As the new President of the Account Planning Group, Pascal Schaub wants to strengthen strategic thinking in all areas. Strategy is in demand in more and more disciplines today, says Pascal Schaub. Precisely because you can no longer plan everything. He is impressed by the way Tesco launches products that are only 40 percent ready for the market. Consumers decide the rest. Market research is free and highly efficient. Schaub is fascinated by the fact that YouTube users are spreading the word about the Mentos Diet Coke experiment and the new Dove campaign - even before it is on TV. Insights into what makes consumers tick, what they want and, above all, what they don't want are more important than ever. Otherwise, the community of digital natives, the species of people who are growing up with the new media, will strike back relentlessly.
The chief strategist at Publicis Zurich has just been elected as the new president of the Account Planning Group. This association, which he co-founded three years ago, comprises just over 20 members. Not many compared to an ADC. A lot, if you look back a few years in Switzerland. Schaub is convinced that "too many ideas are still being sold by Swiss advertising agencies according to the principle of trial and error". But more and more clients are realizing that it is more expensive to save on strategy and want this discipline at the table right from the start.
In Schaub's experience, customers are masters of two of their three most important marketing tools. Price like a crowbar. Distribution like a baseball bat. Unfortunately, they use the communication budget in exactly the same way - even if it is no bigger than a matchstick compared to the other two tools. Of course, it breaks in the process. "But you could also light a fire with a match," smiles the strategist. But where do you learn that?
Not while studying German at the universities of Zurich and Munich. Not as a film critic for a local newspaper, not as a lifestyle journalist for Annabelle, Tages-Anzeiger, Weltwoche. Not even in 10 years as a copywriter for agencies from Uster to Zurich.
It only took off with the crossing of disciplines. From studies to analytical thinking, from advertising to synthetic condensation. Schaub thought: Why not combine the two halves of the brain? So he switched to strategy at the turn of the millennium.
He was able to join Diana Strebel's team at market leader Publicis, and Schaub has remained loyal to the agency to this day. It's actually "wicked" - as Ali G would say - for someone to have worked at the same agency for 14 years, he marvels. In the Swiss advertising industry, however, there are only two options, comparable to a party: either you buy a beer, walk around with it and meet people. Or you stand at a well-placed pillar with the beer "and let everyone stream past". In addition: "Publicis is the only agency in Switzerland that combines all disciplines at one address."
This advantage allows Schaub to use and network all platforms for a brand - and even internationally from Switzerland with some budgets. "This challenge is fantastic for a planner."
Schaub has benefited greatly from further training at the planner meetings in the Publicis network. There is a team here that develops model strategies for smaller countries such as Denmark, Ireland, Austria, Israel and Switzerland, because in these markets "there are many parallels in terms of the increasing empowerment of consumers".
Schaub is also keeping a particularly close eye on developments in the growth markets. He could well imagine working in Asia one day. As a planner there, he could combine the knowledge he has circulating in his blood about our western brands with the traditions of these new markets.
However, Schaub still sees plenty of challenges and satisfaction here in the near future. More and more clients are no longer asking him just for creative planning. He is increasingly being asked for tasks such as developing an entire product offering or private label strategies.
Schaub is delighted when insights suddenly lead to interactivity in the outside world, whether on the 4-seater streetcar, in the Migros store or in the Cash daily e-paper. When Köbi Kuhn, the eternally and endlessly questioned man, suddenly plays a completely new role: asking back for Axpo when it comes to energy. Or when over a thousand UBS employees suddenly want to advertise: for their own company. To mention just two ongoing campaigns in which Pascal Schaub has been strategically involved.
The new President believes that the Account Planning Group has developed a good understanding of itself over the past three years. The next step should be an exchange with the outside world. Partners could also become a GDI or an IAA. "The interdisciplinary role of strategy is the big issue." An exchange that goes far beyond advertising. "I'm interested in the micro-credit planning of David Bornstein in Bangladesh, the radio community planning of Oliver Scotoni from Rundfunk.fm or the multimedia house planning of Thomas Trüb at Ringier." Strategy and planning as a success factor. On this side and beyond traditional advertising agencies.
As a first activity, the new President has just attended the conference "The battle of big thinking" in London. Here, 21 luminaries from the Anglo-Saxon world were each given exactly 15 minutes to speak. Three specialists each spoke on topics such as new media, branding, communication, planning and research. Then there was a merciless vote to see who got to the heart of the matter best. The Chairman of BBH in England, Jim Carroll, was not above doing this. "A lesson in British finesse and highly entertaining to boot," he says. More on this soon in Advertising Week.
"The British are debating intensively and openly about the role of the advertising idea, which is increasingly becoming a catalyst and networking agent," summarizes Schaub. Incidentally, they also invite market researchers to take part. Which once again demonstrates interdisciplinarity. In this sense: if Schaub does not go to Asia after all - in his next life he will become a Research Planner or Connectivity Director.

Andreas Panzeri

Patrick Lienert is back. As CD and Managing Partner of LangGysiKnoll, he is to open an office in Zurich. As a passionate chess player, finding the best solution for the task at hand is his thrill. Now Patrick Lienert has also found the ideal chess move for his real life.The industry could only puzzle when the CD of DDB Zurich left the agency in Zollikerberg. "Leaving was an emotional decision," says Lienert today and immediately adds: "My desire for advertising is absolutely unbroken, on the contrary. But now I want to be able to bring in even more of an entrepreneurial element."
The creative, who originally studied economics for a few semesters, has now found his "ideal job" with his old Bernese colleagues at LangGysiKnoll (LGK). Lienert will become CD in Bern and is to open his own agency in Zurich as Managing Partner of LangGysiKnoll.
"I always try to understand and approach a task as a whole," explains the strategist, who, "unusually for a creative", is also a qualified advertising manager.
His partners in Bern were positive about the idea of the Zurich office right from the start. "That's not a given at a time when you still have to calculate and stay lean."
In Zurich, Lienert not only wants to acquire new customers and support them directly on site. As some employees at the Bern headquarters commute from Zurich, suitable meetings will also be held at the new branch in future. Zurich is therefore to become its own functioning small agency with a clutch function for Bern, without a large infrastructure and central services, but with a strong focus on creation.
For Patrick Lienert, the analytical component is an important platform for creative work in order to be creative at all. "With analytics, you clear the field and focus, trying to get to the heart of things," he explains.
Lienert found his first opportunity in advertising at an agency in Bern as an advertising canvasser for the members' newspaper of an aviation club. Later, as a copywriter, he made the leap to Springer & Jacoby in Hamburg. "I was almost bursting with pride". He returned to a CD job at Jäggi in Bern, then moved to Publicis in Zurich as a copywriter and finally to DDB as a CD. In four years there, "unusually for this agency", he won various prizes and designed prestigious campaigns for Sat 1 and McDonald's, for example.
Hobby botanist Lienert, who knows (almost) all of Switzerland's wild plants, likes to devote himself to his roof garden in Witikon. A child now also lives under this roof. One more reason why Lienert wanted to organize his future and, by joining LangGysiKnoll, has found "a well-rounded situation in which everything works out".
Andreas Panzeri