The poster is not only intended to communicate the topic of environmentally friendly mobility, but also to create anticipation for the next automotive spring in the gray of November. Auto Mobil will take place from November 23 to 25, 2012.

Responsible at Olma Messen St.GallenRalph Engel (Head of CongressEvents), Daniel Oswald (Exhibition Director). Responsible at TKF St.Gallen/Zurich: Tim Stockmar, Alexander Fürer, Eveline Graf (creation), Marco Kleger, Ivan Sedleger (consulting), Ralph Baiker (photography), Annalena Rumler (image processing).

After four days of evaluation marathon (Werbewoche.ch reports) was decided by the jury of representatives from the editorial offices of the most important trade journals in the international communications industry. 3893 entries from 648 agencies worldwide had to be viewed. Switzerland, with 155 entries, won two gold Epica awards in the final round. Four works still have a chance of winning silver or bronze. These can only be calculated by the middle of next week after the scores have been evaluated in relation to the total number of entries. The gold already secured goes to Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett in the Consumer Services category for Swiss Post, where coffee sales at the counter are advertised with an imprint of a coffee cup as a stamp on a postage stamp.

The second gold award goes to Wirz in the Print Craft category with a graphic for Caran d'Ache. (pan)

 

A short time later, the publishing group Gruner + Jahr (G+J) itself confirmed the definitive end of the German business magazine. G+J also announced on Friday that the traditional magazine Capital is to be continued from Berlin. The other two sister publications Impulse and Börse Online are being examined to see whether they can be sold or whether they can be continued through a management buy-out, i.e. a takeover by managers within the publishing house. If the talks do not come to a successful conclusion, G+J plans to discontinue these two business magazines as well. A total of 314 employees of the various publications are affected by the announced measures.

According to works council member Rademaker, an additional 50 jobs in non-editorial departments at G+J are at risk, for example in the computer department. Rademaker, the employee representative, has accused the management of the publishing house of failing to deal with the employees since the first rumors of a closure emerged: "We only found out about everything from the press," she said.

On Wednesday, the Board of Directors discussed the future of G+J Wirtschaftsblätter. The controllers authorized the Executive Board to "carry out a sale, partial closure or closure of G+J Wirtschaftsmedien", according to a spokesperson for the publishing house. However, according to the publisher, a sale of the newspaper did not materialize.

FTD employees wore salmon-colored mourning ribbons on their lapels on Friday. The second page of Friday's edition of the newspaper is filled with solidarity letters from readers. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gruner + Jahr has budgeted around 40 million euros for severance payments. (SDA)
 

But as CEO of a medium-sized internet agency, Künzli had to show leadership in situations like this, it would have been a laugh. "So gentlemen, ladies," he said, and the room fell silent in a flash, "as we all know, the Internet went down at exactly 7.39 this morning. It's gone, disappeared, fizzled off into nirvana, I don't know. Nobody knows for sure. That's the problem. But what we need are solutions.

May I hear your suggestions?" The room remained dead silent and Künzli stared into pale faces. Then Michi, the head IT nerd, raised his hand and with a sympathetic nod, Künzli gave him the floor.

What has happened, where has the Internet gone? Does Michi have a solution that will save humanity? Do you have one?

Click here for the continuation

The story is part of a collection of 25 stories from the wonderful world of the web. In the web agency INM's book "Alles echt. 25 stories from the wonderful world of the web", Remo Peyer settles accounts with the "evil machinations of the internet mafia": Rip-offs, foaming at the mouth and finally: the web's demise.

Teaser image: Keystone

On the opening evening, Ruth Schweikert, Tim Krohn, Isolde Schaad, Gion Mathias Cavelty, Annette Mingels and Stephan Pörtner read their stories live in the Brockenhaus. Swiss television devoted a Special broadcast. This Wednesday's Kulturplatz with Eva Wannenmacher came straight from the Zürcher Brockenhaus. "We managed to turn advertising into culture," says Andi Portmann, Creative Director at Wirz, about the event.

Since Tuesday, the exhibition has been open to everyone: At the Brockenhaus ticket office, you can get an audio guide, just like in the museum. Now the tour leads through the house and stops again and again in front of exhibited objects. There you can enter the number of the respective object and listen to the short story about it. The exhibition lasts until the end of the year, and admission is free.

