The King of Coups with a Fickle Heart

Smack!

The sound echoes hollowly through the scorching heat of the southern Spanish desert. An 87-year-old Terence Hill, dressed in a dusty Western outfit, strides through the scene and lands a good old-fashioned slap on his opponent’s face. «The slap was real,» laughed Raphael Werner shortly after being named «CMO of the Year» in his winner’s interview with Anna Kohler and Beat Hürlimann. «Dennis from the production company had to suffer a bit—but after seven or eight takes, he was just laughing.»

What was once a whimsical anecdote that provided amusement on the set of «The Socceritos» in Almería suddenly feels somehow real just a few days after the glamorous awards night at Zurich’s Schiffbau. Except this time, it’s not Dennis turning the other cheek—it’s the m&k editorial team.

For no sooner had the confetti settled and the celebratory print pages gone to press than Werner dropped the bombshell on the industry: He is leaving Denner effective immediately. And he didn’t announce this final bombshell at the very place where his portraits had been edited beforehand and his tears on stage had been celebrated by the press—but exclusively in an interview with persoenlich.com. Ouch. It almost made you wish Bud Spencer had been the one to deliver the final blow—at least he would have made short work of it.

Tears on Stage, Farewells Ahead

Flashback: On August 20, 2026, the Swiss marketing elite was in an uproar at LaSalle. As his longtime companion Reto Ruch delivered the emotional eulogy and looked back on nearly two decades of shared triumphs, setbacks, and crazy ideas, Werner’s eyes glistened suspiciously. When was the last time he’d cried out of emotion? «Probably at my own wedding 14 years ago,» a visibly moved Werner admitted in an interview with m&k.

It was the emotional epicenter of an evening that felt like the culmination of an unprecedented transformation in the discount retail sector. The fact that Werner may have already been mentally packing his bags at that point lends the evening a somewhat ironic twist in hindsight. In an interview with personal.com He attributes the move to perfect timing: Winning the trophy marked a personal highlight for him at Denner—the award is «a wonderful conclusion and, at the same time, the start of a new chapter in his life.» Where will the journey take him? That remains to be seen. Were political reasons a factor? «No,» Werner insists. It’s simply the right moment to devote himself to new professional challenges.

The Master of the Calculated Move

Werner had only joined Denner in September 2024. The fact that, after just under two years at the helm of the large «Customer» division—where he oversaw marketing, promotions, digital business, and customer insights—he won Switzerland’s most prestigious marketing award borders on a feat.

For over 16 years prior to that, he had shaped Lidl’s market expansion in Switzerland and Belgium. When he started as a graphic designer in 2007, the company’s image was at rock bottom: a German discount giant with no friends in the Swiss market. Werner rolled up his sleeves. He came up with the legendary «heart with the Swiss cross,» brought Swiss wrestling champion Chrigu Stucki in front of the camera, and, together with the Hunziker family, created a show that held up a mirror to the Swiss people—with humor, self-deprecating wit, and on an equal footing.

When he finally moved to Denner, he pulled off what was arguably the most audacious stunt in recent Swiss advertising history in 2025: the «Lidl Heart Heist.» In a viral clip, he had a fictional Denner employee simply steal the Swiss heart right out of his former employer’s logo. It was a witty parody of the fact that Denner had previously poached several executives from Lidl—but above all, it was a masterstroke: The CMO with the stolen heart simply reclaimed the symbol he had once helped create himself, breathing even more emotional “Swissness” into Denner in one fell swoop.

Hockey Luck, Western Heroes, and the Personnel Carousel

A series of major announcements followed at monthly intervals: «Lifetime free shopping» as a groundbreaking promotional offer, the company’s debut as the main sponsor of the Swiss national ice hockey team (with a lead of over 20 percentage points as the top-of-mind brand), and finally the 16-minute blockbuster «The Socceritos» featuring Terence Hill and national team captain Granit Xhaka.

Werner proved that modern retail marketing doesn’t work through boring discount flyers, but through cultural relevance, pace, and the courage to dare the impossible. «I have to be careful not to move too fast,» he had said in an m&k interview about his leadership style. Now it seems he has moved too fast even for his employer.

His departure is not an isolated incident, but fits seamlessly into a broader cycle of personnel changes at the top of Denner, as personal.com In his article, he summarizes: According to the report, CEO Torsten Friedrich stepped down from the Migros subsidiary at the end of April—after just over a year—due to strategic differences; in June, Chief Sales Officer Christian Staub announced his departure; and Chief Procurement Officer Sascha Göbels had already left the company by 2025.

In the spirit of sportsmanship: See you at the next fight, Raphael!

The fact that Werner is now announcing his departure exclusively through a rival media outlet fits the image of a man who has mastered the rules of PR—and is always good for an unexpected twist. At m&k Let’s take that cinematic “quail slap” in stride: If you dish it out, you’ve got to be able to take it, and the Swiss advertising scene thrives on exactly these kinds of characters and showdowns. Raphael Werner is leaving Denner at the absolute peak of his career. And while the editorial team’s cheeks are slowly cooling off from that Terence Hill-style slap, we’re already looking forward to the next rounds in the ring. In any case, the offer stands, dear Raphael: But please, do announce your next big career move exclusively at m&k. The next big move by the «CMO of the Year» is surely already in the bag.