We are the leading agency management experts and your strategic partner!

cherrypicker is currently the leading consultancy for agency management and agency selection in the German-speaking area. We want to further consolidate and expand this position.

As part of our activities, it is important to always be a competent and trustworthy partner both for you and for the agencies involved or other marketing service providers. We pursue a very high standard and a valuable value proposition.

In order to maintain our independence, to provide the best possible performance and to always meet all of your compliance requirements, we have imposed the following rules on ourselves that apply to all of our employees:

We advise and support our customers (usually advertising companies) in all questions relating to agency management and agency selection. We ourselves are not an agency, but a management consultancy. Our goal is to promote successful and goal-oriented relationships between our customers and their agencies along our customers’ value chain.

Our advice follows a comprehensive approach, i. that is, we are not so-called “pitch consultants”, but always develop tailor-made solutions for our customers that best support them in their respective tasks. This can also mean advising against a pitch or a change of agency. The management of relationships and processes between our customers and their agencies is a central part of our work.

We work for companies and institutions that use professional communication to achieve their corporate goals. Our customers can always rely on us to deliver our services and statements unconditionally, with commitment and exclusively in their interests. Existing customers always have priority over new business inquiries, agency discussions or other projects. In case of doubt, we do not place a new order to support an existing customer instead.

We are now an integral part of the communications industry. In this context, we work exclusively for customers, but of course with agencies. Agencies are always treated with respect and partnership, but not as a friend.

Agencies sometimes do a lot of work as part of the tasks. We respect this work and advocate an adequate allowance for the agencies in Pitches. We are also committed to ensuring that agencies receive appropriate feedback after a pitch or after chemistry meetings.

The results of our work can determine the success of customers and agencies – and ultimately also jobs. We are aware of this responsibility and check our statements and recommendations very carefully and conscientiously.

When it comes to tasks for our customers, we have our own opinion and represent it, even if it can sometimes be “uncomfortable”. Our attitude and opinion is always based on good preparation and on facts, never on rumors or prejudices.

We help our customers to get a better overview of the agency landscape and how agencies work. In order to guarantee the agencies a high level of transparency in our work and processes, we always give the agencies involved in agency selection processes and other projects as much information as possible or permitted by our customers. We are also committed to ensuring that agencies also receive appropriate feedback from customers.

We always act independently and neutrally. We do not enter into any contractual relationships or obligations with agencies and are in no way financially tied to or involved in agencies, neither as public nor as silent partners.

This does not apply if we commission agencies for self-promotion, press work or other creative, advisory services and thus act as a customer.

We treat all people equally, regardless of their gender, origin, skin color, religious belief or age.

In particular, we believe that people with so-called disabilities are a natural part of society, and we treat them accordingly. In agency selection processes, all agencies are entitled to the same fair and equitable treatment. As part of agency selection processes, we are committed to ensuring that all agencies that best suit our customers’ requirements are given a fair chance. Personal friendships or dislikes do not matter.

When dealing with international or global tasks, we treat all agencies equally, regardless of which country they come from or which language they speak.

One is good alone, we are professional in a team. We are experienced specialists who are really strong in a team. None of us can know everything and therefore nobody works alone. We always work in a team. For example, for all agency recommendations, an internal workshop with at least three experts takes place in good time before the longlist workshop.

We work according to the four-eyes principle. All important elaborations, documents and recommendations must be checked by at least one other colleague before passing them on.

Our word is valid and we stand by it. Regardless of whether there is a written agreement or not. We work according to the principles of an honorable Hamburg businessman. We always treat all of our customers’ information confidentially and conscientiously, regardless of whether there is a partially punishable agreement or just our word. Only information that our customers have authorized us to be passed on.

The same principles apply to the information given to us by agencies. Agency information is not shared with other agencies.

We are paid exclusively for our services by our customers, the advertising companies. We do not receive any remuneration or kickbacks from agencies.

The group of leading global agency selection consultants associated with the International AdForum, which includes cherrypicker, published its own Code of Conduct in October 2011. cherrypicker managed this project and played a major role in shaping the CoC.
The following comprehensive, globally applicable industry code thus exists, which we understand as a guideline and support for advice and the associations of customers and agencies:

As consultants, specialized on agency selection processes, our mission is to select the best agencies or marketing communications specialists to answer the needs of advertisers. Selecting an agency is based on detailed understanding of the pitch brief and assessing the nature and level of skills needed, as well as the fit with the client’s culture. This assessment needs a very high level of expertise, experience, insight and understanding of the marketplace, which cannot be based only on data and price.
Through permanent immersion in the ever-changing communication industry, we help our clients to get a unique and thorough understanding of the agency market. We know the key players, their credentials and professional practices such as their culture and personality. We concentrate on client needs and on the structural, professional and cultural dimensions of the agencies considered for the selection. We use all this knowledge to design a tailored and precise selection process in order to help clients identify the best possible partner.