"Stories as only second-hand can tell them" at the Zürcher Brockenhaus.

Ueli Müller, Head of Zürcher Brockenhaus, and Eva Wannenmacher, SF Kulturplatz.

Stefan Pörtner reads "The Armchair".

Annette Mingels reads "The Hat."

Gion Mathias Cavelty reads "The Mirror".

Isolde Schaad reads "The Stand Telephone."

Tim Krohn reads "The Coffee Box."

Ruth Schweikert reads "The Hairdryer and the Costume."
 

The new "Digital Marketer of the year" is Adello, an agency specializing in mobile advertising. The "Digital Pioneer of the year" award went to Alexander Mazzara, co-founder and CEO of the interactive special interest channel Joiz TV. Finally, Daniel Grossen can look forward to the "Digital Lifetime Award. The long-standing CEO of Scout24 Switzerland is considered a pioneer in the field of online marketplaces. The evening was moderated by Nadja Zimmermann. With around 450 guests in the Kaufleuten ballroom in Zurich, this year's edition of the "Digital Marketing Award" was once again significantly larger than last year, the IAB said in a statement.

Once again, an open online vote decided the winner of the "Digital Marketer of the year" award. After a close race, the winner was "Adello," a startup specializing in mobile advertising around founder Mark Forster and CEO Sandor Laczko. The new "Digital Pioneer of the year," Alexander Mazzara, has managed to combine TV and digital with Joiz and to create an offer that did not exist on the market before, the statement continues. The social TV strategy implemented here even serves as a model for TV producers throughout Europe. This year's winner of the "Digital Lifetime Award" is Daniel Grossen. His work is probably well known to most Swiss Internet users, the IAB added. Whether cars, jobs or classifieds - there is hardly anything that cannot be found on the various scout platforms.

In addition to the VIP event and award ceremony, the three best graduates of the new IAB course "Digital Marketing for Beginners" were also honored. "The event was once again a complete success. Especially the VIP event for the sponsors featured top-class speakers; and with the graduates of our new course, we were able to close the circle perfectly," said Ueli Weber, President of IAB Switzerland.

The nominated projects/companies:

- Zalando - Zalando
- Adwebster - Adwebster
- Joiz TV - Joiz
- Adello - Adello
- Blick Mobile - Ringier

Nominees:

- Olivier Rihs CEO Scout24 Switzerland
- Andi Nigg CEO Adwebster
- Alexander Mazzara CEO Joiz
- Stefan Renninger CEO Romandie Network
- Stephan Obwegeser CEO Search.ch
 

The focus is deliberately on an editorial storytelling approach. The reason for this is both creative and strategic, the agency explained in a press release on Friday. On the one hand, this has resulted in an absolutely unique campaign. Secondly, behavioral economics studies have shown that the decision to stay in a 5-star hotel is not made spontaneously, but on the basis of detailed information. It is therefore important for Matter & Gretener to highlight the reasons that make a stay at The Alpina Gstaad unique.

Responsible at The Alpina Gstaad: Stefan Schär (Head of Marketing & Sales). Responsible at Matter & Gretener: Daniel Matter (Creative Direction), Dominik Imseng (Text), Sara Carla Nenzi, Dominic Fiechter (Art Direction), Marcus Gretener, Simone Frei (Consulting), Thomas Hausheer (Online).

This step is being taken primarily for strategic reasons and with a view to the user market, writes the NZZ in a communiqué on Friday. This is because it has been shown that readers with specific interests, particularly those interested in business topics, can be reached even better through web-based offerings. No employees are to be made redundant.
 

There is a great deal of uncertainty - not only among publishers here, but also around the world, operators of ad-financed websites are faced with the question of how to deal with automated trading processes (often referred to as real-time bidding/advertising, RTA/RTB). Even those who have not yet fully grasped the topic realize that this is accompanied by far-reaching changes in the advertising industry. It is therefore not surprising that the Werbewoche survey of publishers in Switzerland on RTA was far from being met with a response everywhere (including from a nationally known company with a lavishly expanded media office) and that the other responses (see separate text) were markedly different. It is hardly a question of whether RTA should be introduced in Switzerland or not. After all, a significant proportion of the advertising space available on the Internet has long been traded in this way: Google certainly does, but also foreign providers with a Swiss presence, such as Microsoft's MSN platform. In addition, there is the so-called cross-border traffic, i.e. all the hits from Switzerland on websites abroad that are monetized via RTA. Media agencies in particular are hoping that this will lead to more efficient purchasing processes (see WW 20/ 9.11.2012, p. 30 f.) However, it remains to be seen how prices and revenues will develop if advertising space is allocated to the best bid within fractions of a second across a wide area.

