Press Release 1st July 2026

Fresh momentum for the ADEG brand with new creative lead agency Scholz & Friends in partnership with Achtzehn Grad

The pitch process for ADEG, the retail brand of REWE Großhandel GmbH with 360 locations across Austria, was launched in autumn 2025. This was followed by a multi-stage selection process as part of the tender, which was ultimately won in May 2026 by the agencies Scholz & Friends Vienna and Achtzehn Grad as a bidding consortium – both located at the same address on Vienna’s Getreidemarkt. In this constellation, Scholz & Friends Vienna will take on the role of creative lead agency, while Achtzehn Grad will be responsible for social media.

A group of six adults standing together indoors by a staircase and large windows, smiling at the camera. They are dressed in casual and semi-formal attire.

Michaela Lutz and Christian Hellinger (1st and 2nd row on the right, Scholz & Friends Vienna), as well as Katharina Steyrer and Mike Gattereder (1st and 2nd row on the left, Achtzehn Grad), are looking forward to the future collaboration with Carina Budgen, Head of Marketing ADEG, and Florian Klein, Managing Director REWE Wholesale (1st and 2nd row in the center). / Copyright: © sf_Studio Heidegger, Reproduction for PR purposes free of charge

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At a glance

In the future, Scholz & Friends Vienna will serve as the creative lead agency for the ADEG brand, while Achtzehn Grad will be responsible for social media.
Decision made following a multi-month, multi-stage pitch process.
Strategic communication platform “Land aufs Herz” to be further developed in a targeted manner.

Innovative strength meets regional roots

“Our brand enjoys a high level of trust and a positive image – and we want to leverage this potential even more effectively in the future. With Scholz & Friends, we are building precisely on this foundation in order to connect price perception even more strongly with our quality promise. Our goal is to engage our customers more emotionally across all our channels. The new agencies bring exactly the creativity, strategic expertise, and innovative strength we need to achieve this,” says Carina Budgen, Head of Marketing at ADEG.

Florian Klein, Managing Director of REWE Wholesale, adds: “ADEG thrives on regional roots and a genuine passion for retail. The change of our creative agency is a deliberate step for us in meaningfully evolving the ADEG brand. In doing so, we are clearly focusing on evolution rather than revolution: we are building on our strengths and consistently bringing them together under our strategic communication platform, ‘Land aufs Herz.’ With Scholz & Friends, we have found a partner who understands and consistently pursues exactly this approach.”

The authentic appeal of the ADEG brand

Christian Hellinger, Chief Creative Officer at Scholz & Friends Vienna, on the authentic appeal of ADEG: “ADEG retailers live true regionality every day. That is exactly what makes the brand so strong and relevant today. Every store reflects the needs of its local community, and the retailers are an integral part of their region – often for generations. Together with Achtzehn Grad, we want to continue telling and further developing the unique strength of the ADEG brand – its attitude and its heart – in order to position it even more clearly, more modernly, and more convincingly in terms of price perception. Our goal is not to break with what is established, but rather to sharpen the brand’s core in a consistent and powerful way.”

Stefanie Schönlieb, Account Directress at Achtzehn Grad, adds: “When it comes to bringing the heart of the brand and its unique connection to local regions to life, social media offers a stage that reaches and moves people. We look forward to using our social media expertise in the retail sector to make these stories – as diverse and authentic as each individual store – digitally tangible and to help carry forward the unique appeal of the brand together.”

The collaboration with the new agency constellation begins this summer.