Bernese political agency Polsan and Zurich communications agency Concept & Impact merge
Die Berner Politikberatungsagentur polsan fusioniert mit der Zürcher Kommunikationsagentur concept&impact. Deren Inhaberin Sandra Hügli-Jost stösst als Partnerin zu den bisherigen polsan-Partnern Reto Wiesli und Yvan Rielle. polsan verstärkt mit diesem Schritt den Bereich Kommunikation und positioniert sich als Full-ServiceAgentur für Kundinnen und Kunden vor allem aus dem Non-Profit-Bereich.
With the merger, Polsan is expanding its mainstay in communications and positioning itself as a full-service agency for all aspects of public affairs. In the future, Polsan will offer political strategies and concepts, lobbying, communications and association management from a single source. In addition, the agency and its 25 employees now have a second location in Zurich, bringing them closer to their clients in northern and eastern Switzerland.
"The merger is an important strategic decision," says Reto Wiesli, founder and partner at Polsan. "It allows us to combine our expertise in politics with the additional know-how and experience in all communication disciplines under one roof." This allows Polsan to offer everything it takes for professional public affairs work, from analysis to strategy to implementation. "And we are becoming even more agile and faster in the process," Wiesli is pleased to say.
The step is underlined by a new agency appearance. What remains is the name Polsan and one of three dots, which is to be understood as a statement. In the future, Polsan wants to appear more outwardly, through its own events and a stronger presence in social media. "We want to campaign for social and political issues that are important to us personally. Having a stronger external presence helps us push these," says Yvan Rielle. "We want to be an agency that puts profile over profit, with an attitude that we live and show." Values, he says, are a key driver of both the three partners' and the employees' commitment. "It's about social responsibility, transparency, respect, integrity and justice." The agency's thematic focus remains on health issues, children and youth policy, and social and educational concerns.
Majority of mandates from the non-profit sector
"We also want to make concerns heard that do not have a big lobby and are not backed by financially powerful interests," explains Sandra Hügli-Jost. Most of her previous mandates, like those of Polsan, therefore come from the non-profit sector. "The agency's core values should also be expressed in the way we organize ourselves. Together with the employees, we are repositioning the agency, and we want to orient ourselves to New Work concepts, to the idea of self-organization with a high degree of participation and consensus as a decision-making principle."
