There are good reasons, BuureTV.ch as an example of an online video image campaign: The official web TV channel of the Swiss Farmers' Union (SBC) is already in its fifth year of operation and won a Gold Award in the Web TV Information category at the World Media Festival in Hamburg in May of this year. Matthias Singer is responsible for the project in the Communication division at the SBV. When asked about his personal favorite episode, he mentions the segment about professional musician Michel Biedermann, who plays clarinet in the Bern Symphony Orchestra. "I like this feature so much because Michel Biedermann is not only a musician, but also a farmer. And I find this interplay fascinating. Not least because you can sense how much Michel Biedermann loves his job as a farmer." He highlights other episodes:

The best: "The article about the itinerant shepherd because it is emotional, humorous, thoughtful, but also serious: if - despite all the romance - no local lamb is eaten, there will soon be no more itinerant shepherds."

The most watched: "This is clearly the article about the 1st August brunch."

The underestimated one: "One film that clearly deserves more attention is the one about poppy oil farmer David Brugger. A young farmer who has found a livelihood with a new, old branch of farming."

The most elaborate: "That was probably the episode about the Marti family's whey bath on the Berglialp high above the Glarnerland. The film crew had to carry the camera equipment up the mountain for almost two hours. The result was a great film about a mountain farming family that very successfully discovered a niche and cultivated it with great attention to detail."

As an umbrella organization, SBC has structured its communication in the form of a pyramid: At the top, under the responsibility of the respective brand owners, are individual products, such as Emmi or Caffe latte, below which are product groups such as fruit, vegetables, milk etc. And at the very bottom, quasi as a basis, SBC has been running a comprehensive image campaign for Swiss agriculture since 1998 under the claim "Gut, gibt's die Schweizer Bauern" ("Well, there are Swiss farmers"). In addition to classic media advertising with posters and TV commercials, the campaign includes numerous other measures aimed at improving the image of agriculture. Buuretv. ch is one of these measures and was first launched in 2007 as a pilot project in the canton of Aargau and then in 2008 for the whole of German-speaking Switzerland to reach a young, urban target audience. "We are noticing an increasing alienation between the farming and non-farming population and are therefore trying to bring some 'barn air' into urban living rooms with the online videos," says Singer, explaining the target group strategy.

YouTube disappointed

The videos are shown on a separate channel on Internettv. ch, which can be accessed via Buuretv.ch, they are integrated into various websites, such as Bauernverband.ch or Landwirtschaft.ch, and are also used in social media, especially on Facebook. They are also used at trade fairs and farm festivals of the respective farmers and are made available free of charge to local television stations such as TeleNapf or ZüriPlus. The greatest reach is achieved via the company's own websites and Facebook. Between 400,000 and 500,000 videos are viewed each year, which is one of the highest reach figures of all SBC communication measures in terms of budget. The average length of stay is 2:45 minutes, which means that episodes with an average duration of between 2:30 minutes and 4 minutes are usually watched in full length.

Distribution via YouTube is not a priority for Singer. In the pilot phase, the video channel on YouTube was promoted relatively heavily, but it soon became clear that the target group could be reached much better with its own, well-embedded channel. Today, the farmers' association distributes "a few videos sporadically" via a YouTube channel. However, YouTube is far too little target group-oriented, there is huge international dispersion and the access figures are "astonishingly low" compared to the BuureTV channel, reports Singer, while at the same time admitting that perhaps "the experiment should be repeated" after the last attempt in 2010.

For the production of the videos as well as for hosting and streaming, Singer has worked with the company Ipmedia in Zurich from the very beginning. Today, the production processes with Ipmedia are well established, and Singer still spends one to two hours a week on BuureTV. SBC is primarily responsible for finding topics and making arrangements with the farmers involved. In the beginning, a short storyboard was written for each shoot, but now the video journalists know the concerns of the farmers' association "very well and decide for themselves on location how the topics are to be staged," boasts Singer. Before filming, he says, the central message is determined and then implemented on location. "The VJs have a lot of freedom there, and the actual storytelling often happens during the shoot. Because it was noticed that with a script, "there was often no room for good, spontaneous ideas. In the beginning, they always wanted to pack too much information into the videos, Singer reports on further insights. "But the VJs very soon convinced us that the videos had to be short, that one story per film was more than enough."

Expansion into a national project

Asked about future plans for BuureTV, Singer says that in the future they want to remain true to the approach of showing agriculture in all its breadth and always putting people at the center. And for some time now, they have had in mind expanding into western Switzerland and, in the medium term, developing BuureTV into a national project. Singer knows that the videos would have to be made by Romands, and regrets that Ipmedia does not employ any French VJs. Meanwhile, BuureTV has already found imitators in his own family: The vegetable producers operate an independent communication and have become active with Gemüsetv.ch after seeing BuureTV. When it makes sense thematically, videos are exchanged in order to mutually benefit from the additional distribution.

