The sporty
Sponsorship generates added value. Marc Santschi, Head of Sponsorship at Swiss Post, knows how this works.
He has a dream job: distributing money - and making himself popular. "Do good and talk about it," is a maxim of sponsorship. But in a state-owned enterprise that is being squeezed by private competition and other developments at all corners and post offices, money is not distributed to bluff. Sponsorship is a tool that is constantly gaining importance in marketing. Out of a total communications budget for the Group of 115 million Swiss francs, around 16 percent currently goes to sponsorship at Swiss Post. With additional donations, such as for the Museum of Communication in Berne, the amount rises to over 20 million. A total of around 11 people work in sponsorship and hospitality at the Group with its subsidiaries PostFinance and PostBus. Of these, 4.5 work in Marc Santschi's team to manage the umbrella brand. Their successes have already given Switzerland many happy hours. But their work also pays off profitably for Swiss Post's advertising.
The Head of Sponsoring, who has been in charge for seven years, studied business administration at the University of Bern, specializing in marketing. His master's thesis on "The Influencing Factors of the Weather on the Swiss Sports Trade" already revealed his professional interests at that time: sports and its marketing. Marc Santschi played handball himself - up to National League B level - and worked for the Bernese newspaper with reports ranging from soccer to ice hockey to cross-country skiing. When, at the age of 23, he wanted to concentrate more on his studies, he switched from the playing field to the board of his handball club. Santschi helped establish Wacker Thun in the National League A and during this time was also responsible for the correspondingly more demanding activities in marketing and communications for the club. He found his first full-time job in 1993 as a consultant at a PR agency. Professional sponsoring tasks awaited Dr. Bischof for the first time with a mandate for the Federal Shooting Festival in Thun and later the Music Festival in Interlaken.
With the supervision of these major events, Marc Santschi had finally found his calling. With the experience he had gained, he was able to take on a newly created position as Head of Marketing and Communications at the National League of the Swiss Football Association. For three years until 2000, he was allowed to build up the new discipline in this independent department of the football association. Specifically, during this time Santschi introduced the revolving boards in the stadiums. For the newly launched soccer broadcasts in the Swiss window of Sat.1, he had to conduct the negotiations around all advertising rights with a wide variety of parties, as well as prepare the setup of the infrastructure in the stadiums. A third innovation was the overarching marketing of the entire league. This development work ultimately made it possible to kick off the Axpo Super League. This also professionalized sports sponsorship on a broad front in Switzerland.
Swiss Post's sponsorship builds on all three pillars - culture, sports and social
Even before that goal was sunk, however, Santschi wanted to move to a new team because he had to press the bench a bit too often with his marketing at the association. "The marketing was only expanded at a slow pace." The media man and manager saw more opportunities to play at the Swiss Dispatch Agency. As managing director, Santschi was in charge of setting up and later merging SDA AFX, a business news subsidiary, with its competitor AWP Finanznachrichten.
Shortly before Christmas 2003, he received his best package from the post office in the form of a job offer. A new concept for sponsoring had been put together at the yellow giant. And Marc Santschi was to put the ideas into practice in the future as the new Head of Sponsoring.
He is now in his seventh year on the management floor at Schönburg in Berne - and it hasn't been a "darned seventh year. "The importance of sponsorship within Swiss Post is recognized by employees and the impact is perceived as very positive. We are also very satisfied with the external feedback," says San¬tschi, who is responsible for sponsoring the umbrella brand and thus the actual postal units. The PostFinance subsidiary has its own sponsorship department and is primarily involved in ice hockey and open air events.
Swiss Post would like to become an even stronger sponsor at the Locarno Film Festival in the future
Sports, culture and social issues are the pillars of sponsorship at the umbrella brand, Swiss Post. When it comes to social commitments, "2× Christmas" has been a fine tradition for 14 years. At all post offices, "superfluous" Christmas gifts or other material donations can be handed in. These are then distributed in poorer areas in cooperation with the Red Cross and the SDC. More than 70,000 "Päckli" have been collected this year thanks to targeted promotion by SRG. Marc Santschi is pleased to be able to accompany the distribution in Belarus for the first time with a delegation directly in Minsk in mid-May. Gifts will also be given to victims of Chernobyl who are still suffering.
"Do good and talk about it" is the motto of successful sponsoring. This concept has never before been so openly demonstrated in the "Every cent counts" campaign. Swiss Post, as a long-standing partner of Swiss Solidarity, collected donations in public on the square in front of the Federal Palace, with live coverage by all SRG media. "Social commitments usually have a hard time showing and staging the sponsors. In such projects, SRG is not only a grateful media partner, but also a strong driver and multiplier at the same time," Santschi is pleased with the success. However, he is also aware that not all aid organizations can make such a big impact or collect so much money.
