m&m loses - and wins at the same time
Accounts: The media agency m&m is losing Hyundai. However, it already has a replacement in sight.
Budgets The media agency m&m loses Hyundai. Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Hyundai, the car brands of the bankrupt car importer Erb, previously had their media budgets (totaling around 20 million Swiss francs) managed by m&m in Glattbrugg. This did not change when the Belgian Alcopa Group took over Suzuki and Hyundai. However, Alcopa now only has the import and distribution rights for Hyundai in Switzerland - and will now withdraw its media budget from m&m at the end of December. m&m will lose around a third of its former inheritance budget as a result, said m&m owner Wolfgang Mecklenburg, adding that Mitsubishi and Suzuki will remain loyal to Mecklenburg. In the spring, Mitsubishi Europe separated the distribution of Mitsubishi from the Erb bankruptcy estate and transferred it to a distribution company that continues to rely on m&m. And in the middle of the year, Alcopa had to hand over the import and distribution of Suzuki cars to the Emil Frey Group, which already had its Toyota, Jaguar, Lexus, Subaru, Daihatsu, Rover and Kia brands handled by Mecklenburg's second agency mm&b. The Suzuki budget was therefore simply transferred from m&m to mm&b.
The Emil Frey Group has now also taken over Auto Koch AG in Ebikon (LU), which sells Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Cadillac. And their media budgets have already been transferred to Mecklenburg's mm&b. But that's not all: m&m will also soon be able to plug its Hyundai hole again - with a new car brand that Mecklenburg has yet to name.
Despite the departure of Alcopa, m&m will soon be managing two brands again. Nevertheless, Mecklenburg is thinking about streamlining structures. "Although we are keeping the two companies, we will move in the spring and merge the entire infrastructure," he says. mm&b was founded as a second agency at the time to avoid conflicts of interest in managing the Erb and Emil Frey accounts.
Markus Knöpfli
The Emil Frey Group has now also taken over Auto Koch AG in Ebikon (LU), which sells Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Cadillac. And their media budgets have already been transferred to Mecklenburg's mm&b. But that's not all: m&m will also soon be able to plug its Hyundai hole again - with a new car brand that Mecklenburg has yet to name.
Despite the departure of Alcopa, m&m will soon be managing two brands again. Nevertheless, Mecklenburg is thinking about streamlining structures. "Although we are keeping the two companies, we will move in the spring and merge the entire infrastructure," he says. mm&b was founded as a second agency at the time to avoid conflicts of interest in managing the Erb and Emil Frey accounts.
Markus Knöpfli
