The old Ironman
Heinz Baumann started his own business at 50 and wants to make a name for himself with 50plus marketing.
Former Ironman Heinz Baumann has set up his own business at 50 and wants to make a name for himself with 50plus marketing.ten minutes faster than last year
Heinz Baumann completed the Greifensee Run in the fall. It was the
best time of his life. And what applies to the half marathon seems to
a good omen in real life too. Baumann turned 50 this year.
And then he wanted to know once again.
"At some point, the moment came when I asked myself: should this go on until the end?
end of the working world go on like this or is there something else?"
Five years ago, he acquired the domain www.mediamarketing.ch
reserved. After his milestone birthday, he was certain: "If
still be self-employed, then now." After all, that also has its
wife, although the two daughters are only 12 and 14
and continue to live in a well-cared-for family.
In the wake of globalization, the time has come for independent media agencies
not rosy. But: "There is also a counter-trend and in a small
It is much easier to bring in quality in a single unit," Baumann is convinced.
As a mature young entrepreneur, he believes that small regional cells
become important again, "where you can bring in the personal much more and
can develop something close to the customer". In a global agency
often have to adopt strategies from abroad on a regional basis - which
can often only be adapted poorly and fairly, as Baumann
knows from more than 20 years of professional experience.
He began his career in 1971 with a commercial apprenticeship in a small
advertising agency in Zurich. He immersed himself in the subject with a first
Media job with Rudolf Farner. At 30, he became head of media at the
Advertising agency D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, Zurich. That was "a
good time, when employees were still regularly rewarded with nice goodies.
motivated me". Baumann was allowed to get a taste of Hamburg and later a
week in New York.
Times got a little tougher when the agency offered its customers
Effems has lost. Because 80 percent of sales were lost,
the Swiss branch was closed. Baumann was replaced by
Grendene & Lanz and worked there for almost five years as a
Media manager. "That was a very good time" with customers such as Ikea, Lancia
or Swiss family. The team was also interesting. "A fruitful
ground." Many later founded their own agencies, such as
Markus Ruf with Ruf Lanz, Hans Siegwart By Heart, Dani Meier Unikat, Nik
Hartmann Transformer or Christoph Wirthlin Pinx.
However, Baumann has gone traveling again for the time being, having
already dropped out for a whole year earlier to get more out of the
world in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia,
Hong Kong and Singapore.
Back in Switzerland, he joined Sulzer, Sutter. Here he supervised
As a media manager, he has worked for clients such as Rivella, PKZ and Bally international. As
the media department fell victim to a structural reorganization, he wanted to
He could not simply move to another office. In 1992, he moved to
and became assistant to Pepe Wyss at the Tages-Anzeiger, the
then Head of the Magazines and AVM division. When Michel
Favre became CEO, Wyss had to leave and Baumann followed him out of
Solidarity. He joined Jean Frey's balance sheet as Product Manager.
Now the father of two daughters, Baumann saw an advertisement for a job as a
Publishing Director at Pro Senectute Switzerland - and in a
80 percent workload. This appealed to him because it allowed him to devote more time to his daughters.
could devote himself to.
In five years at Pro Senectute, he was in charge of the book publishing house, the
publishing marketing for Zeitlupe for the first time "on a professional
basis", reader campaigns organized with trips and courses as well as
introduced advertiser marketing.
He was already interested in the topic of senior marketing here. Nevertheless
his time at Pro Senectute became a little too sedate. "The
Decision-making processes were quite long." At the same time, he saw that
Media very interesting during his eight years on the publishing side
has developed. New media agencies have emerged and media planning
finally seemed to be properly recognized in the communication process. "Is there
or have I been away too long?" was therefore the question.
With qualifications as an advertising assistant and publishing specialist as well as a
BSW media consultant diploma, Baumann has four very good offers
get. The agencies lacked exactly what he could offer,
namely "professional experience and social skills to lead other people.
to be able to". For one year he worked at Universal McCann for
Clients such as Credit Suisse and Coca-Cola. "Something completely more youthful
than at Pro Senectute," he smiles. Then he switched one last time
to the Advico media agency The Media Edge, which later merged with CIA
became. As Client Service Director, he worked for Migros, Kuoni and
Helvetic Tours. He later took over the
Daimler-Chrysler accounts and managed them for three years until he
has now become independent with HB mediamarketing.
"Of course, I couldn't take anything away from customers like that," explains
Baumann. So he started from scratch. His contacts in the industry
but would have held - and so he also works as a sought-after
Freelancers, for example with pitches for large media and
Advertising agencies.
Baumann sees 40 percent media as the ideal for his agency,
40 percent 50plus marketing and 20 percent publishing consultancy. He has
aware that the fan is still wide open. "It remains to be seen what
is most in demand."
Baumann can well imagine that it could one day be 50plus marketing.
introduce. "The population pyramid will soon be upside down. Incomprehensible,
how many are still from the advertising-relevant target group of 15 to 49
talk," he says, when 50-plus people have time and a lot of purchasing power.
has. "A major challenge for our company in
in many respects - but also a great opportunity," says Baumann
convinced.
Andreas Panzeri