Since 2004, Swiss Post has been a partner of Swiss Runners, the umbrella organization for Switzerland's 26 largest and most beautiful runs. In addition, it has supported the Swiss running elite since 2005 by organizing the Post Cup. For further external promotional impact, Swiss Post has set up its own running team with Switzerland's elites. They are also to act as ambassadors for running to inspire young people. "At first glance, the commitment to running is not sexy in terms of external impact," Santschi says. Nevertheless, this sport fits the image perfectly. With its commitment, Swiss Post wants to motivate the Swiss population, but also its own employees, to be physically active. "People who run have a better chance of making ends meet," is the philosophy. As an internal sponsorship, all Swiss Post employees can run in all competitions free of charge. T-shirts and other props are given out for this purpose. Santschi sees another advantage of this commitment in the "low attack surface". A Formula 1 sponsorship would hardly be accepted by the media and the owner of a state-owned company. A New Year's Eve race in Zurich or the Bern Grand Prix, however, enjoy sympathy at all levels. These events are also supported by self-financed content, from text to images and video. The TV footage, realized by the TPC, has meanwhile found a permanent place on the private channel Schweizer Sportfernsehen under the title "Swiss Runners Magazin".
Swiss Post generates even more publicity with its commitment to film. Swiss Post is heavily involved in the four most important Swiss festivals: the Solothurn Film Festival, Visions du Réel in Nyon, the Zurich Film Festival and the Locarno International Film Festival. Santschi has had different experiences with the various organizers. In Solothurn, he sometimes misses the will to accept an experienced sponsor as a competent partner. "There, the art is weighted more heavily in the organization than professional marketing," Santschi regrets. But this is a fundamental problem with many cultural events: "The staging of the sponsors leaves a lot to be desired. This is in complete contrast to sports." To be sure, Santschi doesn't expect things to be as loud and shrill in culture as they are in sports. "But a sponsor wants to be seen. Culture would also offer quite adequate platforms for this." After all, the considerable money that Swiss Post invests here must remain clearly accountable and therefore measurable in an operation with a public mandate.
The Zurich Film Festival has proved to be the ideal venue in this area. Swiss Post has been involved in this up-and-coming cultural event since 2008. "Here, sponsors are staged and integrated in a professional manner." Swiss Post's assessment of its presence in Locarno is also differentiated. In Ticino, UBS as the main sponsor "occasionally has a hard time" with Swiss Post as a co-sponsor and competitor - even though PostFinance is not the sender. Regardless, the Gel¬ben would like to take its involvement in the Locarno Film Festival up a notch. "We would like to upgrade - from co-sponsor to main sponsor - and could thereby significantly strengthen our visibility," reveals Marc Santschi. On the Locarno screen, after the thrilling financial thriller of recent years, that would probably be the best happy ending for many.
Andreas Panzeri
The Head of Sponsoring, who has been in charge for seven years, studied business administration at the University of Bern, specializing in marketing. His master's thesis on "The Influencing Factors of the Weather on the Swiss Sports Trade" already revealed his professional interests at that time: sports and its marketing. Marc Santschi played handball himself - up to National League B level - and worked for the Bernese newspaper with reports ranging from soccer to ice hockey to cross-country skiing. When, at the age of 23, he wanted to concentrate more on his studies, he switched from the playing field to the board of his handball club. Santschi helped establish Wacker Thun in the National League A and during this time was also responsible for the correspondingly more demanding activities in marketing and communications for the club. He found his first full-time job in 1993 as a consultant at a PR agency. Professional sponsoring tasks awaited Dr. Bischof for the first time with a mandate for the Federal Shooting Festival in Thun and later the Music Festival in Interlaken.
With the supervision of these major events, Marc Santschi had finally found his calling. With the experience he had gained, he was able to take on a newly created position as Head of Marketing and Communications at the National League of the Swiss Football Association. For three years until 2000, he was allowed to build up the new discipline in this independent department of the football association. Specifically, during this time Santschi introduced the revolving boards in the stadiums. For the newly launched soccer broadcasts in the Swiss window of Sat.1, he had to conduct the negotiations around all advertising rights with a wide variety of parties, as well as prepare the setup of the infrastructure in the stadiums. A third innovation was the overarching marketing of the entire league. This development work ultimately made it possible to kick off the Axpo Super League. This also professionalized sports sponsorship on a broad front in Switzerland.
Swiss Post's sponsorship builds on all three pillars - culture, sports and social
Even before that goal was sunk, however, Santschi wanted to move to a new team because he had to press the bench a bit too often with his marketing at the association. "The marketing was only expanded at a slow pace." The media man and manager saw more opportunities to play at the Swiss Dispatch Agency. As managing director, Santschi was in charge of setting up and later merging SDA AFX, a business news subsidiary, with its competitor AWP Finanznachrichten.
