We are on the right course

The employees did not know where they were going. Only a forecast for the expected temperatures was revealed. Plus the advice: take your passport with you. And clothes for four days. High above the clouds, it became clear that the entire Webrepublic team was flying to Kos for a long weekend. There they moved into their cabins. The sailing trip took them to various islands. On each island there was a new theme to work on. "Vision Cruise" was the motto of the staff training. "Sailing is a creative environment where you can not only unwind but also have good conversations," says Tom Hanan, pleased with the success. Half a week in the same boat has turned more than 20 employees into a crew.

"Company culture" is a key concern for Webrepublic's Managing Director. "You're surrounded by people who do their work with enthusiasm, heart and soul." This also includes very open communication. "What we do at the core of our agency for online marketing is the absolute spearhead of innovation in terms of communication and distribution on the Internet. There's no book to look up yet. We're always doing the latest. Innovation is just too fast," Hanan analyzes. There is also something adventurous about this mood. That's why, after a call to Webrepublic, the music of "Indiana Jones" also sounds in the queue. "We interpret ourselves as the explorer fighting his way through the jungle with a machete." An even better image might be a laser sword.

The "Indiana Jones" of Swiss search engine marketing has found his calling at Google. Before Tom Hanan became the first employee of Google Switzerland in 2003, he sailed around the world as a skipper for six months.

Before leaving, Tom Hanan briefly emailed an application to [email protected]. His references said: Grew up in Zurich as the son of a Swiss and an American. Studied astrophysics as well as business administration and marketing in the USA. Entered the professional world in 1998 at Multimedia Development. This was P's first online media agency, which later became Real Media. Hanan then spent three years building up Yahoo Switzerland.

The promise from Google reached him on the high seas in the Caribbean. First from his own apartment in Erlenbach, then briefly in Seefeld, and soon after starting in the Hürlimann area of Zurich, Tom Hanan built up Google's key account business in Switzerland and Austria in a rapidly growing company of soon to be 700 Internet specialists from all over the world. In the last two of his eight years at the search engine giant, Hanan was responsible for the agency landscape. "During this time, I saw that there was still room for an agency specializing in the field of search engine marketing," he says, summing up the logical step to his first own company. Webrepublic is strongly influenced by Hanan's time at Google and Yahoo.

In its core business, the agency creates and manages search engine marketing campaigns. Founded as a startup in 2009 by Tom Hanan, Webrepublic in Zurich's Mühle Tiefenbrunnen has "grown organically but quickly with its clients and their size". In this rapidly changing environment, the young agency has continued to identify the needs of the market. "We quickly saw that the best campaign is useless if the website is not optimally right. So we offered to optimize the website as well."
At Webrepublic, we not only look efficiently at how the user comes to the site, but also analyze very quickly: What he does when he is on the site? Where does he come from geographically? What language do they use to access the site? How efficiently can the site answer the user's questions? "This allows us to make the whole cycle as efficient as possible. From the user's question to the so-called conversion - a purchase or registration."

At Webrepublic, work is being done at an apex where advertising or media budgets are increasingly being scrutinized by customers for their efficiency. This is where Facts and Figures can be delivered. "Our clients get a campaign that is highly efficient," Hanan promises. Search engine campaigns are based on the analysis of how the user searches for products. Entering the keyword "last minute" in Google's search box, for example, is only the first step in the decision-making process when booking a trip.

After an initial review of the search results, you go back to Google and specify the search by "last minute with beach". This may be followed by "last minute with beach toddler care ". Thus, an average search includes 20 to 30 queries. "This is where we need to understand: At what point is someone in the decision-making process? " That's where the right message needs to be communicated. On the other hand, the specialists at Webrepublic also analyze what happens when the user is on the website. "A campaign is only 50 percent of the story. The other 50 percent happens when the user is effectively on the site. That means we have to make it so that this site really speaks the language of the user. That's why I often say: Whether a website is good or bad is not decided by the agency or the head of marketing, but by the user. We have to analyze and understand how the user interacts with that site."