When it comes to RTAs, publishers can be divided into these categories:

The conservatives: They fear that RTA methods are not sufficiently geared towards marketing their premium placements, but that they are primarily used to sell off remaining seats at low prices. This is often influenced by past experience, as investments in online solutions failed to achieve the hoped-for success, if not leading to steep losses and falling prices. These publishers secretly hope that if enough publishers fail to adopt RTA, this trend will collapse and the status quo with the familiar processes will continue to thrive. If they can no longer do without the earnings potential of RTA trading, they risk having to act hastily and disadvantageously if they change their strategy due to a lack of experience and knowledge.
 
The exclusives: They have what many conservatives dream of: they are positioned in a vertical niche in such a way that they can not only promise advertisers that they will reach their target groups accurately, but can also deliver this at good prices. Those who pursue this strategy and achieve sustainable good returns are not dependent on RTAs. This group includes the Economist, for example, whose online boss says (see "Advertisers make content") that he has not yet tried RTA because no inventory remains unsold. Due to the curse of the small market, such a strategy can hardly be implemented on a large scale in Switzerland.
 
The progressives: Where conservatives shy away from risk, they venture forth. They invest in infrastructure and build up expertise with the intention of taking a leading role from the outset and thus defending and expanding their position. They hope for higher sales at higher prices and are willing to accept the risk of cannibalizing their direct sales and selling premium seats at low prices.
 
The pragmatists: They try to find a middle way in order to be able to use RTA as controlled as possible. However, this requires considerable investment in time and management resources and the absolute intention to be successful. According to the American specialist literature, these success methods are at the forefront:
 
1 Optimize blocking: One of the biggest fears publishers have is around protecting premium inventory and preventing conflicts with their own sales team's direct sales. This can be prevented by entering blacklists in your own RTA system (a so-called sales-side platform, SSP). However, this is not enough, as these lists must be constantly maintained so that they are always up to date and reflect your own deals with new customers, for example.
 
2 Evaluate reports. RTA systems provide extensive amounts of data, the analysis of which can lead to market advantages. For example, if new customers can be identified who book in via RTA and can be approached directly by your own sales team. Sellers can also recognize what prices buyers are willing to offer and possibly adjust their own prices accordingly.
 
3 Test prices. Before parts of the inventory are released for RTA trading, trials can be run with deliberately high prices. As a rule, this will hardly lead to large sales, but price sensitivity can be sounded out and it can be recognized which advertising customers are willing to buy at which prices. In this way, the pricing policy and blacklists can be optimized.
 
4 Explore closed trading platforms. Anyone who has gained experience in the open RTA landscape will be able to draw conclusions from this in order to set up or participate in closed trading platforms. In this way, market participants and the traded inventory can be well controlled and the efficiency benefits of automated trading can be realized for all participants. Obviously, this step is reserved for the heavyweights of the industry. One example of such an approach is French publishers, who announced the founding of "La Place Media" at the beginning of September, through which more than 80 media sites can currently be booked using RTA methods.

Ultimately, publishers are not interested in preventing RTA. Above all, they want to ensure that they do not cannibalize their direct sales. And ultimately, they want RTA to become a seller's market rather than a buyer's market.
 
Christoph J. Walther

Thomas Moll, Head of Online Development/Projects Tamedia AG:

Swiss market participants are increasingly talking about real-time advertising instead of real-time bidding with regard to automated trading in online advertising. Tamedia very much welcomes this development. We are also very interested in more efficient order processing. We can also imagine opening up to automated buying and selling of online advertising in the near future, with the focus on process optimization rather than price dumping, and would also be prepared to pass on transaction cost savings to advertising customers. However, we would demand a concession from media agencies and intermediaries, to whom we currently pay 15 percent commission for each order for the additional work involved in booking online advertising. In any case, Tamedia's role as an active marketer of its own advertising space remains central, as we are not aiming for a market in which third parties trade Tamedia's advertising inventory in their own name and put together their own products.

