The link to the left-wing press
Kilian Gasser hopes to sell even more commercial ads for the WoZ and Work through his advertising sales and publishing consulting firm.
Kilian Gasser wants to sell even more commercial advertisements for the WoZ and also Work with his advertising acquisition & publishing consultancy.one director had the stump fall out of his mouth when he discovered the WoZ on the media plan for his image campaign. "I have to be able to live with that when I sell such titles," says Kilian Gasser. After three years with the collective of the left-wing WochenZeitung, the former Facts advertising manager set up his own Kilian Gasser Werbeakquisition & Verlagsberatung at the beginning of March. The publishing professional will continue to acquire advertisements independently for the WoZ and the new trade union newspaper Work. Gasser also plans to generate sponsorship money "for meaningful film productions" and generally offer his services "wherever a bridge is needed between non-profit institutions and the commercial marketing world".
As a self-employed person, he could have chosen more profitable products. "But there are no more interesting ones for positioning." For the young entrepreneur, who left the collective again, it is "one of the biggest challenges there is in the advertising sector" to create a commercially viable basis for titles that don't actually work commercially.
It was a change "to a completely different system" when Gasser "left" Facts for WoZ three years ago. "But you can only have good experiences if you have extreme experiences."
This attitude to life only matured in his professional life. Kilian Gasser grew up in a middle-class family in Altdorf. There wasn't much more to freak out about than the ice hockey games in nearby Ambri Piotta. So the man from Uri moved to Zurich 15 years ago and soon found himself "drawn to the glamorous world of the media". Market research at Media Focus, advertising salesman at the now defunct advertising magazine Idée à jour and finally four first years as an area representative at Facts were the stations. Then he was tempted to take a detour to an advertising agency. "But that wasn't my world." Another two years at Facts followed, this time as advertising manager.
During all this time, Gasser's work "increasingly became a qualitative concern". He developed a defensive stance "against pure commerce", and when he felt that he was increasingly feeling the influence of the stock market at Facts as well, "finally there was almost no choice but to switch to the WoZ".
Nevertheless, for him there is no classic left and right. "Economically, I've never been against the market, otherwise I wouldn't have joined the WoZ and tried to bring the newspaper closer to the market so that it could survive."
It was his motivation to be able to sell commercial ads for an avowedly left-wing paper. This not only required persuasion within the editorial team. It also took "very small steps" with customers. Nevertheless, in his three years at the Kollektiv, Gasser managed to increase advertising sales from 0 to CHF 1,500,000,000 per year.
It takes a lot of time to find media people with such a high level of understanding that they can recognize these "untapped target groups" at the WoZ and now also at Work. "After all, these people also consume."
Gasser also finds it a good argument that customers who advertise in such titles "are almost alone and therefore stand out". Nevertheless, the inhibition threshold is very high, and he notices "that very often only 08/15 principles and solutions are used in planning, because that is easier to justify".
He would like to offer this as an opportunity to show sympathy and achieve advertising impact at the same time. Often, however, the path to this leads directly via a politically minded customer rather than via the anonymous statistics of media agencies. Migros, Coop, Denner, Emmi, Swisscom, Swiss Post, Rivella and Bluewin have so far been won over by Gasser for the WoZ. "What's interesting is that everyone who joins helps to break down other people's inhibitions."
Selling advertisements for the new trade union newspaper Work was almost more difficult than for the WoZ. Although with the 100,000 Unia members, there are an estimated 200,000 readers of a very clearly defined target group. "There is almost no wastage."
Kilian Gasser is interested in getting to know different systems. It also became clear to him that he was not cut out for long-term involvement in a cooperative collective. "But it was a valuable experience."
He was the first not to be paid the standard wage. With a better salary than the editorial team, the WoZ was keen to employ an advertising professional who was urgently needed in the daily competition. However, Gasser himself abolished his privilege after six months.