We are focused exclusively on marketing communications and live and breathe the industry. Analysing agency mergers, acquisitions and transformations, new entrants and market trends through documentation, presentations, meetings and seminars all year long at local and global levels is our passion.

No one else can bring this level of expertise and experience to ensure a fair, ethical and efficient facilitation of pitches.

We are committed to provide consultants with proven experience and expertise. These consultants work with objectivity and reliable working practices. They have a solid and contemporary knowledge of the industry. On client’s request, we are happy to supply biographies of all our consultants and a full description of our methodologies.

We are committed to grant fair and identical treatment to all the agencies involved in every selection process, including the incumbent agency. In particular we commit to be transparent about information delivery, timings and meetings during the different steps of the pitch process. We commit to respect the intellectual property of competing agencies. We commit to deliver or encourage the client to deliver direct adequate feedback after the selection to all agencies who request it.

We are committed to use all means and resources to ensure to both, advertisers and agencies, full respect for their legitimate interests. In the context of an agency search, we work for clients, but of course together with agencies to ensure the outcome is in the best mutual interest of client and agency together. Advertisers and agencies are always treated with respect in a responsible, professional and neutral manner.

We are committed to ensure that we provide for our clients independent and objective recommendations, with the best possible level of service delivered. We are committed not to endanger the neutrality of our advice to advertisers through any particular or privileged relationship, which might lead to a bias in our recommendations.

We are committed to keep our clients informed of any possible conflict of interest arising from any potentially competitive assignment. Should a conflict of interest arise, we will inform all stakeholders in full transparency, and will take – if necessary – measures to solve the problem.

We acknowledge the essential to reveal our business model and compensation principles. They should be known by the advertisers and by agencies involved in the selection process.

We are committed to the strictest confidentiality about information given to us by our clients through their briefs. In this context, we are always happy, if the client requests it, to sign an appropriate mutual NDA (non-disclosure agreement). The same principle applies for all information passed on to us by agencies. We will not hand this over to any other agency.

As consultants, specialized on agency selection processes, we commit through signing this Code of Conduct, to these key business principles, which we consider absolutely necessary to ensure the quality and objectivity of the service we provide to the advertisers.

We also commit to respect the position of the agencies involved in these selections, because relationships between advertisers and agencies have to be fair and equitable.

We agree to promote this Code of Conduct with all professionals in the communications industry in order to ensure that they are aware of its provisions.

We live in a global world – this particularly applies to the entire communication sector and our clients. No matter what international communication challenges you have. We help you with the international agency search, international agency selection, worldwide agency management and worldwide agency evaluation.

We are happy to help you not only regionally, but also internationally. Cherrypicker has supported the following companies and brands, e.g. B. in the international agency selection, the international agency search, the global agency management or the global agency evaluation.

We have e.g. successfully sought agencies for East Germany, suggested the best agencies in St. Petersburg and Moscow to a customer, for a global B2B market leader Found a partner in New York, for the HQ of an Italian group headquartered in Milan, let agencies from all of the European markets that are important to him compete against one another, selected for a manufacturer of sweets in China, agency teams with German roots, researched for young, aspiring chandelier designers in China and searched for agencies in Australia twice for European companies and oversaw the selection processes on site.

For a DAX company, we have had the performance of 10 different agencies evaluated every quarter by marketing teams around the world and helped a large number of customers to work better with their agencies worldwide.

Our business is based on trust and competence. It’s not companies that do that, but people. If your task requires, we will, for example, create an international task force on site for insights from certain markets. Using the most competent experts available for the task. Over the years, we have built up a reliable network of more than 30 partners. And not just addresses from a database, but real people who we know, value and regularly meet.

We are regularly on the move as international trend scouts searching for new communication trends, new techniques and exciting agency models. We look at a wide variety of agencies in the most exciting cities – from the newcomer hothouse agency to the established network – and discuss the future of communication. among other things. In New York, L.A., Shanghai, Paris, London, Amsterdam and of course any time in Sydney and Melbourne.