WW: ADC's new offices will open with an exhibition of Frank Bodin's 100 #Creative #Imperatives. What is the idea?
Frank Bodin: The idea started when I felt compelled to be present on Twitter in addition to Facebook, Myspace and the like. Our Americans in the network are very active there, so I agreed. Dealing with the new digital possibilities is important for a creative person. However, I don't want to reveal anything private, and I don't want to say in a tweet that I'm currently at our new ADC headquarters for an interview or eating pizza. So the decision was made: Every day for a year, I will write a thought on the topic of creativity that is as not too stupid as possible. The experiment started on August 9, 2011.

How was the feedback?
It has spread incredibly fast and given extremely much feedback. So after my 366 #Creative #Imperatives - 2012 was a leap year - I'm now moving on to #Creative #Imperatives of Others, which are new Imperatives now written by fans under their own names.

From tweet to exhibition in ADC's new office: how did it come about?
The tweets have become known in the scene. The ADC board therefore suggested that I make an exhibition out of the best or most provocative of them for the opening of the new office and gallery. I have put together a selection of 100 for the show, in the frame 35 on 50. Remy Fabrikant has kindly dropped off the #Imperatives with his agency. I myself hammered in 200 nails for hanging for over eight hours last Sunday.

How long will the exhibition be accessible?
Planned until the end of the year. The new office and gallery, as well as our new managing director Gioia Bozzato, naturally reflect a new program for ADC. In the future, we want to be much more the association of the leading creatives in the communications industry. We also want to open up to domains that are still underrepresented now: more photographers, filmmakers, designers, online artists. But it can also be architects or product designers. The second is an old dream of mine. I've always felt that this previous office hidden in the upper village is actually a wrong sign. We are an association of creative people, so we should also present ourselves in a creative place. The filmmaker Michael Steiner is a friend of mine, his wife Minerva used to run the gallery Mondejar here on Zentralstrasse. At some point I placed: Such a space would also be something for us. Now the opportunity has presented itself, because the Steiner family wants to travel more with their small children in the near future. We discussed the opportunity in the board and all welcomed the idea.

What does ADC want with this space?
It is intended to be a meeting place, a place of inspiration and debate. Eight to ten events and exhibitions are planned. In addition, there will be the book vernissage or sometimes a reading or small concerts. We will certainly exhibit the work of young creatives. It is also planned that an architect can present his project or photographers their work.

Are your images sold?
Yes, but it's not that I need a sideline. The piece costs 200 francs. The #Imperatives are available in an edition of 5. Half of the price, i.e. 100 francs, goes directly to ADC for the renovation investments at the new headquarters. You can also buy the subjects en bloc. For only 20,000 Swiss francs, you then have a collected wisdom of 100 #Creative #Imperatives ...

Interview: Andreas Panzeri

 

Gita Topiwala graduated from the Ringier School of Journalism and worked for the German magazine Cicero, among others, for the online edition.

Martina Mädler was Art Director at several well-known Swiss advertising agencies for a long time and looked after brands such as Ikea, Lidl, Bank Vontobel, Schweizer Früchte- und Gemüseverband, Pfister, Alfa Romeo, Apfelsaft, Blacksocks as well as Stadt Zürich.

Simone Siegenthaler is studying journalism and ethnology alongside her work at Contcept Communication and has gained experience as a journalist at the Limmattaler Tagblatt.

 

The Swiss Media Association and Swiss Post reached this decision by mutual agreement following in-depth discussions, according to a statement from the association. They are satisfied with the result. Swiss Post has informed the French-speaking Swiss publishers' association Médias Suisses that it will waive the surcharge in 2013.

"We are pleased with the decision of the Swiss Post Board of Directors, even if the battle continues," said Médias Suisses according to SDA. Swiss Post intends to introduce the surcharge one year later, from January 1, 2014. However, the association is demanding that the savings made since the new postal legislation came into force on October 1 be examined in detail before any increase in rates.

Limited user-friendly navigation and a display that does not correspond to that of the original website on smaller displays impair the user experience. This is why a growing number of companies are deciding to optimize their website for mobile devices - either with a slimmed-down mobile website or by using responsive design.

