Versatile hurdler

"I believe very strongly that the future lies in below-the-line communication. They are all dialog disciplines. Public relations is in dialog with journalists and customers. In promotion, you give something to potential customers. At an event, you quickly get feedback on whether the guests liked it or not. It's lively and interactive."

This assessment by Andreas Schelbert on the subject of "Below the Line" is optimistic, but probably correct. Current trends in Swiss advertising budgets also show this. "We sense a need among customers. They want a sparring partner with whom they can take a new approach to their marketing communication. This new approach embodies the idea of entering into a direct exchange with the relevant community. Terms such as scene marketing, community management or below the line pick up on these approaches. Here, a campaign is tackled more comprehensively. The briefing is perceived from a different perspective. The choice of communication channel always remains open for us in a first step - we often even reverse the original briefing. After all, today it is the relevant community that demands which channel it wants to use to communicate, and not the client or the agency," Andreas Schelbert has found.

For more than four years, the versatile and experienced marketing specialist has been managing the Compresso event division with great commitment. Andreas Schelbert is now handing over this task to Eveline Hofstetter. Schelbert himself is taking over the operational management of the entire Compresso company from the previous Managing Director Fridolin Stauffacher. He co-founded Compresso and successfully built it up. Stauffacher will continue to act as a member of the Executive Board and Board of Directors and will continue to manage Compresso-Promotion.

Since the founding of the Compresso agency network in 2004 and the merger of the individual sub-agencies to form Compresso AG in 2010, the well-known below-the-line agency has enjoyed steady corporate growth. With a broad portfolio of well-known clients and a wide variety of projects, the five divisions - Compresso Promotion, Compresso PR, Compresso Online, Compresso Event and Compresso Scene Marketing - continue to operate as independent and competitive agency divisions. On the other hand, it is precisely the interaction between the individual agency divisions and the understanding of 360° communication that makes this below-the-line agency so special: "The development of Compresso shows that we are a strong partner for our clients and their communication projects," Schelbert is convinced.

Following the repositioning that has now taken place, the Compresso Executive Board is now made up of Karin Gut, Eveline Hofstetter, Suzanne Nievergelt, Sabine Spengler, Andreas Schelbert and Fridolin Stauffacher.

The mix makes it

If you were to assemble the newly appointed CEO in a virtual reality as a candidate of your choice, the result would probably be no different to Andreas Schelbert's real appearance. He started out with a commercial apprenticeship at a major bank. He soon made it into sports sponsorship at UBS. "I realized then that I was more interested in the marketing world - and less in counting money or selling banking products," he recalls. He "always enjoyed calculating" at school and is still glad that he "knows a lot about finance".

For three years after his apprenticeship, Schelbert continued to take advantage of the opportunity to gain experience in an attractive training program for young talent at UBS. During this time, Radio Z was looking for new sports reporters. Andreas Schelbert applied with a cassette. Mike Gut and Adrian Fetscherin found the audio samples funny and took the young talent under their wing. In addition to his job at the bank, Andreas Schelbert regularly commentated on the matches of football clubs GC and FCZ or ice hockey with ZSC or Kloten. At the same time, he also found time to study for his vocational baccalaureate. When this exam was also in the bag, the young reporter, who had become quite fixated with the media, decided he only wanted to do radio. Schelbert resigned from the bank and became an editor, reporter and newsreader at Radio Z. "During this phase, I also experienced the relaunch of Hitradio Z. A professional phase that wasn't always easy." Andreas Schelbert was able to switch off from this everyday life with sport. Athletics is his sport. He has also achieved success in the 400 meter hurdles. However, not as far as his current partner. She competed with the Swiss 4×100 m relay team at the Olympic Games in London.

Instead, Schelbert became a crack behind the scenes. His next job was administrative manager at Leichtathletikclub Zürich. Together with the head of sport, he managed the club's fortunes. This inevitably brought Andreas Schelbert into contact with the big "Weltklasse Zürich" meeting. He was elected to the organizing committee and was responsible for event presentation. He also worked for a few years as a stadium speaker at this "best meeting in the world" and international gathering of superstars. Through this involvement, the new Managing Director of Compresso also got to know Fridolin Stauffacher, who had been organizing the opening and closing ceremonies with his former agency for many years. It was through this contact that Schelbert finally joined Compresso seven years ago. He has been Head of Events since 2010. During the transition phase from LCZ to Compresso, Schelbert also completed a part-time degree in business administration, majoring in corporate communications, as well as a CAS in sports management. In terms of radio, Schelbert was later appointed to the SRF sports reporter team. He now wanted to reduce this commitment due to time constraints. "But the doors at Swiss radio are still open."

With all this experience, the new Managing Director really does have the ideal backpack for his new responsibilities: Economics, media, sport, events, communication. "I have the feeling that I have arrived at the right place with all the topics that we deal with at Compresso," states Andreas Schelbert and is delighted: "I am proud to be able to accompany the highly competent and committed Compresso team into the future in my new role."

Everything from one source

Compresso is a below-the-line agency with five divisions, all of which also function in their own right. The special thing about it: "If a client wishes, we can also provide them with the entire range for a campaign." After all, it has long since ceased to be the case that an event is simply an event. The customer needs to know: How does an event work on social media? What needs to be considered when journalists attend? Are there online components to the registration process? What happens in the area of promotion? "Everything plays together in communication. There are many advantages when everything comes from a single source so that the common thread can be pulled through." Current PR projects include a major mandate for Samsung in the consumer electronics sector. Online, Andreas Schelbert always likes to look at "the Cailler chocolate site". In addition to the design, Compresso also developed the technology for a web store for this portal. In the area of scene marketing, a nationwide campaign is underway with Knorrli. Compresso-Promotion is causing a stir with an innovative presentation for Candida.

When it comes to events, the new Managing Director's heart still beats for athletics. Compresso was also responsible for and staged the opening ceremony for the European Championships this August, together with the "Three Friends" Simon Ackermann, TV director Max Sieber and Nadine Imboden. Schelbert also appeared as a public speaker at the European Championships. A total of 30 people currently work at Compresso. Quantitative growth is not primarily planned. "Even as someone who has studied economics, I think the idea that everything is based on growth is a widespread misconception in our society," philosophizes Schelbert. "Growth is always at the expense of something, resources, others. That's why society needs to invent a new principle. I don't know it. Broken down to Compresso, for me this means that we don't have to grow first and foremost so that we can join forces with others in ten years' time and say: We are the biggest. We have to be big enough to be able to provide customers with the services they need. So that in the end it is interesting for both the customer and the end consumer. Quantitative growth can be a side effect of this," says Andreas Schelbert with a clear view of the future path. And he is also convinced that "in future, clients will need a below-the-line specialist who orchestrates all communication measures in-house and who is in direct dialog with the agency".

Andreas Panzeri