The big chance for the little ones

When you're on the rail of an ocean liner high above the sea all the time, you have a different perspective than on a small speedboat. There is a lot of power in a steamer. But a change of course has to be planned for the long term. A speedboat can react much more agile. Wisdom from the maritime world - but it also applies to advertising around the current economic situation in a landlocked country. "This allows us to offer the advantages of a small agency with the backup of a large agency," says Christian Siegrist, summarizing the analysis that led to the founding of Red Lion at Publicis on July 1.

The concept is not entirely new. Spin-offs called Red Lion are also exploring new avenues for Publicis' network in other European countries, as well as India and Brazil. "That's what inspired us. We believe the time is ripe for such business models," say Sacha Moser and Christian Siegrist, explaining their initiative for such a "speedboat" in Switzerland as well.

Sacha Moser was Senior AD and Associate CD at Young & Rubicam New York before Kaspar Loeb brought him back to Zurich as CD at Publicis in 2005. Prior to his five years in New York, Moser worked for two years at Y&R in Puerto Rico. Sacha Moser entered advertising as a 14-year-old teenager with a trial apprenticeship. He consistently pursued his path via the School of Arts and Crafts and an apprenticeship as a graphic designer at DDB. After brief intermezzi in Paris and with Rainer Kuhn, he finally turned professional with a "great offer" at Advico, where Moser was promoted to AD at the age of 23 before his career found its suave continuation overseas.

Christian Siegrist has been "touring advertising agencies" for 30 years. He started in Basel at the small agency Roger Meyer, followed by Ogilvy Küsnacht and eight years at GGK in Basel again, before returning to Küsnacht to the former GGK of Hermann Strittmatter. Siegrist was allowed to transfer to GGK in Paris to look after IBM's budget. From there, on a personnel level, it was a close step to Reini Weber's WHS, "which at that time was a kind of continuation of GGK." Because he "wanted to experience it harder for once", Christian Siegrist then "changed fronts " and looked after McDonald's budget for almost four years at McCann in Geneva. "Harder," he says, because this advertising was no longer driven by beautiful creation, but had to be based on hard-nosed market figures. For Siegrist, that was the challenge he was looking for. "Every Monday, there was a report on what had happened at the register the previous week."

When IBM's budget moved to Ogilvy in the meantime, this client wanted to work there once again with his proven contact Siegrist. This resulted in four years at Bergstrasse in Zurich, before Publicis followed, where Siegrist has now been working for 14 years. The last three of them as COO. "I'm not one to change all the time."

The now internal "change " to Red Lion is a very motivating step for both Siegrist and Moser. "I've always enjoyed building new things," says CD Sacha Moser happily. Managing Director Christian Siegrist says: "I can now do again what I actually got into this profession for." In a house with over 140 employees, he says, as COO he was inevitably "more concerned with finances than with customers and advertising." Now it's back to the creative business. For their "own" agency, the management duo has only two people in charge: board president Fredy Collioud and Curdin Janett, who represents the entire group as CEO of Publicis. "Otherwise, we are not accountable to anyone." The Red Lion team also works in its own "storm-free" rooms and with its own server.

In terms of growth, of course, it makes no sense for Red Lion to compete with the parent company with its own size. The spin-off should remain a boutique. Up to 17 people is an ideal target. "We want to be able to appear owner-managed. All our people are in direct contact with the customers." Their "allocation" between Publicis and Red Lion has nothing to do with size. "It's about the style they want," Siegrist says. And Moser can reveal that Red Lion has already won a pitch for an international law firm with this approach. Red Lion has also scored a special kind of win when it comes to furnishings. The young "startup" found the sofa for the meeting room for little money on Riccardo. Only when it was delivered did it turn out that the furniture had previously been used for creative chilling at Euro RSCG.

Things didn't go so smoothly with the web address. The domain Red-Lion.ch belongs to a Chinese restaurant in Kloten. Although Moser and Siegrist had a good negotiating position there for a while as "regulars", the Chinese finally did not want to sell. Instead, www.red-lion.com was free for bidding. An amazing coincidence. After all, the "red lion" is associated worldwide with a symbol of mythical success and mysterious strength in a wide variety of fields.

Andreas Panzeri