Sipping Americanos with
Florian Haller
Florian Haller - owner and CEO of Serviceplan Group - is on top of his game. His agency that he took over from his father just won Independent Agency of The Year and Independent Network of The Year in Cannes along with golds, silvers, bronzes and a Grand Prix. He transformed a Germany-based company into a massive group operating in 24 countries. We met him in their recently built, state-of-the-art (and full of contemporary art) headquarter to figure out what does it take to create such a larger than life agency.
LAJOS
The other day I saw Sanna Marin (former Finnish prime minister) here at the agency... Does she have a new job?
Florian
I think her main thing is now working for a think tank of Tony Blair. She has a cool personality, I really liked her, and particularly now with politicians becoming increasingly eccentric, you can't appreciate enough those who are just smart, charismatic and on point.
LAJOS
So, you didn't offer her a job in the account department then... But is this something you would consider, hiring a former politician?
Florian
I've always been interested in politics and, therefore, in politicians. I like meeting them, but in our industry it's difficult to find opportunities to work together. We do political campaigning but it's a very different job then being a politician yourself. So far, a concrete opportunity never presented itself.
LAJOS
But you don't say no to political campaigns, right?
Florian
Yeah, we did work for the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of the ruling CDU, we did a couple of election campaigns for them, years ago, also for CDU.
LAJOS
How is it done in Germany?
Do the political parties invite agencies to pitch for their campaign, or they approach agencies directly?
Florian
It's a standard pitch but it’s a different way of working.
When you work with politicians, you usually face someone who believes - because they talk to 'the people' all time - that they know the job of the creative or the 'advertiser' better, so they are difficult to advise. That's number one.
And number two, there is sometimes not enough know-how in the political parties about modern communication, and this makes it very difficult to work together.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A NEPO BABY?
LAJOS
Don't you have worries about the possible downside of doing political work in such a divided society?
You could easily get associated with the party you work for even if you don't share their views... That's one of the reasons why we at our agency have a very strict no political campaigns, no government assignments policy.
Florian
I guess here it's a bit different from Hungary, because the trenches are not so deep between one and the other side, the tension between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats is not so big...
...but it is with the Greens and/or with the AfD, isn't it?
It´s complex.
First, you can´t compare Greens with AfD. Important for us: we would not work for somebody who is on the very left or the very right side. We would only work for a party which is in the centre.
And honestly when you work for a party in the centre, you do a contribution to democracy, because at the end of the day parties need people like us to shape and bring their platform to the media.
LAJOS
Only a few weeks passed since the German elections and looking at the results no one could be happy in the centre, it's only the edges on the left and the right who have reason to celebrate.
Florian
For the future it will be crucial, but I think Friedrich Merz is very aware of this – that we need to address the issues people have. These are the economic future of Germany, organised immigration, and the security. To solve these issues you need money, and you need investments - for all three of them.
LAJOS
From being named Independent Agency or Network of the Year at multiple festivals, to your presence in 24 countries — the list of achievements seems endless. I think we can safely call Serviceplan Group an über agency, without exaggeration. Is that what you had in mind when you took over from your father? Did you have such ambitions?
Florian
I am always a bit embarrassed about this question, because you would like to be the man who had this vision 25 years ago and exactly followed this vision, but to be honest I wasn't.
My vision of Serviceplan was created on the way. I was always ambitious and wanted to create something meaningful and international, but I had no idea how it would work. And I think it is not a wrong thing to do, because you can create a vision also when you're walking. Whilst you're walking you learn how to walk. And as you learn how to walk you start realising what is feasible.
I NEVER HEARD OF A CHARLES SAATCHI JR.
LAJOS
I have big admiration for that thing called Mittelstand in Germany, the - in many cases - family-owned businesses. A huge number of great companies and brands that are located in small villages we never heard of and have yet world domination and very often they are taken over by the next and then the next generation of the family.
I thought maybe you had some sort of a duty or inner obligation to take care of the company that your father built...
Because to me it is very unusual in this business to take over an ad agency from the previous generation. I never heard of a Charles Saatchi Jr. or John Hegarty Jr. ...
Florian
It's true what you are saying about the German Mittelstand, there are a lot of family-owned companies which are being held over generations - that's the stronghold of the German economy, because these companies have a high level of stability and are often very innovative because they don't have much money, so they have to think about new solutions all the time.
But I never saw Serviceplan as a family company.
My father founded it, made it a successful agency group so I took over something which was working already well. What intrigued me when I came over to Serviceplan was the idea to become an entrepreneur.
I did not feel family obligation to follow my father into the company and honestly speaking - I started with Procter&Gamble - if I would always have wanted to start in my father’s company maybe I would have gone to an advertising agency before and not P&G...
... you never worked for another agency?
No, never.
LAJOS
So, you started on the client side, thinking that one day maybe you will take over - or this wasn't the case at all?
