Advertising Day 2016 at the Musée Olympique

All about the Werbewoche Advertiser of the Year award here. Photos of the day's participants can be found in the upcoming Advertising Week 10/2016.

The first general meetings of the two language-regional sections of German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland also took place. François Besençon, President of the French-speaking Switzerland section and Vice-President of Communication Switzerland, emphasized at the members' meeting of the former Publicité Suisse that the nationwide association would give commercial communication the necessary boost it needed in its commitment to liberal guidelines.

Councillor of States Filippo Lombardi, President of Communication Switzerland, doubled down at the joint general meeting of the umbrella organization and the German-speaking section: "Our new structures and our new name are a commitment to the fact that we are committed to the entire spectrum of commercial communication - from traditional advertising to direct marketing, sponsorship and promotional items to public relations."

A powerful day of advertising

In his opening speech on Advertising Day, the Council of States explained that the conference motto "higher, faster, further" was a good fit for commercial communication, and not just because of the venue in the Olympic Museum. On the one hand, it was "the winner takes it all" on both sides. In addition, the field of competitors has grown ever larger in recent years. "Thanks to the World Wide Web, the dominators of recent decades have been caught up and in some cases overtaken by new, fast and extremely agile competitors. To ensure they still have a chance, more and more companies are resorting to - in most cases legal - doping: big data is putting the industry in a gold-rush mood." The two keynote speakers will demonstrate what contemporary advertising can look like. Switzerland's first and so far only space traveler, Claude Nicollier, and Ian Logan, Director General of the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, gave excellent examples of emotional advertising in the sense of consistent and credible storytelling, which is more in demand today than ever before.

50 years of the Swiss Commission for Fair Trading

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Swiss Commission on Fair Trading, Peter Leutenegger, in his role as an elected member of the Chamber, summed up that the SLK has not only gained a high level of acceptance during this time, but is still managing with almost the same budget today as it did in 1966. "The Commission on Fair Trading has spent almost the same amount every year for 50 years. This should be brought home to parliamentarians who don't want to imagine that the goals of today could be achieved with the budget of the day before yesterday." Marc Schwenninger, the legal secretary of the SLK, gave a witty speech to the industry representatives present in which he pointed out the sometimes fine line between advertising exaggeration and unfair commercial communication.

For the first time on Advertising Day: Advertising Week Advertiser of the Year

The Werbewoche Advertiser of the Year was chosen for the first time in 2016 as part of the Advertising Day. According to Werbewoche editor-in-chief Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Thomas Wildberger, who beat Dennis Lück from FCB Zurich and Livio Dainese from Wirz, was chosen for his outstanding performance, which he has delivered continuously over many years. The CCO of Publicis made a name for himself last year with the branding campaign for Salt, the multi-award-winning Swiss campaign and his work for UBS. "Thomas has attracted attention with his great work for major clients. Work that is as well thought out as it is done. Work that was not only seen, but noticed," emphasized Wildberger's predecessor Curdin Janett in his laudatory speech.

More about the award: Werbewoche.ch/thomas-wildberger-is-werbewoche-advertiser-of-the-year

KS Communication Switzerland is the umbrella organization for commercial communication. It represents the interests of advertising clients, contractors and media companies as well as advertising agencies and thus represents almost 22,000 employees in this country with an annual turnover of around CHF 7.2 billion. At a political level, KS/CS strives for liberal legislation. As a founder and founding member of the independent Swiss Fairness Commission, it is committed to ensuring that advertising is lawful, truthful and non-discriminatory. KS/CS is also committed to training and further education in the sector and conducts the relevant federal professional examinations on behalf of the Confederation.