These are the first 50 years of Dagmar from the point of view of the company’s CEOs – “Dagmar has been a true pioneer”

Passion, people, working together, continuous renewal, agility and transparency. Those who have worked as Dagmar’s CEO have clear reasons why the company has been successful for fifty years.

Dagmar was founded when a team of ten people who had bought media space broke away from the advertising agency SEK. Over the years, Dagmar has grown into an organisation employing more than 200 experts.

In fifty years, Dagmar has only been led by four CEOs. What has the journey been like from their point of view? What is the secret to the organization’s success all these years?

Helge Kreutzman, CEO 1973–1991: “Dagmar was quite a turmoil in the industry”

Dagmar was founded when a team of ten people who had bought media space broke away from the advertising agency SEC in the autumn of 1973.

“Not everyone understood what the reform was about. That is why the new company also aroused suspicion and confusion,” says Helge Kreutzman, the first CEO who took over Dagmar.

With Dagmar, an impartial neutral party began to focus on how and from which media the desired target groups could be reached. Advertising agencies were allowed to focus on creative design. From the very beginning, media space was purchased ethically: the customer received the benefits negotiated by Dagmar as a benefit, and everything was transparent. For its creators, the work was a clear source of pride.

“We knew we were doing the right thing, and that was a strong driver. It took courage to rise up against the prevailing industry standards and create business in a completely new way. People whose work had previously been quite invisible were able to emerge in a new way and develop operating methods.”

Dagmar was allowed to operate for at least five years without competitors. Then others also understood what kind of business it was about.
Kreutzman says that he wrote a vision of the development of the IT industry at the beginning of time: I believe that one day every Dagmar employee will have their own computer on their desk.

“The vision tells us where we started. I’m really proud of Dagmar’s growth. It was never a given, but a lot of work has been done for it.”

Leena Paananen, CEO 1991–2001: “Dagmar has been a true pioneer”

Leena Paananen became the CEO of Dagmar in 1991. He had become the design director in 1980 to develop Dagmar’s research expertise. Customer understanding improved, and the vision of the most effective marketing was expanded with the help of the research orientation of the entire staff and later with the help of its own research department.

Customers trusted Dagmar strongly.

“We freed up our customers to focus on more strategic tasks. We helped with marketing planning, international relations and took care of media buying either on a full-service basis or by supporting and providing background information for the client’s own media negotiations. We always acted ethically: we never negotiated benefits for Dagmar, but always for customers.”

Digitalisation was introduced in the 90s.

“Dagmar is one of those rare companies with The Long List of Firsts. We started using internal email before it became a business-to-business use, developed software ourselves and introduced an extranet service for customer information services, campaign approval practices and reporting. We were the first to build direct IT connections to media subscription and invoicing systems. Already in the 90s, Dagmar was building econometric models for its customers.”

Paananen tells how Dagmar both learned from her good customers and trained her customers and the entire industry.

“We were a pioneer and developer of our own path. We had the desire and enthusiasm to learn new things on the eve of the transition.”

Paananen has been pleased to follow Dagmar’s growth and development.

“There have always been people in the company who have wanted to develop and develop the operating methods of the industry. The personnel has been the driving force behind Dagmar’s development. This shared desire and joy of change is what I have missed the most since I left Dagmar. Dagmar has been a true pioneer and that has helped the company to succeed.”

Tuula Kallio, CEO 2001–2019: “People are at the heart of everything we do”

Tuula Kallio started as Dagmar’s third CEO in 2001. He had worked as the company’s marketing director since 1991, being responsible for the design and customer service teams.

According to him, the biggest factor in Dagmar’s success has been the desire for continuous renewal.

“Others are forced to renew, but the people of Dagmar have always had a genuine desire to renew. That’s why people who want to learn new things have enjoyed Dagu the most. Renewal has always been done for the benefit of our customers: we have genuinely wanted to improve the customer’s result. We have developed models and increased the customer’s understanding of the market. We have boldly increased the number of digital marketing specialists in the forefront, taking into account the needs of the future. The same applies to analytics and technology experts.”

Renewal requires constant learning, which is why Dagmar has wanted to invest in training people.

“For example, everyone was trained on the possibilities of artificial intelligence, not just a few teams. No one was excluded from the information. Things have always been done together; Not that the management team decides, but everyone has been taken to think about and develop things. Working together has created a sense of community,” Kallio says.

According to Kallio, Dagmar has always wanted to operate responsibly above all else.

“At Dagmar, we always do what we promise for our customers at any given time – boldly, enthusiastically and with vision. Partners are appreciated, no one succeeds alone. In both customer work and personnel management, people are always at the core of operations.”

Krista Elopuro, CEO 2019–: “Passion and success go hand in hand”

Dagmar’s current CEO, Krista Elopuro, sums up the reasons why the company has been so successful for 50 years: the best employees, amazing customers and humane owners.

“The main reason is our people: At Dagu, we have always worked and developed our expertise together. We have a strong team spirit, and we genuinely help each other. We have customers from all fields. The owners are also of great importance: the Salomaa family has a culture of the heart that radiates to the everyday life of the company. They always say that you should do what you are passionate about. It is precisely this passion that we have been able to realize,” Elopuro says.

Elopuro joined the building in 2006. He remembers an example of employee involvement from his own early days.

“As a new employee, I was immediately able to participate in the company’s strategy sessions, where we thought about the direction the industry is heading in and what our customers need in the future.”

Digitalisation grew rapidly during Elupo’s first years at Dagmar, and the company’s digital team doubled every year. There are many things that she feels have had a strong impact on Dagmar’s success.

“Around the 2010s, we were considering whether to hire data scientists. We first hired one and then several others. At the same time, we expanded our expertise to the content side and marketing technology. They were the right decisions. The combination of experienced generalists and in-depth experts has ensured that we have kept up with the development and taken bigger and bigger leaps in being able to do the most effective marketing for our customers.”

And how do we go from here? How will Dagmar continue to succeed for the next 50 years?

“With the same recipe as before: by believing in people, customers and Finnish companies. By building a good work community and culture, which ultimately determines the success of the company. We are constantly creating scenarios for the future to stay awake and agile. I believe that passion and success will continue to go hand in hand.”