Florian
Didn't really think much about that - I know it might sound strange but don't forget in the beginning of the '90s the agency was much smaller, and it wasn't for granted that I will do it.
When my father approached me - it was in '94 - if I was interested, basically what intrigued me was a chance to become an entrepreneur. I was at Procter & Gamble; I was happy, and it was a great time but, in a way, I started to realise that everything is in a way always the same. They have a wonderful marketing system, you can really learn a lot from it, met a lot of interesting, international people, but once you have understood the system, you can only work in that system, and this seemed to me a bit limited...
Don't tell me, I worked on Old Spice for 5 years ...
... and I had this rather romantic idea that based on my father’s agency I could create something unique, I could be my own boss and a real entrepreneur. And that's what still motivates me today.
WAS THERE A SUCCESSION-STYLE FIGHT OVER THE AGENCY?
LAJOS
Coming back to the family aspect of Serviceplan, was there a Succession-style fight over the agency? Do you have siblings you had to fight who takes over?
Florian
This was something that fortunately never happened in our family. I have a sister, she is a journalist at ZDF (one of the two main German public service channels), and she always wanted to follow a different path, she wanted to be in media, be a journalist. So, we were never fighting over the agency.
LAJOS
Do you consider yourself a nepo baby? Someone who had an easy start in life...
Florian
Absolutely...
When someone has an easy start like you, they often easily become sort of comfortable and lazy and don't put much effort into building something - it's obviously not the case with you.
Our agency looks very big, and it is in a way, compared to Publicis still relatively small though. But I didn't grow up with a mindset of “the son of a father with a huge agency”. My father started really small, and the agency grew bigger in the '80s, but we were never a super-rich family.
A CREATIVE ATMOSPHERE IS A VALUE IN ITSELF ALREADY
LAJOS
A couple of years ago I read an interview (I guess on LBB) with Alex Schill (Serviceplan Chief Creative Officer) and I thought it was quite interesting what he said about joining your agency. He just left Springer & Jacoby, then met you and he said that he didn't really needed you and you didn't really need him, so you thought none of you has something to lose so why don't we give it a try...
Does that mean that you didn't really thought a strong creative is important for an agency or you thought that you already had a strong creative side or potential in Serviceplan and that's why you don't really need Alex Schill, or somebody like him?
Florian
What he wanted to say I guess is that I didn't need him because the agency was running well already – we were growing, and everything was fine.
But it wasn’t exactly true: we were missing the creative potential which I believed we needed to be continuously successful in the future. In a sense, I didn't need Alex Schill to make sure that the agency is moving forward, but I always wanted us to have a cool and creative agency and for this one I did absolutely need Alex to bring things forward. And it went so far that Alex at the time was living in Hamburg (still does) and I told him he needed to come to Munich because that's where our headquarter is but he said: “Nah, I’m not going to Munich, I love Hamburg, that's North and South, we are very different in a way”. And I said – fine: if you don't come to Munich then we come to Hamburg and that's how we started our House of Communication in Hamburg.
LAJOS
So, you saw such a big potential in him that you even opened an agency extra for him...
Florian
Absolutely, I saw a huge potential in Alex and rightfully so – he has been the starting point of our creative turnaround. That was important to us then and still is today. Maybe, there could have been another Alex Schill somewhere, I don't know, but I needed somebody to push this agency forward.
I wanted to make the agency look more interesting, more attractive and to be honest also for me and our colleagues to be more fun working here. I think that a creative atmosphere is a value in itself already.
LAJOS
Let's talk about independence because that's where my strongest convictions are, I deeply believe that only an independent agency can be a truly interesting or brave agency and nowadays I get very sad when I see great independents being sold to either holding companies or consultancies. I mean Droga5 or Gut preaching 'independent forever' and then 'we proudly announce to have become part of' whatever giant... very disappointing.
Why is independence important to you?
Florian
Independence for me is key because I think it's a differentiating factor from other agency groups. We have the ability to decide for ourselves; we can be fast in our decisions and do the right things and not be bullied by a quarterly report. That's one side. And on the other side, it also differentiates our point of view with clients. Brands often invite 2 or 3 networks and an independent group like us, so it makes us stand out.
And it's also an emotional thing: I would hate to be part of a huge company, so there is no incentive for me here.
WHILST YOU'RE WALKING YOU LEARN HOW TO WALK
LAJOS
One of our previous guests here, Martin Sorrell told us that if you want to have a big business it is impossible to achieve it organically, you have to do acquisitions. Scaling is very difficult without buying companies.
So, I guess Serviceplan could be a very attractive target for the holding companies. And looking to the other direction, you actually do the same, you do acquisitions, like Pereira O'Dell in the US, so, it's not just organic growth that you are after?
Florian
Yeah, there is a kernel of truth in it. From a certain point, every now and then you need an acquisition to be going faster. If we went internationally 100% organically, it would have taken too much time, and I am not even sure that we would have made it. There are various aspects why you need acquisitions when you want to grow to a certain extent.
