Positive business development despite difficult environment

Y&R Group Switzerland can look back on a very pleasing year: the Zurich-based agency won various important mandates in 2016 and was able to further expand its digital business under the Futurecom competence brand. Y&R Group Switzerland is correspondingly confident about business development in 2017.

"The economic environment remains difficult: the media crisis, the strength of the Swiss franc and the upheavals caused by digitalization present all market participants with challenges every day. Our expectations for 2016 were correspondingly cautious - and fortunately, we significantly exceeded these expectations." Andreas Widmer, CEO of Y&R Group Switzerland, sees two main reasons for this positive development: "Firstly, we benefit from our digital expertise - from e-campaigns and e-business platforms to performance marketing and programmatic advertising, we can cover the entire spectrum in-house. And secondly, we are increasingly working according to the co-creation principle, and this methodology is winning over more and more customers."

PostFinance is a major new addition to the client portfolio. Y&R Group Switzerland is now the lead agency for both brand and performance communication for the leading Swiss financial services provider in the area of payment transactions and digital banking.

The agency was able to demonstrate its expertise in modern campaigning in four areas for Migros. The major taste initiative for the entire fresh produce range has already been launched. With star director Dani Levy, the agency realized a Mannequin Challenge in a commercial for the first time in Switzerland.

In addition to further mandate wins for Generali Versicherung and SBB, Coty, the world's largest perfume and cosmetics group, is now also one of the agency's clients. The focus here is on complex e-commerce solutions in the B2C and B2B sectors. Among other things, Coty also uses the "easyPush" sales solution developed by Futurecom, which enables sales representatives to present offers and take orders on a tablet in a completely digitalized way.

In general, the e-business and performance marketing business areas were the growth drivers last year. Futurecom implemented the first Magento 2 online store in Switzerland for Helly Hansen Workwear Center. With "Event Lounge", a global solution for event management was implemented for various customers. And the company's expertise in the field of search engine marketing was impressively documented by its status as a Google Premier Partner.

"2017 will not be an easy year for our industry either," Andreas Widmer is convinced. "But with its focus on strategically relevant marketing solutions and digital transformation, Y&R Group Switzerland is well equipped for the current challenges in the media and communications market. In this respect, we also expect a positive development in 2017."