Spring in Gockhausen

Agencies From the permanent crisis that has hit the
collective resignation of the Spillmann-Felser team followed, the
Advico Young & Rubicam recovers. The new, once again complete
GL team is firmly convinced. "We no longer look into the
past, but with hunger for the future," says David Allemann,
Managing Director of Advico Young & Rubicam (AY&R). And:
AY&R is definitely back - not in the sense of Back to the Future,
but as a completely new agency with a new management team and new
Targets in a hesitantly recovering market.
 
He sees the jump from ninth to fifth place in the rankings as a sign of success.
rank in the creative ranking of Swiss agencies, fourth place in the
Swiss ADC, the good performance at the Effie and awards at
international competitions such as the ADC New York. The successes at
recruitment would be based on a reinvigorated
self-confidence, he says. Former AY&R employees such as the
Head of Consulting Lukas Tenger or Executive Creative Director Urs
Schrepfer have signed on again in Gockhausen. Likewise woe with
New additions to the strategy such as the Austrian Martin Frank and
the Norwegian Eirik Langås or in the creation with Christian Bobst and
Florian Birkner, both from Berlin, a fresh, international wind
by the Gockhausen agency. This will also have an impact on the
new business, such as the one won back a few days ago.
budget of the SonntagsZeitung.
 
After the surprising setback in 2002 - the departure of the formative
management teams - the WPP subsidiary needed a lot of time to reorganize and
Self-discovery. No wonder. The rupture demanded many a sacrifice - not
only in the customer portfolio, which includes well-known brands and blue chips.
were adopted. Positive headlines were generated in particular by the
sister agency Futurecom, which will soon have the same number of staff on the
payroll as AY&R. Advico's image values in the industry were
was sinking. Many suspected that corporate thinking and the
apathy would spread. Allemann just shakes his head
left: "95 percent of our clients were and are international
and nationally active Swiss companies."

New market, new needs
Today, an AY&R, as it would have been at its most successful and
most creative times with around 100 employees and well-known
Urs Schrepfer assesses the situation as follows
competitiveness in the changed agency market. The latter in particular
has changed, i.e. diversified. Although the
AY&R has always been at the top of both creative and gross operating income rankings.
at the forefront. But for today's market structure, the
creative colossus from back then was simply too cumbersome, believes Schrepfer, who
had also left the agency during the exodus. Today
more compact and faster agencies, such as AY&R after the
reorganization is one. Correspondingly radical changes would have
other agencies at that time.

The recovery curve at AY&R really picked up again after
Chairman of the Board of Directors Edgar C. Britschgi - new Chairman of Y&R Switzerland -
had transferred operational management to the new management team. Only with
the new leadership, the cultural change in the important areas of
to take place.

The pitch win that turned things around and sent a signal to the outside world
was Sunrise, whose total budget AY&R had set in the summer of 2004.
was able to conquer. "From then on, we had solid ground under our feet again.
Füssen." The second positive boost came from the expanded creative team,
who started at AY&R with the attitude that a new
Agency not trying to build on the old days. "The
Corporate philosophy is primarily created in people's minds. There
more and more people joined us with the same ambitions, the
thrust became more and more noticeable over time. Now he is definitely
back," says David Allemann with pride. After all, the agency combines
Sunrise and some of the really big advertising clients - from the leading
energy company Axpo via the entire Campari Group and UBS'
mortgage business to Swiss Re and GE Money Bank - as well as
Nonprofit organizations. These include the development service
Bread for All/Fastenopfer, whose current campaign is controversial
is discussed.
 
How much discussion the Gockhausen agency will provide in the future
remains to be seen. Schrepfer is certain that the
upcoming work - including for the newly acquired multiple
Sclerosis Society - certainly not unobserved via the advertising spaces
will draw.    

Study
AY&R's sure USPs include the BrandAsset brand study
Valuator. It is also the cornerstone of the latest AY&R study "Envy and
Resentment".

For over 60 years, the US General Social Survey has been collecting data on how many
percent of the US population classify themselves as "very happy". Back then
the figure was 32 percent - the same as today. Despite progress
Americans have not become any happier. Because: What they really
The only thing that makes people happier is the envy of their neighbors about their standard of living.
However, most marketing experts ignored this fact when
it would be an incidental side effect and not the root of the
product benefits. And they only define the target group instead of
who should not buy the product.

So, according to the study, it's high time to break the taboo and turn every good
a positional good - such as beautiful houses, art and horsepower cars.
Not on the tangible product benefits, but on the prestige factor
or its derivative, envy, is what counts. And this can be expressed via
the four variables differentiation, relevance, appreciation and
quantify and directly control familiarity. Similarities can be
can be seen in various markets: Envy is just as prevalent
little at a fair price as for a nice brand, snobbery is
an absolute must. In the current masstige trend (mass product + prestige)
the AY&R study sees a long-term threat to the
brand portfolio because the brands are in danger of slipping out of the "envy zone".
However, there are also ways out of this dilemma, is
Strategy Director Caspar Coppetti is certain. The study is recommended
but also for a few rules, such as the one according to which the envy factor
is greatest when the market penetration of a product category is
has reached around 33 percent.

The bottom line of the study: we are already living in the best of all worlds.
Because even the 100 cm plasma screen or the mobile videophone
will not make us any happier. Unless you own them before
all neighbors.

Caspar Coppetti
Head of Strategy Caspar Coppetti has been a new member of the Executive Board since the beginning of April
under the leadership of Managing Director David Allemann.
Business economist Coppetti has worked as a management consultant (McKinsey
& Company) and journalist and wrote a dissertation on the
topic of brand building through sponsoring at the University of St. Gallen.
Together with the strategy team, he advises clients on brand development and
-management, in the planning of cross-media strategies and the development of
of sports and entertainment branding approaches.

Luca Aloisi