On the other side, you shouldn’t be too acquisition-oriented and fast. Because when you do an acquisition, you need to integrate the company. And integrating a company means not IT and finance and whatever but you need to work with people, and you need to become a team. And that takes a while.
LAJOS
What exactly you do at the agency? Despite being the CEO obviously... how deeply are you involved for instance in presentations or the creative work, if at all?
Florian
I still try to take care of larger, significant clients, it's always appreciated. I show up for pitches or when there is an issue to solve. That's one field. Also, I’m always available for the managing partners of our agencies. And the third thing is working on the group’s development: new agencies, projects, international expansions, or just operating issues.
YEAH, THAT WAS A DECISION I TOOK PERSONALLY
LAJOS
I remember this rather unpleasant matter with the infamous Sylt video...
[For our readers: last year an affluent group of elegant, young people were celebrating in a bar on the jet set holiday island of Sylt chanting a racist song with Proseccos in their hands, some of them imitating a Nazi greeting - the video went viral triggering international outrage.]
I was quite surprised that someone from Serviceplan was also recognizable in that video and then the guy was fired immediately...
Was that something you personally decided?
Florian
Yeah, that was a decision I took personally. We needed to act fast, but in the end, I believe it was the right thing to do.
... and legally okay?
Absolutely.
YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO HAVE YOUR DENTIST PERFORM A SURGERY ON YOUR KIDNEY
LAJOS
Let's talk a bit about agency branding because here I am a bit confused regarding Serviceplan. Back in the '70s, '80s everything was under one roof and then media agencies departed, production units also but nowadays we can observe a reverse track: holding companies putting again everything under one agency brand like Publicis or WPP - often killing strong agency brands.
You don't see the benefits of one agency brand? You have Serviceplan, Plan.Net and Mediaplus and House of Communication and Pereira O'Dell, etc. What is the benefit of this multiple brand setup?
Florian
I believe the world is dialectic, so contraries come together and create something new. On the one side, you have a lot of clients with the need of very specific know-how. In the '70s media was so simple that the creative agency could do it at the same time. And. honestly speaking, vice versa: you needed creative people, but the world was much less complex. So, everything in one was a good thing.
These businesses have gone their own way because they have been more complex, more difficult to handle and this is why you needed more specialists.
Therefore, a lot of clients want a very specific creative competence, a very specific media competence or a very specific technology competence, such as you wouldn't want to have your dentist perform a surgery on your kidney.
And this is why I still believe in having strong entities for creative and content, media and data, experience and technology.
Now we have made the choice to have 3 core brands behind it because we still have a lot of clients who put us in separate pitches and who want to have a specialty brand competing for the etat.
And when you look at it, this is why Serviceplan, Mediaplus and Plan.Net are still 3 brands. Now on the other side, we have more clients, like BMW, who need the connection, the synergy, doing everything together. This leads us in the direction where we have an end-to-end customer journey and, therefore, a media journey. And this is why we have the House of Communication as an agency super brand.
Now you could say this is too complex but, honestly speaking, it works well. If a client only wants a media agency, Mediaplus is the best place to go to, and if somebody wants the end-to-end thing then we build a customised team.
I WATCH RIDICULOUS INSTA REELS ON WINDSURFING
LAJOS
If I look at the German agency landscape, I haven’t seen such a speedy and impressive growth and strengthening the agency brand at other agencies.
I have always been a fan of Jung von Matt but I’m a bit disappointed these days in terms of what comes out from that agency. Not much interesting stuff I would say.
What do you think you do better than the rest on this market?
Florian
I think what makes us different is our independence.
JvM is also independent…
Second thing is the fact of being born integrated. Yes, Jung von Matt is independent, but they were not really born integrated. Third thing is our drive towards innovation: when you look at our creative cases, it’s a mix of disciplines. This is something we do well.
And the last thing is that we have this international setup which as an independent agency is relatively unique. And the last thing is – maybe we are more ambitious than others. We really want to move forward and not to stop where we are.
LAJOS
So, you don’t fire clients, don’t you?
Did you ever?
Florian
[laughs]
We don’t make a big fuss about it…
LAJOS
I see - we won’t read about such things in the papers then… talking about papers: how do your media consumption habits look like? What you start the morning with?
Florian
I am classic on this one: I am reading Spiegel Online; this is my favourite news outlet. Also, there is a morning newsletter called Steingart’s Morning Brief, it’s very well written and has this liberal angle that I appreciate. When I am too stressed, I go on Instagram and watch ridiculous reels on windsurfing…
LAJOS
Well, if windsurfing reels can be ridiculous, I don't even dare to mention what sort for contents you would find in my feed...
Florian, it was a pleasure talking to you!
Florian
Sure, thanks for having me!
— The End.