LSA introduces Leading Quality Audit quality label
One of Leading Swiss Agencies’ core missions is to strengthen the leadership and quality standards of its member agencies in the market. As part of its annual general meeting, the association is therefore launching the Leading Quality Audit (LQA), a quality label for the communications industry.
The communications market is becoming increasingly broad, agency business models are becoming more heterogeneous, and new players are entering the market, positioning themselves as communications agencies. At the same time, the customer, job and opinion market is looking for orientation, credibility and qualified partners. With the LQA, the LSA wants to provide guidance in this regard, as LSA President Beat Krebs explains. Being an LSA member is a seal of quality that guarantees clients competence and professionalism. For this reason, the LSA tests member agencies for their Leading Qualities through a revised, multi-stage admission process - with the ambition of creating a proof of quality for the industry. The association of Switzerland's leading communications agencies made the announcement at its general meeting, which was broadcast from KOSMOS in Zurich.
The new concept provides for external experts to be consulted for the quality assessment of two examples of work. These must not be older than four years and should reflect the agency's core competencies as well as possible. The cases are judged according to their effectiveness and efficiency, which they have demonstrably achieved in the market. Both the content strengths of the work and the process management of the cases are discussed with the agencies. Furthermore, the results from the areas of corporate development and planning, financial system, personnel management and commitment to the industry are included in the independent evaluation.
The goal is quality assurance and improvement and thus continuous further development as an LSA agency. In addition, this new "Leading Quality Audit" is intended to give clients the assurance that their money is well invested when selecting an LSA agency and to strengthen the importance of membership in the LSA.
LSA conducts CMS certification in Switzerland
Another component open to LSA agencies is certification with the internationally recognized Consultancy Management Standard (CMS). The agencies of the PR agency association BPRA, which merged with LSA last year, are already CMS-certified. The process-oriented certificate attests to the agencies' compliance with the highest professional, economic and ethical standards.
In the meantime, the third version of the standard (CMS III) already exists. This is available exclusively to the member associations of the international umbrella organization ICCO. In Switzerland, this is the Leading Swiss Agencies association, which manages the certification.
Presence in Western Switzerland
Through its merger with the Federation of Public Relations Agencies of Switzerland BPRA last summer, the LSA has welcomed numerous communication agencies from French-speaking Switzerland. The association aims to further strengthen its presence in French-speaking Switzerland and support the needs of its member agencies.
For this reason, the LSA opened an office in April 2021, which will be managed by Charlène Guillaume. She is to establish the new LSA representation in Western Switzerland and help position the association and its members in the market as well as offer association services for the region and acquire new members.
Focus on the next generation
In order for the industry to survive in the competition for talent, the LSA is working on various initiatives and projects to make the variety of jobs in the communications industry visible to young talent and career changers, and to make working in a communications agency a tangible experience. With the first dialog platform for young and young-at-heart employees from LSA agencies (Young LSA), the LSA wants to integrate the concerns of young talent more strongly into the association, promote exchange, and give the next generation of agencies the opportunity to have a say and actively help shape the association's offerings.
Finally, new formats such as the Junior Agency Award were created in collaboration with universities. Students create a campaign for a real client during a semester. They are supervised by experienced LSA agency coaches and thus learn directly from the practical example how to work with customer requirements, creativity and budget.
Unchanged Executive Board
The LSA Board, composed of nine members, remains unchanged this year. Beat Krebs (President), Andreas Hugi (Vice President), Mark Burow, Petra Dreyfus, Pam Hügli, Matthias Koller, David Schärer, Walter Stulzer and Tobias Zehnder are responsible for the management of Leading Swiss Agencies.