Shortly before Christmas 2003, he received his best package from the post office in the form of a job offer. A new concept for sponsoring had been put together at the yellow giant. And Marc Santschi was to put the ideas into practice in the future as the new Head of Sponsoring.
He is now in his seventh year on the management floor at Schönburg in Berne - and it hasn't been a "darned seventh year. "The importance of sponsorship within Swiss Post is recognized by employees and the impact is perceived as very positive. We are also very satisfied with the external feedback," says San¬tschi, who is responsible for sponsoring the umbrella brand and thus the actual postal units. The PostFinance subsidiary has its own sponsorship department and is primarily involved in ice hockey and open air events.
Swiss Post would like to become an even stronger sponsor at the Locarno Film Festival in the future
Sports, culture and social issues are the pillars of sponsorship at the umbrella brand, Swiss Post. When it comes to social commitments, "2× Christmas" has been a fine tradition for 14 years. At all post offices, "superfluous" Christmas gifts or other material donations can be handed in. These are then distributed in poorer areas in cooperation with the Red Cross and the SDC. More than 70,000 "Päckli" have been collected this year thanks to targeted promotion by SRG. Marc Santschi is pleased to be able to accompany the distribution in Belarus for the first time with a delegation directly in Minsk in mid-May. Gifts will also be given to victims of Chernobyl who are still suffering.
"Do good and talk about it" is the motto of successful sponsoring. This concept has never before been so openly demonstrated in the "Every cent counts" campaign. Swiss Post, as a long-standing partner of Swiss Solidarity, collected donations in public on the square in front of the Federal Palace, with live coverage by all SRG media. "Social commitments usually have a hard time showing and staging the sponsors. In such projects, SRG is not only a grateful media partner, but also a strong driver and multiplier at the same time," Santschi is pleased with the success. However, he is also aware that not all aid organizations can make such a big impact or collect so much money.
Since 2004, Swiss Post has been a partner of Swiss Runners, the umbrella organization for Switzerland's 26 largest and most beautiful runs. In addition, it has supported the Swiss running elite since 2005 by organizing the Post Cup. For further external promotional impact, Swiss Post has set up its own running team with Switzerland's elites. They are also to act as ambassadors for running to inspire young people. "At first glance, the commitment to running is not sexy in terms of external impact," Santschi says. Nevertheless, this sport fits the image perfectly. With its commitment, Swiss Post wants to motivate the Swiss population, but also its own employees, to be physically active. "People who run have a better chance of making ends meet," is the philosophy. As an internal sponsorship, all Swiss Post employees can run in all competitions free of charge. T-shirts and other props are given out for this purpose. Santschi sees another advantage of this commitment in the "low attack surface". A Formula 1 sponsorship would hardly be accepted by the media and the owner of a state-owned company. A New Year's Eve race in Zurich or the Bern Grand Prix, however, enjoy sympathy at all levels. These events are also supported by self-financed content, from text to images and video. The TV footage, realized by the TPC, has meanwhile found a permanent place on the private channel Schweizer Sportfernsehen under the title "Swiss Runners Magazin".
Swiss Post generates even more publicity with its commitment to film. Swiss Post is heavily involved in the four most important Swiss festivals: the Solothurn Film Festival, Visions du Réel in Nyon, the Zurich Film Festival and the Locarno International Film Festival. Santschi has had different experiences with the various organizers. In Solothurn, he sometimes misses the will to accept an experienced sponsor as a competent partner. "There, the art is weighted more heavily in the organization than professional marketing," Santschi regrets. But this is a fundamental problem with many cultural events: "The staging of the sponsors leaves a lot to be desired. This is in complete contrast to sports." To be sure, Santschi doesn't expect things to be as loud and shrill in culture as they are in sports. "But a sponsor wants to be seen. Culture would also offer quite adequate platforms for this." After all, the considerable money that Swiss Post invests here must remain clearly accountable and therefore measurable in an operation with a public mandate.
The Zurich Film Festival has proved to be the ideal venue in this area. Swiss Post has been involved in this up-and-coming cultural event since 2008. "Here, sponsors are staged and integrated in a professional manner." Swiss Post's assessment of its presence in Locarno is also differentiated. In Ticino, UBS as the main sponsor "occasionally has a hard time" with Swiss Post as a co-sponsor and competitor - even though PostFinance is not the sender. Regardless, the Gel¬ben would like to take its involvement in the Locarno Film Festival up a notch. "We would like to upgrade - from co-sponsor to main sponsor - and could thereby significantly strengthen our visibility," reveals Marc Santschi. On the Locarno screen, after the thrilling financial thriller of recent years, that would probably be the best happy ending for many.
Andreas Panzeri
