With the punctuality of a Swiss timepiece, Bruno Widmar, the
chairman and chief executive of Young & Rubicam Europe, calls the
Campaign offices, as arranged, at 4pm on the dot.
Widmar, who is 57, has spent the last five days in his home town of
Zurich working on agency strategy. Although it has been a ’killing
process’, it doesn’t seem to have dented his good humour. After all, Y&R
Europe is familiar territory for Widmar, who has been an important
member of the European operation since 1989, the year his agency,
Advico, sold to Y&R.
Since those early days, he has gained a wealth of experience, which last
month he brought to bear on Y&R’s purchase of Rainey Kelly Campbell
Roalfe in London. ’To me it was important we came to a philosophical
entente,’ he says. ’We liked each other and we quickly found common
ground. From then on, I was only involved when we were stuck. Sometimes
with these things people get emotional, but this time everyone proved to
be an adult.’
Once London was sorted, he moved his priorities straight to the German
office, where a similar acquisition appears to be in the pipeline. He
reveals: ’Germany is a major concern. We have to strengthen the
leadership.’ Already, Widmar has taken action - this month Hans Lange, a
former chairman of Ogilvy & Mather who Widmar describes as a ’big icon’,
was named non-executive chairman of Y&R Germany.
Strengthening Y&R’s offering across Europe, Widmar says, ’ is not about
numbers or size. The aim is to be a key player in the most important
markets.’
Since he was appointed chairman and chief executive of Y&R Europe in
1998, Widmar’s goals have been clear-cut: ’I really try to be a leader
for the company. I want to get back what I feel we’ve lost a bit - the
creative track. The UK work for the past few years has been good but we
want it to be better.’
Widmar does not have a base in London and stays in hotels for the two or
three days a week he is here. His homes are in Zurich and Florence,
where he has a wine business. Three thriving Tuscan vineyards are a
testament to his entrepreneurial spirit, which he says is in his blood,
despite his family’s conventional banking background.
Widmar has applied this spirit to his career in advertising. When he
took the helm of Advico in 1972, eight years after he joined, Widmar
began to build the agency into a communications group. One of his
secrets, he says, is to hire good people spontaneously and find the
right job for them later.
In 1989, at the time of the deal, Advico was number three in the
market.
’We doubled the size of Y&R in Switzerland,’ he recalls. Widmar was
immediately drafted in to help out Y&R on a pan-European level.
Advico’s early struggles to become a European force in the 60s - when
the agency opened offices in Germany, Italy and France - taught Widmar
how not to do it. The mistake was to centralise all the creative work
from Zurich. ’With hindsight, it’s a crazy idea,’ says Widmar. ’We did
some outstanding work but you’re not close enough to the pulse of the
market.’
So when Widmar took control in 1972 he inherited an agency in
trouble.
But under his leadership there followed nearly two decades of steady
expansion,working with blue-chip clients including UBS, Kodak and
General Motors.
This year, Widmar was voted Switzerland’s advertising man of the
year.
Although work kept him away from the awards ceremony, it’s an accolade
he takes seriously. ’In Switzerland, I have responsibility. Advertising
should be a respected part of the business community, but ad people are
low on the social level here. What I can try to do is give advertising
respectability by establishing a clear link with business.’ To this end,
Widmar sits on the boards of various companies in Switzerland and
abroad.
His real satisfaction, though, is still derived from advertising. He
concludes: ’As long as I have passion left, I will stick with Y&R. And I
have lots of passion left.’
