13-year-old Alex Knoll from Idaho wows the audience

Alex Knoll is the developer of the Ability App, which helps people with physical disabilities to find their way around in everyday life. The outgoing and eloquent young talent made it onto the well-known Ellen DeGeneres Show last year. With an emotional performance that wowed the audience, he was also the star of Marketing Day 18 at the KKL Lucerne - and not the only one, of course. A series of impressive speakers explained and debated the conference topic of "Total Customer Experience" in presentations and breakout sessions, which were followed and discussed with great interest by the audience.

Inspiring keynotes and breakout sessions

Keynotes and breakout sessions provided participants with new insights for their day-to-day work. In his presentation, biologist Albert M. Baehny, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Geberit, gave an insight into his company's recipe for success. He also revealed that he rates hotels according to bathroom standards when he travels - and that, according to a survey, most hotel customers do the same.

Stefan Michel, Dean of the Executive MBA at IMD in Lausanne, member of the Board of Directors of Bossard Holding in Zug and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Gesellschaft für Marketing GfM, posed the question: Do you understand your customers' job-to-be-done? In an extremely entertaining and inspiring presentation, he proved that he had an excellent understanding of his own job. Stefan Mügge from John Deere spoke about the fact that farmers are also going digital. Florian Teuteberg from Digitec Galaxus AG talked about consistent, authentic and lively customer orientation, the company's history and its vision for the future.

Gabriela Manser, Managing Director of Goba Mineralquelle und Manufaktur Gontenbad, took part in the face-to-face discussion with Susanne Wille, who as usual was an excellent moderator. She explained the success of her company and also revealed what is being done to ensure that it remains successful in the long term.

The well-attended breakout sessions covered the following topics extensively: Digital Customer Engagement in Marketing; how self-driving cars are changing the world; Artificial Intelligence supporting Global Customer Experience; body language and its impact; Digital Customer Engagement in Marketing; B2B lead generation - is face-to-face dialog with prospects out of fashion?

Consolidating the good and daring to try something new

In order to align the Marketing Day with the interests of the participants, innovations from 2017 were revised. Tried and tested elements were retained and expanded upon, while new elements were carefully adapted. The result is an up-to-date

Program concept that allows more participation, freedom and co-creation. With this concept, Marketing Day should be able to further expand its leading position and continue to play a pioneering role in the industry as a knowledge and network booster.

The winners of the Marketing Trophy 18

Category large enterprises: Migros Genossenschafts Bund with the project: Migusto, culinary platform, the Migros cooking club. Agency involved: Y&R (communication), Process (branding), Branders (front-end platform)

SME category: Saas Valley Marketing with the project: WinterCARD 16/17 - "It'll blow your mind!", boosting added value. Agency involved: Matter + Gretener Communications

Category Non Profit Organizations: Pink Ribbon Switzerland with the project: 10 years of Pink Ribbon Switzerland, promoting early detection of breast cancer.

The Special price goes to: UBS Switzerland with the project: UBS Kinds Cup - It's about much more than winning. Agency involved: Weltklasse Zürich, Publicis Switzerland

The Audience Award goes to: Coop Cooperative with the project: Karma.