"Healthy" shrunken industry

The poor 2002 was followed by an even more difficult business year for the advertising industry in 2003, and although network agencies are now strictly prohibited from publishing business figures, industry experts estimate the renewed decline in total gross operating income (GOP) at 10 to 15 percent. The number of employees has also shrunk to a similar extent. Edgar C. Britschgi, CEO of the Advico-Young & Rubicam Group Switzerland, is confident that the industry has now bottomed out. With regard to the acquisition situation, however, he predicts that the curve will remain flat. There are a few lucky exceptions that have been able to keep their headcount stable, such as Contexta, Jung von Matt and Euro RSCG. But the majority have had to make significant cuts. The general tenor is that times will never be the same as they once were, which the Wallisell agency FCB Leutenegger Krüll exaggerated and self-deprecatingly used for a self-advertising motif. Still the eleventh-largest BSW agency in 2002, they, like most of their colleagues in the industry, ate hard bread last year. "Mergers and the resulting loss of two global clients should not simply be concealed," says Peter Leutenegger, CEO of FCB Leutenegger Krüll. "No one believes our eternal fair-weather talk anyway, so we're standing by the fact that we've become a little smaller." FCB Leutenegger Krüll's offensive: no "fair-weather talk".
(la)