"We are not per se more creative than others, at most more courageous and direct"

Advertising Week: Livio Dainese, 2018 "Advertiser of the Year," said in the latest issue of Advertising Week that his favorite campaign of 2018 is the "We have the products, you have the life" Galaxus campaign.

Martin Walthert: Yes, I was pleased to hear that.

How did the campaign come about?

We conceived the campaign in close cooperation with the production company Plan B Film and continuously developed it further.

How can you imagine the cooperation?

The development of the ideas is a fruitful interaction, a free brainstorming. In the development process, Plan B Film is responsible for the classic film production - from casting to the shooting schedule to the camera. We take care of how and where we play out the campaign. We create posters, banners and print ads ourselves.

Why don't you work with agencies?

For us, this is also historically conditioned. Firstly, we had hardly any money available at the beginning, and secondly, we had to be as fast as possible, since we mainly did product advertising, which was very short-lived in our industry. In addition, it corresponds to our company philosophy - we want to master and control as many steps as possible ourselves.

You have maintained this in-house strategy to this day. What works better without an agency?

The most important point is that we have short decision-making paths. We don't have to run the campaigns through several instances; instead, we try them out directly and learn from them. We enjoy a great deal of trust from management, which gives us the necessary leeway. We are not per se more creative than others, but at most more courageous and direct. I think that many of the communication measures taken by other companies show that too many people have had a say in the decision-making process.

Do you have an example?

Often in commercials it is quite obvious who has said everything that needs to go in. In the end, everyone involved is reasonably satisfied with the compromise solution, but a good campaign with a clear message can't be created that way. When too many people are looking for a common consensus, the advertising becomes soft-washed.

From your experience, what are the disadvantages of working without an agency?

There is less flexibility in terms of resources. We have high fixed costs because everyone is permanently employed. On top of that, advertising is becoming increasingly complex - not least due to digitization - and you therefore have to hire more and more specialists.

As an employee of a company, it can also be difficult to keep a fresh eye for good advertising ideas, right?

There is certainly a danger of developing tunnel vision.

What might make you decide to use an agency in the future after all?

We will probably never hand over the entire responsibility for our appearance to an agency. But if we needed new ideas and input for individual projects, it's not out of the question that we might pitch.

Do the manufacturers whose products you sell always agree with your campaigns, for example when their products are rated poorly in the Digitec star campaign?

We had to do a lot of convincing in the beginning. In the meantime, however, the manufacturers have understood that the campaign does them no harm. It's not about the products, but about the stars, the slogan, the joke behind it. The campaign is intended to show that we are a credible platform, from which our partners also benefit. That's why we also promote comments that criticize Digitec itself. Because that proves that we deal with criticism transparently. Mistakes crop up everywhere, and they are quickly publicized via social media. That's why it's much more relevant to allow criticism and deal with it constructively instead of trying to silence it.

Martin Walther's favorite campaigns from the internal creative forge: the "We have the products, you have the life" campaign for Galaxus, the campaign with real customer ratings for Digitec, and the poster campaign for Galaxus with a pseudo-political message.

Thirteen years ago, you started at Digitec as the only person responsible for marketing. How has the team developed since then?

At first it was just me, then I was joined by one or two people with whom I created flyers, brochures and print ads. Most of our advertising budget, which was small at the time, went into print inserts. Over time, posters, online and TV were added. On the one hand, we used more and more channels, on the other hand, these channels became more and more complicated. So at first we simply needed more people. In a second step, we responded with specialist roles. Today, we have specialists who know their areas much better than I ever did. We now have six teams of four to 18 people each.

Which teams are they?

On the one hand, we have our own editorial team that takes care of content marketing with a journalistic approach. The Corporate Communications team is responsible for public relations, translations and internal communications, while the Digital Marketing and Media Buying team is responsible for online advertising, performance marketing and media buying. The creative team, in turn, does the campaigns - both in terms of content and form. Last but not least, we have two brand teams: one for Digitec and one for Galaxus. They plan and coordinate the campaigns, do the budget management, and evaluate what worked and how well.

What does your day-to-day work look like?

In the meantime, I'm primarily involved in strategy, taking care of the positioning and brand identities of our Digitec and Galaxus brands, the direction of our communications, and personnel issues. In addition, I also get involved operationally in campaign design.

So your work has changed a lot since you started.

Yes, for me it was a lot of learning by doing and learning with the specialists we hired.

Is it difficult to find competent employees?

The more specialized you want, the more difficult it becomes. But the bigger we get, the more exciting people find it to work for us. Many are attracted by the fact that you're not just on one side, where the budget is, but also not just on the other, where the creation happens. With us, everything comes from a single source.

How are the teams distributed spatially?

We have an open-plan office, partly divided with partitions. The individual teams sit close to each other in it, which promotes uncomplicated cooperation.

Does each team fight for its area or is everyone always of one mind?

In principle, everyone is fighting for the same thing: We want to move Digitec and Galaxus forward. But of course, each team sets its focus slightly differently, which gives rise to discussions.

What points are being discussed?

For example, about how important which online formats are. Digital marketing, for example, says that a certain banner format works well, but creative thinks that the banner format doesn't fit our look and feel.

What are the biggest challenges at the moment?

Our environment is extremely competitive, which means we have to remain innovative, stand out and communicate what customers can expect from our brands. And internally, I have to make sure that we can cope with the constantly changing demands on marketing, both professionally and organizationally.

When you look back on the last thirteen years, what are you particularly proud of?

We have made a huge development since I started and have shown great agility. We've seen strong sales growth every year so far. And finally, we have built two strong brands with Digitec and Galaxus.

Were there any hurdles along the way that you learned from?

In some cases, we could have adapted our work processes even more quickly and consistently. One example: For a while, we had two media planning teams: one for TV and print and one for online. They were latently fighting over who would get more budget, which made it difficult to develop jointly in the interests of the company. We then merged these teams. You can't perpetuate gärtli and habits if it works against the pursuit of the main goal.

How important is marketing at Digitec Galaxus?

This has a high priority. Our image is a factor that allows us to differentiate ourselves from the competition. The products are the same everywhere and the prices are also transparent - sometimes one is cheaper, sometimes someone else is cheaper. That's why we pay attention to our brands.

What marketing trends are you deliberately ignoring?

Advertising via influencers.

Why?

The core of our brand, especially Digitec's, is authenticity. As soon as we start paying people to talk positively about us, I think we lose authenticity.

The Galaxus sales platform went live in Germany in November 2018. How did the first few months go?

So far, we have been positively surprised.

Do you do the marketing from here for Germany?

At the moment, we actually still do most of it from here. In the medium term, the goal is for our own people to be able to realize a lot from there. But we want to continue to use synergies in the area of design and campaigns.

What are your goals for the next few years?

That with Digitec and Galaxus we have two brands with a clear profile and are developing great campaigns and advertising materials along the way that will help us achieve our ambitious sales targets. That will be a big challenge. But we have a good starting position.