75th anniversary of the agency: out-of-the-box from the start

Constantly redefining communication is a tradition for this agency: when Bremen clinics were desperately looking for specialists in 1965, the Wächter agency did not simply place advertisements. It first invented new clothing, allowed those involved to help make the selection, used a nurse with experience in Hollywood and fashion shows, convinced superiors general, cardinals and finally housewives, young girls and men of the attractiveness of the profession - holistic employer branding, long before the term even existed.   

The agency has remained true to its approach of creating solutions for the economic and communicative challenges of its clients with unusual and new ideas. “We create future” - this motto, slightly modified from the claim ‘Let's create value’, is the focus of the Wächter Worldwide Partners agency group's anniversary year.    

Radically innovative 

“Out-of-the-box thinking that generates added value for clients was the philosophy of our company founder Erich Wächter,” says agency owner Ingrid Wächter-Lauppe, remembering her father-in-law. When Wächter Senior was awarded the contract for an advertising campaign for a new department store many decades ago, he advised his client at the time to build a parking garage first in order to attract the affluent target group from the surrounding area.  

“Even though we have grown over the years with new disciplines such as change or sustainability strategy consulting and have worked for various industries from automotive, healthcare and technology to food and tourism, I am happy and proud that we have retained this philosophy,” says Ingrid Wächter-Lauppe. For the agency, one of the oldest communications agencies in Germany, finding creative solutions and thinking “instead of” ideas that bring success to the client, be it growth, brand value enhancement or social change, is therefore still the top priority today.  

Incidentally, the former agency founder rarely needed briefings: The eccentric artist was often simply on hand with his observations and ideas to inspire those in charge with his radically different, innovative solutions. As early as 1989, the agency developed games for waste separation or energy saving and suggested corresponding campaigns to clients and prospects.  

Interdisciplinary from Seattle to Shanghai 

Throughout its 75-year history, the Wächter agency has not only regularly broken new ways of seeing and thinking, but has also shown little regard for responsibilities or traditional departmental divisions: Branding, digital implementation, public relations and media planning go hand in hand, always as large or small, agile, modular and flexible as the client company and, above all, the task at hand requires.  

In addition to around 50 permanent and freelance employees at Munich's Theresienwiese, the agency group operates worldwide with over 4,000 experts in all communication disciplines from Seattle to Shanghai, as a shareholder of Worldwide Partners Inc., the largest global network of owner-managed agencies. Ingrid Wächter-Lauppe helped build up the network in Europe in the 1990s and is still an active board member today.  

A companion for the coming decades 

Long-standing client and employee relationships are important to Ingrid Wächter-Lauppe's management team, as Annika Keilhauer, Managing Director of Wächter PR and a Wächter employee for 18 years, explains: “Trends are often just old approaches with new vocabulary. But we still have at least another 75 years' worth of extraordinary ideas that will keep people talking.” The Wächter agency group continues to redefine communication from Munich across all sectors. And, as a brand guardian, has been protecting the identity and values of its clients for decades.