Christian Baertschi takes over management of Cherrypicker in Switzerland

Cherrypicker, the leading independent consultancy for strategic agency management, is strengthening its team with Christian Baertschi as an international partner. He will be responsible for supporting companies in and from Switzerland and will contribute his extensive national and international experience in the agency business.

With the opening of a Swiss representative office in Zurich, Cherrypicker continues its ongoing expansion and underlines its claim to empower companies for impact-oriented marketing. The aim is to support companies in developing even more successful marketing together with its agency partners. A Swiss location can also respond even better to the special needs of this market.

Oliver Klein, founder and owner of Cherrypicker: "We have been increasingly working for international companies for years. On the corporate side, we are experiencing the need to adapt marketing processes and working methods to today's requirements. With Christian, we now have an excellently qualified partner on board who knows the Swiss agency business like no other and also has valuable international experience on the agency side. We would like to offer this knowledge to our clients both in Switzerland and beyond as part of our integrated offering."

Cherrypicker was founded in 2001 by Oliver Klein and under his leadership has developed into one of the most renowned agency selection and management consultancies in Europe. Unlike traditional management and marketing consultancies, the consultancy focuses exclusively on improving strategic and operational cooperation between companies and their agencies. To this end, Klein and his team offer strategic analysis and target definition for a sustainable marketing ecosystem, the development of an agency model that suits the company, the selection of the best agencies and implementation partners through to remuneration and contract models. This specialized approach has made Cherrypicker the first port of call for companies that want to stand out from the competition in terms of the quality of their marketing and communications work. With over 60 selection processes per year, cherrypicker is by far the leading pitch consultant in the agency world.

With Christian Baertschi, Cherrypicker is now gaining a partner who knows both the Swiss marketing communications market and the international agency market inside out. After working for Advico Young & Rubicam and Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett, he set up his own agency, which he later integrated into the international Serviceplan Group. Within a few years, he expanded Serviceplan's Swiss office to 140 employees and CHF 18 million in fee income and established an integrated agency model in the Swiss market that bundles the relevant communication disciplines (advertising, content, PR, media, digital) in the House of Communication. Under his leadership, numerous Swiss companies and brands were supported in the successful implementation of their marketing and communication strategies. For example, he was responsible for the international development of the coffee business for Migros, the global repositioning of industrial icon ABB and its entry as the global title sponsor of the FIA Formula E racing series - two mandates that were awarded Euro Effies for their commercial success. In 2020, Christian Baertschi left the agency business and sold his shares to the international Serviceplan Group. Since then, he has worked as an independent entrepreneur and strategy and communications consultant.