Branko Radosevic Russo, Head of Advertising Market Digital Media Blick Group:

We at the Blick Group consider RTB in Switzerland to be problematic. In particular, we find it negative that the focus is no longer on quality, but only on price. Also, RTB cannot generate additional income from abroad in the long term. Although additional budget will be generated in the short term through one or two customers, in the long term RTB in its traditional form will lead to a price collapse of the thousand-contact price (CPM) in the Swiss market. This is because RTB providers will be able to book more and more cheap crossboarder websites in order to reduce their purchase price. The logo of the Swiss premium publishers would merely be used to give customers the impression of better quality. However, the campaigns could still be delivered on cheap, international websites. If RTB is ever to be an issue for the Blick Group, then only in a closed network without various other (foreign) sites. We cannot support the current system in this way, as it does not provide the quality that is decisive for the customer, but only focuses on quantity at a low CPM. In order to optimize RTB and networks accordingly, we have been successfully working closely with media agencies (e.g. Omnicom Media AG) for years.

Michael Baum, Stailamedia, on behalf of the Sportal Group:

We see the development towards real-time advertising as a groundbreaking opportunity for the entire online display market. The direct line between advertiser and publisher and the automated handling of booking processes reduce transaction costs. This means that online display advertising money will be invested more efficiently in the future. This will increase the demand for display advertising, which is ultimately in the interests of publishers. Of course, cross-border traffic and the trend towards automated buying via RTB are influencing the price structure in Switzerland. However, we firmly believe that high-quality Swiss environments are essential for Swiss campaigns and that the associated higher prices are justified. With RTB, publishers can establish their own networks. As soon as the demand side is fully equipped with DSPs, intermediary networks will become superfluous. Publishers take back control of their own inventory.

Remo Baumeler, Head of Advertising Market NZZ-Net:

The importance of RTB is still low in Switzerland, as the most important publishers have not yet offered their advertising inventory via such systems. In addition, there is still too little know-how in the industry. RTB will certainly become more important, but it won't happen overnight. It is important that we are very familiar with all market-relevant technologies, which is why building up expertise is a priority for us. As mainly behavioral advertising is booked on RTB platforms, the environment no longer has the same significance. As a result, price pressure is increasing, as most Swiss sites cannot keep up with the cheap inventory from abroad. Indirectly, therefore, quality news sites in particular are weakened, which can have an overall negative impact on the perception of online advertising. An international RTB system for premium sites is one possible solution. Publicitas is moving in this direction with its marketplace, and we will examine this possibility more closely. I see the real advantage of RTB systems above all in the efficient booking process, which is why we prefer to speak of real-time advertising rather than real-time bidding. A self-booking process reduces administrative costs and justifies slightly lower CPMs. At the same time, however, there is also a trend towards qualitative online advertising. The demand for complex site integrations, individual branding formats and various PR opportunities is increasing. However, these campaigns cannot be traded with RTB systems.

 

Actually, I should be writing about this stupid Sympany insurance campaign. But more on that later. Why I'm doing it now: As a trained eye, I noticed after much study that these people - a child, grandma, a dog, etc. - are actually looking into a Denner paper sack. If you then read the text (which very few people do), you could imagine what is hidden in this shopping bag. Who would make such a detour, and for advertising at that? The best desktopper I work with, Michèle Huser, has her office with her father and mother plus two apprentices in Zurich-Seebach. An interesting neighborhood. I recommend it to every advertiser because they are confronted with reality. Well, there's a Denner, a ZKB, a Turkish store, a miniature golf course, the streetcar depot and a pub where smoking is allowed. The barmaid is called Maja, she is funny, intelligent and a real barmaid. The customers who frequent the place include Stümpi - who weighs around 130 kg - with a mullet hairstyle tied into a ponytail and many other craftsmen or other Seebächler. Everyone is always upbeat, discussing the plight of Greece, Barak Obama, FCZ, the weather, but never advertising. There is a moving F12 poster right next to the garden bar and another one opposite the Denner.
 
