Publicis Groupe takes a majority stake in longterm affiliate Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett

July 6, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Publicis Groupe has taken a majority stake in its longterm affiliate Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett, one of the biggest advertising agencies in Switzerland. Until now, Publicis Groupe has had a minority (40%) stake in the agency, and this transaction increases the Groupe’s participation to 100%. Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett will continue to align under the Leo Burnett global network.

Andy Stäheli, previously the agency’s Managing Director, will take over the company leadership from Peter Felser, and Peter Brönnimann succeeds Martin Spillmann as Creative Director. Spillmann and Felser will withdraw from day-to-day business operations, and will remain members of the Executive Board. Andy Stäheli will now report to Giorgio Brenna, CEO of Leo Burnett’s continental Western Europe region.

Founded in 2002, Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett is a full-service advertising agency based in Zurich, Switzerland. The agency employs nearly 80 communications professionals and provides the full range of advertising and communication services, including below-the-line and digital services. Key clients include ABB, Emmentaler Cheese, Fleurop, Lindt Chocolate, Postshop, Switzerland Tourism, Switzerland’s Cantonal Banks, Swiss Life (insurance) and Volvo.

Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett is the only Swiss agency to appear in the Top 3 on a national level for creative performance, earnings, as well as efficiency and reputation rankings. The agency is known for cross-media-campaigns and some of its popular campaigns include work carried out for Switzerland Tourism (“Mountain Cleaners”, “Holidays without Facebook”), Mammut (“Mary Woodbridge”) or the “SMS dialogues” for Swiss Telecom provider Sunrise (“Campaign of the year 2010”awarded by trade magazine “Werbewoche”). The agency has won 7 Cannes Lions for campaigns for Switzerland Tourism, Sunrise, Migros Fashion (“Real singles in underwear”), the left weekly WOZ (“WOZ buys UBS”), Cabaret Voltaire, Helvepharm (“The modest pharmaceutial company”).

Giorgio Brenna, Leo Burnett’s CEO Continental Western Europe Region, “Since its foundation in 2002 Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett has repeatedly impressed us with its creative power and how quickly it became the third largest agency in the country. The agency is one of our “Centers of Excellence” and underlines both our reputation as a creative network in Europe as well as the importance of great brand ideas for our clients.”

Andy Stäheli, CEO of Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: “The Leo Burnett philosophy 100% matches our perspective on success-based communication. No other agency group devotes so much attention to the creative product. We are very much looking forward to sharing our ideas with like-minded people within the network as well as further profiting from their tools and experience.”

France, Paris & Switzerland, Zürich

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