Horizont: How satisfied are you with the course of business in 2014 - what do you expect for 2015? How many employees does Reichl und Partner currently have?

Reichl: Despite a turbulent environment, we were even able to increase our team in Austria a little this year. Our team at the locations in Vienna and Linz currently has 167 permanently employed specialists from all areas of communication. Over 50% have a university or  UAS degree. We are growing primarily in sophisticated areas such as classic advertising, design, eMarketing, social media, media planning and PR, and are stagnating in the area of creating simple advertising materials such as brochures and flyers. All in all, it can even be said that the quality segment is even growing at an above-average rate.

Horizont: What communication trend is Reichl und Partner most concerned with at the moment?

Reichl: As one of the first holistic agency groups in the German-speaking world, we are naturally interested in everything that involves combining classic advertising campaigns and design with the use of new interactive media. Increasingly, we understand integrated communication as the integration of customers into the overall communication strategy. Today, brands are no longer designed on the drawing board, but are shaped by users of social media. This increasingly requires interdisciplinary thinking in the agencies, and since we only have permanently employed experts, we feel very comfortable with these tasks. Personally, I'm also fascinated by the high level and demands of design in digital media. Agencies can once again unleash their full design and creative power and showcase it worldwide.

Horizont: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an advertising agency headquartered in Linz? What has changed since Reichl und Partner also has a headquarters in Vienna?

Reichl: The agencies in Vienna and Linz were founded simultaneously in 1988, Zurich and Stuttgart were added in 2011. Reichl und Partner employs in Austria 122 of the 167 employees in Linz  and 45 in Vienna, so we are still an Upper Austrian agency at heart. Our satellites in Stuttgart, Geneva, Zurich help us to gain a foothold in the German market. Thus, we are an agency for the German-speaking region. At the Linz site, we benefit from our proximity to Germany. At the Vienna site, we benefit from our proximity to Central and Eastern Europe. We work for both B2B and B2C clients in almost all industries. From that point of view, we are very well positioned.

What I like about the Upper Austrian and Bavarian companies is that here we still find truly entrepreneurial management with freedom of choice and also decisiveness.

Rainer Reichl, CEO of Reichl und Partner Communications Group
(Linz, Vienna, Zurich, Stuttgart)

Horizont: I myself was once an advertising and copywriter in an agency in Graz - and I experienced that people from Graz always looked somewhat enviously to Vienna, without admitting it. Most of the time, this has manifested itself in a bit of scolding "about the Viennese". I don't know if that's still the case in Graz now - that was 15 years ago.
But that leads me to a question for you: As an Upper Austrian advertiser, are you a little envious of your Viennese colleagues - for example, because there are fatter budgets to be had there, because there are more well-educated creatives looking for jobs there, because .... Or are they glad to be in Linz?
Or does the agency location not matter by now anyway? I am also interested in this question because, as an Upper Austrian agency that has also expanded to Vienna, they might know "both sides".

Reichl: In the meantime, I work 3 days a week in Vienna myself and love this city and your ventures. I particularly like the fact that Vienna has international agency clients who are also keen to work with an independent agency. On the other hand, I love entrepreneurship in Upper Austria and neighboring Bavaria. The fact is that I and many of our employees have been able to experience the cultural diversity of our country over the last 25 years, particularly through our broad customer structure, and this is also reflected in our way of thinking and our work. Every location has its strengths!

Horizont: When talking to some of the chairmen of the provincial specialist groups, the word "pitch culture" always comes up. Public clients in particular would invite umpteen agencies for presentations, offer no or ridiculously low distance fees, and then take the cheapest bidder anyway. Is this also the case in Upper Austria - and what can Upper Austria's largest agency do about it?

Reichl: We don't have a problem with that, quite the opposite, we are happy about every invitation to a pitch. In the end, just winning a competition presentation allows us to develop further. As an agency, you don't have to accept every invitation. And it's okay for clients to look at several agencies. Many also offer a generous distance fee. I have the feeling that the situation in Upper Austria is very orderly and fair.

Horizont: What is actually (still) Upper Austrian about Reichl und Partner?

Reichl: As I said, 122 of our 167 employees work in Linz. And this makes us by far the most powerful full-service advertising agency in Upper Austria. We also have Upper Austria's most prestigious clients on our client list and develop the entire agency group from Upper Austria. Upper Austria is an economically well-situated federal state with a wonderful location in Europe. In addition, there is a really great quality of life, which also attracts employees from surrounding countries. So we are totally Upper Austrian at heart and are also very proud of it.