Webrepublic does not do website design. "But we analyze the efficiency level of websites and have a partner who then changes small elements on the website. You can play around with small elements and test them over and over again." To do this, search engine advertisers direct some of the traffic to version A and the other to version B. Then they measure live where more is happening. "At our core, it's about speaking the user's language as efficiently as possible."

Does such work already have more to do with statistics than with conventional advertising? Hanan calls it "data-driven innovation. The communication measures are clearly measured. After all, the advertisers see exactly what the result is. In this sense, 90 percent of the campaigns run at Webrepublic clearly have the objective of "generating sales.

But Tom Hanan is convinced: "The classic advertising values such as branding, image and emotion will still have their raison d'être in digital communication. But then more in the area of banners and graphic elements. When graphic elements are placed by Webrepublic, the computers come into play immediately in each case. "We measure the entire path from the graphic ad to the search queries that were triggered as a result of this ad, and then follow the customer further until finally the purchase." For one large client, search volume and keyword analysis was used to generate valuable information for the company's product development. For Webrepublic's customers, trends can be analyzed and uncovered in a targeted manner.

Webrepublic was born "out of the emotion of starting an agency that wanted to go a different way and challenge old structures - I was looking for a name that reflected that." A small star stands out in the logo. This is meant to hint that Webrepublic also wants to push forward a small web revolution. "We grow with our customers and, where it will end, we see extremely flexible." And because the Internet is guaranteed to continue to grow, jobs for 35 people have already been reserved in the mill as a precaution. "But I don't want to lose my identity and grow faster than my legs can carry me," Hanan says.

Webrepublic has a very stringent approach to how people are recruited and trained. "In the environment we operate in, it's difficult to find the right people. We're often asked by clients if we can provide them with someone who has the inside track in the online space." That's why Hanan also helps recruit new employees for its clients with targeted campaigns.

For Migros, Webrepublic built a dedicated department in-house. "We wanted a team that could associate itself intensively with Migros, its brand and its message. When we write the ad texts for the AdWords campaign, we want them to take Migros' language and emotions into account."

Like Google, Webrepublic also works internationally from Zurich: "We don't see it as Swiss Wide Web, but World Wide Web," says Hanan. He is convinced "think global act local" is quite centrally important on the Internet. "But a campaign that we set up in Switzerland and want to adapt for Austria or Germany, we have to adapt to how the local market ticks." This becomes possible because of the analysis of local search habits. "Because we drive such an approach, our goal is definitely that we will and can internationalize." At Webrepublic, the team already includes native speakers who speak French, Italian, Spanish, English and Russian. In addition, all Webrepublic employees have the Google Ad Words Professional certificate, from office managers to software developers.

Technology is also an important topic in the Webrepublic environment. For example, an ETH developer is also on board the team, and Abhay Puri, one of the first 20 Google employees worldwide, is on the Advisory Board to provide advice and support to the Zurich-based company. "Abhay Puri is one of Google's original engineers and always provides us with ideas for new products that enable us to serve our customers even more efficiently." As a result, Webrepublic has now become the first agency to program a Warehouse API. This is a program that automatically and dynamically synchronizes search engine campaigns with the current state of the warehouse. This is interesting for all customers with online stores that have several 100,000 products on offer. As soon as a product is sold out, the keyword is paused in the campaign.

And what will come next? Skipper Tom Hanan can't see beyond the horizon either. But: "I know the course we have to steer. On the way there, the wind will still change very often. Then we'll have to adjust our course or trim the sails accordingly."

Andreas Panzeri

During Webrepublic's four-day sailing trip in September, the 20 employees completed workshops in alternating teams. Films were shot in ancient settings in the Aegean Sea in which, for example, "customer service" was reinterpreted in these ruins. Everyone had to keep a logbook and record in it their visions of where the journey should go from the employees' point of view. These visions have since been incorporated into the management's planning, so that the whole team feels involved in the development of Webrepublic.