Publicis ends cooperation with Salt

Last week, Salt's new management delivered harsh criticism of previous leadership during the presentation of the company's 2015 financial results (Werbewoche.ch reported). The turnaround at Salt was impaired, among other things, by previous management errors, it said in a statement on Thursday. In this context, the former Salt management was not only accused of an excessively high churn rate, but also specifically of a "failed IT conversion" and the "inadequate credit assessment of new customers".

In December 2015, the sudden departure of Johan Andsjö as CEO was announced (Werbewoche.ch reported). Andsjö had planned the name change from Orange to Salt, as well as the entire rebranding as a driving force together with Publicis. The long-standing Orange agency was already involved in the development of the new Salt brand in the fall of 2013, as Publicis CEO and current "Werbewoche Advertiser of the Year" Curdin Janett explained in the Interview with Werbewoche revealed. The multi-million campaign must be considered a success. Within a very short time, the Orange brand, which had previously been present on the Swiss mobile market for 16 years, was also replaced in people's minds by the Salt brand.

This collaboration has now come to an end. "The rebranding from Orange to Salt was a great success in several respects. One that can be proven with various figures and was only possible because the customer and the then owner were refreshing, courageous and visionary. We therefore cannot understand the negative statements made by the current Salt management towards the former management team and the now sudden change of direction in marketing and communications," Publicis management said in a statement on the situation. However, Salt is wished every success with its new strategy, it says at the end of the statement.

According to Publicis, the contractual relationship with Salt expired at the end of last year. However, it had been intended to continue working for the mobile provider on a project basis. To date, however, there has been no further collaboration. As the agency emphasizes, the current communication measures in particular, on which Salt is only working with typography and a new claim, were not developed by Publicis. (hae)