MK Marketing & Kommunikation is looking for the MK mastermind again - voting is underway
In 2018, MK is once again seeking out the most prominent thought leaders in the field of marketing and communications. A total of nine individuals, who stand out for their forward-thinking work, have been nominated in three categories. Voting is now open.
You can cast your vote until August 24, 2018. The winners of the vote will be announced at the Futurize M marketing congress on August 28 at Messe Zürich.
Candidates for the election as MK thought leader could be submitted until the end of May 2018. In addition to the appropriate category, a brief explanation of the project or achievement that qualifies the person as a thought leader was required. From the collected proposals, a jury of marketing experts - for the first time all MK thought leaders of the past years - selected three finalists per category.
Click here to go to the voting
A total of nine people in three categories are up for election:
Category client / customer side
Rolf Hiltl, Hiltl
Rolf Hiltl runs the family business with a good eye for marketing and communication, but also attaches great importance to supporting people who, as he says, are not as lucky in life as he and many other people are. Always with his finger on the pulse, he steers his company through the tides and digital transformation, taking strict care to keep the haptic, namely vegetarian culinary, at the center. As an entrepreneur and client, Rolf Hiltl fits perfectly into the role of thought leader.
Marc-André Heller, L'Oréal
Marc-André Heller has been Country Manager Switzerland at L'Oréal since the beginning of 2016. With its international portfolio of 34 different and complementary brands, the group generated sales of 25.8 billion euros in 2016. The Swiss branch in Geneva and the Beauty Academy in Zurich employ 420 people. In addition to an active role on the SWA board, Marc-André Heller is known as a thought leader for implementing successful guerrilla marketing campaigns for Generation Z and for being the first Swiss brandteer to rely on micro-influencers in social media.
Marianne Wildi, Mortgage Bank Lenzburg
Marianne Wildi has been CEO of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg since 2010. According to finews.ch, the only bank in Switzerland that has actually implemented Open Banking. Anchored in the Aargau region, "Hypi" with 216 employees launched the advertising platform for SMEs Regiodeal.ch together with Bernerland Bank in February 2018. It works via smartphone app. SMEs can post their offers for free, users get access to low-cost offers. Regiodeal is a simple loyalty program for their SME and private customers that is completely digital and mobile.
Category Service Provider / Media / Implementer / Creation
Xiaoqun Clever, Ringier
The computer scientist has been on the Executive Board of Ringier AG since 2016. As CDO and CTO, she combines data and technology fields. This is how Ringier managed to position itself at the forefront as a digital company within two years. With her team of engineers and data analysts, she has won a wide variety of prizes and awards on international platforms. She is a thought leader and women's rights activist to boot. Quote: "The digital age is the age of women because they are networked thinkers and not top down, they are fact-based, solution-oriented and not hierarchical thinkers."
Bea Knecht, Zattoo
Bea Knecht is co-founder and chairman of the board of the streaming platform Zattoo. Previously, she developed software products for banking, HR and data center automation. Previously, she was an associate partner at a strategy consulting firm. Bea Knecht holds a BA in Computer Science from the University of California (Berkeley) and an MBA from IMD in Lausanne.
Patrick Warnking, Google
Patrick Warnking has been CEO of Google Switzerland since 2011. There, he is primarily responsible for the expansion of the national market and the key account business, having already been employed in a management position at Google Germany since 2007. Among other things, Google's Zurich branch is intensively involved in online advertising. As a thought leader, Patrick Warnking is driving the development of automated ad blockers that apriori eliminate harmful pop-ups and banners in the Chrome browser - and, it is hoped, prevent users from totally banning advertising from their user experience via ad blockers. By eliminating only the annoying ads, "clean" ads can continue to have their effect.
Category Research / Teaching / Associations
Kafi Freitag, Influencer & Coach
Kafi Freitag grew up in a small village near Solothurn, which for years competed with Japanese metropolises for 1st place on the suicide rate list. She took the first opportunity to turn her back on the village and the baroque city of Solothurn and move to Zurich. There, without any banking training, she worked her way up to become an investment advisor and later the right-hand woman of a general manager of a major international bank. She ran a dreadful cheap fashion chain and assisted the teacher of a remedial school, she ghostwrote a political blog for the NZZ and dressed a politician who subsequently made a career for himself but never wore the crisply cut suits. Today, the happily divorced 43-year-old Kafi runs an independent practice for process-oriented coaching and gives workshops and seminars for women and companies under her own label Tribute.
Martina Dalla Vecchia, FHNW
Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia is a lecturer in e-commerce, digital marketing and social media at the FHNW. Already in 2000, she created the first course for e-commerce & online marketing in Switzerland. Marketing automation, campaign management and digital business networking (Xing / LinkedIn) are among her core competencies. She is a regular speaker, blogs (dallavecchia.ch) and is co-editor of BPX-Fachverlag, specializing in CEO-ready guides on IT and business topics. Her digital credo: "You are what you share!"
Sandra Lehner, Frequency / Neoviso
Sandra Lehner is a pioneer in digital storytelling. In London, she has worked as a Digital Producer for several original YouTube channels (including Jamie Oliver's Food Tube) and as a Social Media Producer for some of the biggest TV brands such as "Downton Abbey" (NBCU) and "Sherlock" (BBC). As Head of Content Acquisitions EMEA at Frequency, she now brings digital content to Liberty Global's pay TV channels. In teaching, she brings a wealth of experience in digital storytelling techniques and international examples as a speaker for Neoviso, and has focused on storytelling for Gen Z since seeing the inspiring and ambitious formats of Gen Z studios like AwesomenessTV and ZoominTV at Digital Fronts. She blogs on these topics and is a sought-after contact for various media.