Christoph J. Walther

Mini Case Studies

These articles have appeared in the video marketing series so far:
- "Video marketing is getting off the ground": Werbewoche 16/27.9.2013, page 29
- "Swiss tubers without a chance?": Werbewoche 17/11.10.2013, page 25

There are good reasons to highlight BuureTV.ch as an example of a video image campaign on the web: The official Web TV channel of the Swiss Farmers' Union (SBC) is already in its fifth year of operation and won a Gold Award in the Web TV Information category at the World Media Festival in Hamburg this May. Matthias Singer is responsible for the project in the Communications division at the SBC. When asked about the episode that is his personal favorite, he names the feature about professional musician Michel Biedermann, who plays clarinet in the Bern Symphony Orchestra. "I like this feature so much because Michel Biedermann is not only a musician, but also a farmer. And I find this interplay fascinating. Not least because you can feel how much Michel Biedermann loves his job as a farmer." As further episodes, he highlights:

- The best: "The article about the wandering shepherd, because it is emotional, humorous, thoughtful, but just as serious: if - for all the romance - no local lamb is eaten, soon there will be no more wandering shepherds."

- The most viewed: "This is clearly the post about the 1st August brunch."

- The underrated: "One film that clearly deserved more attention is the feature on poppy oil farmer David Brugger. A young farmer who has found a livelihood with a new old farm."

- The most elaborate: "That was probably the episode about the Marti family's whey bath on the Berglialp high above Glarus. The film team had to carry the camera equipment steeply up the mountain for almost two hours for this film. The result was a great film about a mountain farming family that very successfully discovered a niche and cultivates it with great attention to detail."

As an umbrella organization, SBC has structured its communication in the form of a pyramid: At the top, under the responsibility of the respective brand owners, are individual products, such as Emmi or Caffe latte, below which are product groups such as fruit, vegetables, milk etc. And at the very bottom, quasi as a basis, SBC has been running a comprehensive image campaign for Swiss agriculture since 1998 under the claim "Gut, gibt's die Schweizer Bauern" ("Well, there are Swiss farmers"). In addition to classic media advertising with posters and TV commercials, the campaign includes numerous other measures aimed at improving the image of agriculture. Buuretv. ch is one of these measures and was first launched in 2007 as a pilot project in the canton of Aargau and then in 2008 for the whole of German-speaking Switzerland to reach a young, urban target audience. "We are noticing an increasing alienation between the farming and non-farming population and are therefore trying to bring some 'barn air' into urban living rooms with the online videos," says Singer, explaining the target group strategy.

YouTube disappointed

The videos can be seen in a separate channel on Internettv. ch, which can be accessed via Buuretv.ch, they are incorporated on various websites, such as Bauernverband.ch or Landwirtschaft.ch, and also used in social media, especially on Facebook. In addition, they are also used at trade fairs and farm festivals of the respective farmers and are made available free of charge to local TV stations such as TeleNapf or ZüriPlus. The greatest reach is achieved via the company's own websites and Facebook. Between 400,000 and 500,000 videos are viewed each year, which is one of the highest reach figures of all SBC communication measures in terms of budget. Viewing time averages 2:45 minutes, which means that full-length episodes averaging between 2:30 minutes and 4 minutes are usually watched. Distribution via YouTube is not a priority for Singer. During the pilot phase, the video channel was promoted relatively heavily on YouTube, but it soon became clear that the intended target group could be reached much better with its own, well-embedded channel. Today, the farmers' association distributes "sporadically some videos" via a YouTube channel. But YouTube is far too little target group-oriented, internationally there are huge scatters and the access figures are "surprisingly low" compared to the BuureTV channel, reports Singer and at the same time admits that perhaps after the last attempt in 2010 "the experiment would have to be done again".

For the production of the videos as well as for hosting and streaming, Singer has worked with the company Ipmedia in Zurich from the very beginning. Today, the production processes with Ipmedia are well established, and Singer still spends one to two hours a week on BuureTV. SBC is primarily responsible for finding topics and making arrangements with the farmers involved. In the beginning, a short storyboard was written for each shoot, but now the video journalists know the concerns of the farmers' association "very well and decide for themselves on location how the topics are to be staged," boasts Singer. Before filming, he says, the central message is determined and then implemented on location. "The VJs have a lot of freedom there, and the actual storytelling often happens during the shoot. Because it was noticed that with a script, "there was often no room for good, spontaneous ideas. In the beginning, they always wanted to pack too much information into the videos, Singer reports on further insights. "But the VJs very soon convinced us that the videos had to be short, that one story per film was more than enough."

Expansion into a national project

Asked about future plans for BuureTV, Singer says that in the future they want to remain true to the approach of showing agriculture in all its breadth and always putting people at the center. And for some time now, they have had in mind expanding into western Switzerland and, in the medium term, developing BuureTV into a national project. Singer knows that the videos would have to be made by Romands, and regrets that Ipmedia does not employ any French VJs. Meanwhile, BuureTV has already found imitators in his own family: The vegetable producers operate an independent communication and have become active with Gemüsetv.ch after seeing BuureTV. When it makes sense thematically, videos are exchanged in order to mutually benefit from the additional distribution.

Christoph J. Walther