But they don't look at all because there's nothing interesting to see. I naturally caught the eye of these rather loud guys with my two different colored shoes and immediately struck up a conversation. Most people buy their beer, toothpaste or cigars in the Denner opposite. "Have you ever seen the new Denner ad with the people with the big eyes?" Big question mark. "What are you talking about?" "Yes, those advertisements and posters where these ..... people peer in amazement into an empty Denner bag." Question mark. "Don't you have a better joke? " I then told them the joke where a Basel resident wanted to become a Zurich resident. The doctor says, "But then we'll have to take 30 percent of your brain away. After the operation, the doctor tells the patient that a problem has arisen. Fifty percent of the brain had been removed by mistake. The patient replies: "Well then, goodbye."
 
My theory: It's not a joke. Advertising has lost contact with the audience. It flits past the target group. Nobody understands this insider advertising language. Speak or take pictures in plain language. Otherwise your colleagues in Seebach will never understand you. You deal far too much with the intellect. They won't understand that. And neither do I, even if I have to use my 100 percent Basel brain. The advertising manager and the agency have never visited the Seebacher Bar. My stand-up of the week is that the SVP made a mishap with its special edition. The coats of arms of the cantons are printed upside down. Embarrassing, embarrassing.

Because Constellation Sweets from Villiger is equipped with a sweet filter piece that leaves its sweetness on the lips, according to the agency. The key visual with the sensually sugared lips is mainly used on posters. Flanking the campaign are advertisements, online and POS measures, and a particularly sweet outfit for the promo teams.

The performance has been taking place at selected locations throughout Switzerland since the beginning of November.

Responsible at Villiger Sons, Switzerland: Peter Witzke (Managing Director), Tanja Häfeli (Product Manager). Responsible at Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners: Michael Rottmann, Janine Aebischer, Patrick Meyer, Annette Vetsch (creation), Andreas Meier, Mirjam Eberle, Anna-Lea Michael (consulting), Sabine Liewald, Visualeyes (photography).

However, a new study conducted in the USA under the auspices of Stanford University shows that this is by no means always the ideal approach. Sometimes an approach that is somewhat more distanced, such as UBS's former You & Us, is more likely to achieve the goal.

The way in which people communicate with each other reflects the relationship they have with each other. Pronouns play a particularly important role in this. A we expresses a close relationship, whereas an I and a you emphasize one's own identity. Research shows that the use of these pronouns not only reflects the current relationship between people, but also shapes the future relationship. Against this background, communication managers could come to the conclusion that an advertising approach that focuses on a shared "we" leads to a closer relationship between brand and consumer. In a series of experiments with a total of more than 1000 consumers, an American research team has now been able to show that this is only correct under certain conditions.

In one of the experiments, a group of consumers was presented with a situation in which they had a close customer relationship with a mobile phone brand. Another group was asked to imagine a more casual customer relationship with this brand. Consumers were then presented with either an advertisement that focused on a "we" or a campaign that signaled more distance. In the case of the closer relationship, the collaborative "we" led to a significantly more positive attitude towards the brand (6.07 vs. 5.61 on a 7-point scale with 7 as the best value), while the more distanced approach had a greater effect on the more relaxed customer relationship (6.26 vs. 5.92).

Which approach works better therefore depends on the intensity of the relationship. And this can vary from sector to sector. Further experiments showed that consumers expect a relatively close relationship with their bank, for example, but a distant relationship with their insurance company. In the case of bank customers, it was therefore possible to achieve a significantly more positive attitude towards the advertised brand through a shared "we" in the advertising than through more distant advertising (5.56 vs. 4.56). The opposite was true for insurance customers: Here, a more distanced campaign led to more positive brand effects (4.91 vs. 3.83). And what about consumers who are not yet customers of a brand? This question is of course of considerable importance for customer acquisition. For non-customers, the study showed no statistically significant differences in impact between an approach that postulates a close relationship with the brand and a more distanced advertising design (banking sector: 4.92 in each case, insurance sector: 4.87 vs. 5.00). If non-customers engage more closely with advertising, this picture can change. Often, non-customers are not so attentive to a brand's communication that they notice minor differences in the way it is addressed. However, if non-customers are persuaded to take a closer look at an advertisement, a more distanced advertisement clearly works better than a campaign that relies on a "we" of brand and consumer.

Advertisers should therefore communicate in line with expectations: Only if customers expect a close brand relationship will advertising that relies on a close relationship pay off.

Clemens Koob