JvM leads media research ranking again

The agency rating for advertising agencies, which is carried out at the same time as the agency rating for media agencies as part of the advertising market study, is based exclusively on the opinions of advertising clients. The top 750 advertising clients are invited to take part in the study. The rating includes questions that are open to all respondents ("How well do you know the following advertising agencies?", "What is your overall impression of these agencies?" and "Which advertising agencies would you recommend to a colleague?"). In addition, there are questions on which only respondents who have received services from the agency being assessed in the past year can comment. The first questions give an indication of the agencies' potential in the advertising market, while the second questions show how satisfied clients are with their advertising agency. According to author Walter Weder, the combination of these two types of question should provide a fairly good picture of how well the individual agencies are positioned.

For image (overall impression) and the three services (creativity, strategy and consulting), the ratings are determined using a ten-point scale, while awareness and recommendations are determined using a four-point scale. The statements made on the four-point scale can also be easily mapped on the ten-point scale. The respondents were mainly traditional advertising agencies, but also individual digital agencies

The agencies in places 1 to 6 are very close together. Only a tenth of a point separates them. A larger gap only opens up between them and the agency ranked seventh. Jung von Matt, long-time serial winner of the rating, has returned after a one-year hiatus.

Jung von Matt made strong gains in strategy (+0.4) and consulting (+0.52) and slight gains in awareness (+0.15). The score for the other three criteria fell slightly. Wirz, on the other hand, lost 0.4 points in both initial recommendations and creativity. In Rod Communication, the score sheet has hardly changed compared to the previous year. All in all, this results in an increase of 0.12 points. This is enough to draw level with the Wirz agency, which fell slightly behind, and take second place together with it.

Awareness, recommendation and image (overall impression)

According to Media Research, Jung von Matt is the best-known advertising agency in the Swiss advertising market. 121 of the 359 clients who answered the agency rating questions "know what this agency stands for". This is 8 more than in the previous year, but not quite as many as in 2013 (124). Wirz, which was on a par with Jung von Matt in terms of awareness a year ago, has now fallen back to the level of the year before last (105). Two others, Leo Burnett and Publicis, still have 82 and 80 clients respectively who "know what this agency stands for". However, both have seen a steady decline in awareness over the last three years.

Jung von Matt is also most frequently recommended by clients to a colleague (37). They are followed by Rod Kommunikation, who are the second most recommended (out of 31 clients) and Ruf Lanz, who are the third most recommended (out of 28).

The top five agencies are quite close in terms of image (overall impression), which can be assessed by all clients. Rod Kommunikation is slightly ahead, receiving an average score of 8.31 from 103 clients. Jung von Matt follows in second place with an 8.17 (out of 169 assessments). Ruf Lanz is in third place with 8.06 (with 108 ratings). Wirz and Leo Burnett also receive a score above 8.0. With the exception of Wirz, each of these top-rated agencies suffers a slight drop.

Very satisfied with the services of its own advertising agency

241 clients assessed the performance of their advertising agency. At 8.17, the average score for creativity, strategy and consulting is no longer quite as high as last year (8.21), when the highest score since the agency rating began in 2003 was measured, but is still significantly higher than in 2013 (8.10). Agency clients' satisfaction with their advertising agencies therefore remains very high.

At the Creativity has Call Lanz has established herself at a very high level over the past three years. In 2013, it received a 9.50 from its clients, last year it improved to 9.62 and now it has a 9.46, leaving all others far behind. The House Agency, which was surveyed for the first time, came in second place with 8.85, just ahead of Leo Burnett in third place with 8.82 and Rod Kommunikation in fourth place with 8.81.

At the Strategy last year's best in class was dethroned. The agency, which was surveyed for the first time Serviceplan wins out over the established agencies with a score of 9.11. Wirz remains the second-best agency with a score of 8.79. Rod Kommunikation dropped from first to third place, but only achieved a slightly worse result of 8.75.

At the Consulting all podium places go to "newcomer agencies". At the top with a very high 9.62 points is The House Agency. Serviceplan follows in second place with 9.22 and last year's winner Erdmannpeisker in third with a still very good 9.00.

Market potential and customer satisfaction

If we compare the three scores for the individual agencies, which express the market potential, with the scores for the three individual services, we can immediately see that the clients' scores for their agency's services are significantly higher than the market scores. Only at Jung von Matt is the market potential rated almost as highly as the individual services. All others receive significantly higher scores from their clients than from the market.

In 2015, 366 of the 750 advertising clients surveyed took part in the Advertising Market Study, the sponsor study of the Agency Rating Advertising Agencies. Of these, 359 answered the agency rating questions. 26 advertising agencies were surveyed. 24 were rated by at least 8 clients. The survey was conducted by the Media.Research.Group between mid-January and the end of February.

Further results can be found at Mediaresearchgroup.ch