered a niche agency.
Walker is not a standard agency: "We are unashamedly independent and ambitiously small," says Pius Walker. This also formulates the goal of "offering quality that can also hold its own internationally thanks to the small unit". Walker does not allow himself "a hydrocephalus. What he does have is a solid platform and a growing international network of some of the brightest minds in the industry, both at home and abroad.
Shortly after its founding, the "smallest agency in the world" was included in the top ten Swiss creative agencies in the creative ranking of Werbewoche in 2005. One year later, it is now already ranked 6th.
For Beer and Walker, it's strategy that must make a lasting impression on any campaign. "We've won most clients with a strategy presentation. That's crucial today; you have to be able to set the right course. Then a lot of opportunities for creative potential open up automatically."
This principle is reflected not only in the sales of Walker's clients, but also in the major international creative awards. For example, Walker's campaigns were recently awarded gold at Epica, at the New York Festivals, and at Eurotest.
But what sets Walker's campaigns apart from the usual advertising mainstream? "Walker serves the consumer a tender steak, but seared vigorously on both sides. And not in pureed form with a Röhrli to go with it," says Pius Walker. For Hans Beer, it's advertising that speaks to the target group at eye level. Perhaps that's why it's so sustainable.
When Pius Walker returned to Switzerland after ten years of professional wandering abroad, he wrote down a list of ten dream clients for his own agency. Products that he absolutely wanted to promote. "This list was our business plan. Pretty adventurous when you think back today." In the meantime, three of the ten dream clients are in the can.
Andreas Panzeri
Pius Walker's agency won several awards with its campaigns for other Düring products at the New York Festival, at the Klappe in Germany and at ADC Germany and Switzerland, and also represented Switzerland at Cannes in 2005 with a place on the film shortlist.
"We like to work for customers who want to be among the very best. Customers who know that their brand is unique and therefore must not be advertised with standard solutions", is thus more than just well-worded self-promotion in Walker's philosophy.
This also convinced Hans Beer in the summer of 2005. He switched from the customer side to Walker and has since been selling their advertising instead of consumer products. In addition to simple consumer products such as the WC duck, Walker's tasks have now also included flowers for Fleurop, mineral water from Passugger and human rights with Amnesty International. The agency, which is still small, can therefore no longer be considered a niche agency.
Walker is not a standard agency: "We are unashamedly independent and ambitiously small," says Pius Walker. This also formulates the goal of "offering quality that can also hold its own internationally thanks to the small unit". Walker does not allow himself "a hydrocephalus. What he does have is a solid platform and a growing international network of some of the brightest minds in the industry, both at home and abroad.
Shortly after its founding, the "smallest agency in the world" was included in the top ten Swiss creative agencies in the creative ranking of Werbewoche in 2005. One year later, it is now already ranked 6th.
For Beer and Walker, it's strategy that must make a lasting impression on any campaign. "We've won most clients with a strategy presentation. That's crucial today; you have to be able to set the right course. Then a lot of opportunities for creative potential open up automatically."
This principle is reflected not only in the sales of Walker's clients, but also in the major international creative awards. For example, Walker's campaigns were recently awarded gold at Epica, at the New York Festivals, and at Eurotest.
But what sets Walker's campaigns apart from the usual advertising mainstream? "Walker serves the consumer a tender steak, but seared vigorously on both sides. And not in pureed form with a Röhrli to go with it," says Pius Walker. For Hans Beer, it's advertising that speaks to the target group at eye level. Perhaps that's why it's so sustainable.
When Pius Walker returned to Switzerland after ten years of professional wandering abroad, he wrote down a list of ten dream clients for his own agency. Products that he absolutely wanted to promote. "This list was our business plan. Pretty adventurous when you think back today." In the meantime, three of the ten dream clients are in the can.
Andreas Panzeri
