Euro Shock" survey: Michael Gerber

The strength of the Swiss franc is logically a competitive disadvantage for the domestic communications industry. It will affect us all directly or indirectly.

Since employees are the main cost drivers for advertising agencies, the potential for savings through innovation in technical equipment is very limited. An art director costs about 60 to 70 percent less in Germany than here. We can't work 70 percent more efficiently than our competitors in the EU to make up for the huge wage gap. That is impossible. What we have left is the advantage of being close to the market. No one knows Swiss customers as well as we Swiss agencies do.

Nevertheless, even before the minimum exchange rate was lifted, a trend of budget migration towards the north was noticeable. This was only marginal in the case of image and major promo campaigns, but more pronounced in the case of packaging design, catalogs, and the design of digital implementations. This trend will accelerate dramatically in the coming months and years due to the strength of the Swiss franc.

The formula here is "the less Swissness is needed, the bigger the northward pull". Creativity, once the highest asset of Swiss agencies, will be less important as an argument for staying than desired. Thus, Swiss agencies and creative freelancers will pounce all the more on the remaining "Swiss" market volume. This will in turn increase the pressure on prices. And force us all to take a painful slimming cure.

There is no reason for optimism in this situation. It can only be hoped that Swiss advertising clients will see that at least part of the communicative value creation should still remain in the country, otherwise they will soon have no customers left to consume their products and services. And - and this is important! - that the possible cost-cutting measures at the communications agencies actually account for only a tiny fraction of the total price of a product or service!