Nor is it the money that motivated him to found the company. It was "a logical step", because in large companies "once you reach a certain hierarchy, you just have to please some people". Conversely, he does not believe that pure self-administration on the scale of the WoZ is still possible. In any case, he felt that his involvement in the collective was not enough
efficient. "You have to be able to set yourself apart, otherwise you run the risk of being a good-natured bird, doing too much and neglecting your actual job." With his own company, Gasser wants to "dedicate himself to the cause in a more concentrated and efficient way" - namely: helping to ensure that titles such as WoZ and Work can continue to exist.
Kilian Gasser: Building bridges between non-profit organizations and the commercial marketing world.
Andreas Panzeri
As a self-employed person, he could have chosen more profitable products. "But there are no more interesting ones for positioning." For the young entrepreneur, who left the collective again, it is "one of the biggest challenges there is in the advertising sector" to create a commercially viable basis for titles that don't actually work commercially.
It was a change "to a completely different system" when Gasser "left" Facts for WoZ three years ago. "But you can only have good experiences if you have extreme experiences."
This attitude to life only matured in his professional life. Kilian Gasser grew up in a middle-class family in Altdorf. There wasn't much more to freak out about than the ice hockey games in nearby Ambri Piotta. So the man from Uri moved to Zurich 15 years ago and soon found himself "drawn to the glamorous world of the media". Market research at Media Focus, advertising salesman at the now defunct advertising magazine Idée à jour and finally four first years as an area representative at Facts were the stations. Then he was tempted to take a detour to an advertising agency. "But that wasn't my world." Another two years at Facts followed, this time as advertising manager.
During all this time, Gasser's work "increasingly became a qualitative concern". He developed a defensive stance "against pure commerce", and when he felt that he was increasingly feeling the influence of the stock market at Facts as well, "finally there was almost no choice but to switch to the WoZ".
Nevertheless, for him there is no classic left and right. "Economically, I've never been against the market, otherwise I wouldn't have joined the WoZ and tried to bring the newspaper closer to the market so that it could survive."
It was his motivation to be able to sell commercial ads for an avowedly left-wing paper. This not only required persuasion within the editorial team. It also took "very small steps" with customers. Nevertheless, in his three years at the Kollektiv, Gasser managed to increase advertising sales from 0 to CHF 1,500,000,000 per year.
It takes a lot of time to find media people with such a high level of understanding that they can recognize these "untapped target groups" at the WoZ and now also at Work. "After all, these people also consume."
Gasser also finds it a good argument that customers who advertise in such titles "are almost alone and therefore stand out". Nevertheless, the inhibition threshold is very high, and he notices "that very often only 08/15 principles and solutions are used in planning, because that is easier to justify".
He would like to offer this as an opportunity to show sympathy and achieve advertising impact at the same time. Often, however, the path to this leads directly via a politically minded customer rather than via the anonymous statistics of media agencies. Migros, Coop, Denner, Emmi, Swisscom, Swiss Post, Rivella and Bluewin have so far been won over by Gasser for the WoZ. "What's interesting is that everyone who joins helps to break down other people's inhibitions."
Selling advertisements for the new trade union newspaper Work was almost more difficult than for the WoZ. Although with the 100,000 Unia members, there are an estimated 200,000 readers of a very clearly defined target group. "There is almost no wastage."
Kilian Gasser is interested in getting to know different systems. It also became clear to him that he was not cut out for long-term involvement in a cooperative collective. "But it was a valuable experience."
He was the first not to be paid the standard wage. With a better salary than the editorial team, the WoZ was keen to employ an advertising professional who was urgently needed in the daily competition. However, Gasser himself abolished his privilege after six months.
Nor is it the money that motivated him to found the company. It was "a logical step", because in large companies "once you reach a certain hierarchy, you just have to please some people". Conversely, he does not believe that pure self-administration on the scale of the WoZ is still possible. In any case, he felt that his involvement in the collective was not enough
efficient. "You have to be able to set yourself apart, otherwise you run the risk of being a good-natured bird, doing too much and neglecting your actual job." With his own company, Gasser wants to "dedicate himself to the cause in a more concentrated and efficient way" - namely: helping to ensure that titles such as WoZ and Work can continue to exist.
Kilian Gasser: Building bridges between non-profit organizations and the commercial marketing world.
Andreas Panzeri
