Wirz: Creativity with a system
Creativity is not a «soft factor,» but rather a driver of growth. The Wirz agency demonstrates how a new business model strategically leverages creativity to deliver measurable success to companies.
Wirz is saying goodbye to the hourly model, yes - but this is only the smallest step in a comprehensive transformation. In fact, we have restructured our entire business model from the ground up. With a clear goal: to use creativity more efficiently for the growth and added value of our customers. This is how we want to be measured. Not by hours worked or awards won, but solely by the success of our customers.
"Creativity can solve customers' most pressing challenges."
Why all this? The challenges are well known: falling margins, shrinking EBIT, more tasks with the same budget - the eternal lament of the agency world. But what has been done? Cost-cutting rounds, "focus on creativity" without specifying what it can achieve (creativity can solve everything...) - but no fundamental system change. A desperate clinging to a model from the 80s. Our motivation is as simple as it is strong: to prove that creativity can do more than advertising. The consulting services of creative agencies, which traditionally work closely with their clients and have not only claimed creativity, but implemented it, are far too powerful not to make them more usable for our clients.
Creativity creates added value
The latest studies clearly confirm that creativity creates added value. As the essential capital of an organization, it leads to higher company value, improves value creation, creates growth and secures future viability. According to a study by Ocean Tomo, intangible assets, above all strong brands and creative content, now account for as much as 90 percent of total company value. A look at Apple shows how much the brand shapes the company's value, with the value already exceeding one trillion dollars in 2024. Who would still consider creativity to be a soft factor? Rather, it shapes companies and creates value, quite directly. There is also a study by NC Solutions from 2023 that shows that 49% of sales growth through communication can be directly attributed to the quality of creative content. And that creatively designed communication achieves a four times higher return on investment compared to average campaigns.
"Creativity is not an 'old virtue', but a decisive success factor that helps companies move forward in the long term."
These findings are not new, but they confirm what we at Wirz are already doing: Creativity can not only be used as a central element of successful communication, but also brings direct economic benefits as a core competence for marketing as a whole. Companies that rely on creativity grow significantly faster. This can also be proven: a comprehensive report by the research and consulting company Forrester (2023) attests that companies with a targeted use of creativity achieve 2.6 times higher company growth, regardless of industry or product focus - clear proof of creativity as a growth driver.
A return to the roots
The importance of creativity and branding, which has long been overshadowed by technological trends, is experiencing a renaissance. The "State of Marketing 2024" report by McKinsey and Absatzwirtschaft shows that 96% of companies consider creativity and 84% branding to be decisive for success. These figures emphasize a new understanding of creative content and strong brand identity at a time when many other trends are dominating. Generative AI (GenAI), on the other hand, does not rank in the top 3. The high importance of authenticity underlines that human creativity remains an indispensable counterpart to AI.
Creativity as an Economic Factor
The return to creativity and branding is a strategic decision with high economic relevance. CEOs and marketing managers see creative excellence and authentic brand identity as a top issue for corporate growth, especially when it comes to driving the success of their companies through "rethought" marketing. A conviction that we at Wirz fully share. And which we live up to: By ensuring that creativity never remains an end in itself for us, but is used specifically as a strategic driver for growth and market success.
Creativity with a system
Creativity can solve our customers' most pressing challenges. So far, so logical. But how? It is not enough to rename existing services and turn them into products. What is needed is a clear direction that not only establishes creativity as a central element, but also uses it efficiently and in a targeted manner. To this end, we have developed a modular system in which customers can choose from various coordinated modules - from strategic needs analysis to innovative product development. Our modules can be flexibly combined to create customized programs that are precisely tailored to our clients' business challenges. Instead of the traditional hourly fee, we offer a results-oriented pricing model. Clients pay for results achieved rather than time spent - guaranteeing maximum transparency and measurable success. Such a system means a fundamental change in the agency architecture. True productization with the classic agency system is suicide.
"It's time for a mindshift in marketing."
This approach positions us as a partner that not only provides creative solutions for advertising and communication, but also solves key economic challenges for our clients.
Creativity as a strategic success factor
Our experience and current science show that a return to creativity and branding as central elements in marketing is overdue.
Creativity is not an "old virtue", but a decisive success factor that drives companies forward in the long term. Our realignment underlines the fact that creativity is more than just a means of communication. It is a universal tool that supports companies in responding to complex challenges and asserting themselves in a highly competitive market environment. Creativity creates solutions that enable sustainable success in both marketing and business strategy. It is time for a mindshift in marketing - for an industry that has the courage to recognize and use creativity as the key to sustainable success.
Petra Dreyfus and Livio Dainese are the co-CEOs of the Wirz agency in Zurich. Both hold the highly prestigious title of "Advertiser:in of the Year" in the industry - Dainese won it in 2018, his colleague Dreyfus directly in the following year 2019.
This article first appeared in the m&k print edition 11-12/2024.