Online stores, tourism companies and event and trade fair organizers now offer visitors with mobile devices a website optimized for the technology with reduced content. There is no question that such a website increases user-friendliness. However, it should be noted that more and more consumers are surfing the Internet exclusively with mobile devices. The question therefore increasingly arises as to whether it makes sense to withhold information from mobile device users on the page optimized for them under the "pretext" of reducing complexity.

Responsive web design as an alternative to mobile websites

Anyone publishing a new website today should use responsive web design to ensure that it can be used equally on all devices (PC, laptop, smartphones, tablets) and enables optimal operation and presentation of the content. Responsive web design is a layout structure that adapts to the resolution and orientation (portrait and landscape format) of the device used to access the website. This layout technology ensures that the screen resolution of the mobile device used is taken into account and that content and navigation elements are displayed accordingly. This enables a flexible layout without a fixed grid, the absence of fixed font sizes and predefined image sizes.

Luke Wroblewski, the pioneer of responsive web design and author of the book "Mobile First", goes one step further and recommends developing the design of the website from scratch on the basis of mobile devices with their small (touch) displays. The trend is clearly moving towards Internet use on mobile devices. The implementation of the website with Responsive Web Design is more expensive, but enables an optimal user experience on all devices. When assessing the costs, it should be noted that this makes a special mobile website obsolete. Another argument in favour of responsive web design is that Google obviously rewards websites that are optimized for mobile devices with better positions in the search results.

Imre Sinka
 

WW: When it comes to trading online advertising space in real time, so-called real-time advertising (often referred to as real-time bidding), a trading desk is a central concept. What was the motivation for your company to become active with a trading desk?
PrinceThe realization that these technologies are already being used in the USA and the UK. And so, about two years ago, we started looking around for technologies that could be used in Switzerland. It was a long process until we found a partner like App Nexus and were able to really get started. The breakthrough came when it became possible to buy cross-border traffic automatically from Switzerland. We've been using this for a year now and it's going extremely quickly.
 
Did you also start at Mediaschneider two years ago?
Semmler: A little later, although the basic considerations were similar. Another point was all the foreign networks that were pushing into Switzerland, buying the same traffic from each other and then selling it to the advertiser at ten times the initial price. We wanted to at least partially eliminate this with a more intelligent purchasing system and better targeting.
 
What have you invested in the trading desks so far?
 PrinceIf you consider that the introduction of a fully functional trading desk involved several employees at management level for almost two years to build up expertise, evaluate and optimize processes, then you quickly reach a high six-figure sum. This requires at least five additional highly qualified employees for ongoing operations. In this respect, we have invested a good CHF 1 million to date.
 
What job profiles are we talking about?
Prince: One is the Ad Trader, which monitors automated purchasing ...
... what prior knowledge and experience is required?
... a lot of experience with ad server systems. A so-called trafficer can train to become an ad trader. They need an analytical understanding and a feel for numbers. And then, of course, a flair for trading in order to buy from different sources so that this is as advantageous as possible for the advertising client. Then there is the Manager Automatic Buying, a modern campaign manager. He books the campaigns into the system and procures the advertising material.
 
What is the ideal background?
... who has at best already worked as a campaign manager and is familiar with an ad server system or Google. They have to enter the campaigns very precisely into the agency's own ad serving system and also generate reports. And the third profile is the campaign engineer, who has a professional background as a computer scientist. They have to bring all purchasing sources into a central database and connect them to the ad server system.
 
Do you see it the same way with Mediaschneider?
Semmler: As a purely digital agency, Serranetga naturally has a slightly different focus than we do, as we have to keep an eye on the entire campaign architecture. That's why we still need traditional planners and have to train them to become analysts. They have to be able to draw the right conclusions from this very complex matter. This is a process that doesn't happen overnight.
Prince: It is precisely here, in terms of personnel, that the main investments are made. We are currently working on these issues and optimizing internal processes. For example, storing data in such a way that intelligent monitoring tools can be applied to it.
 
What proportion of the digital advertising business can you handle via the trading desks today?
Prince: About 60 percent. As an agency, we have now optimized our purchasing to such an extent that we have eliminated the middleman trade with networks that skim off a margin of up to 70 percent. This makes purchasing several times cheaper.
Semmler: For us, it's less, about 20 percent.

And how many trading partners do you have connected to the trading desk?
Prince: We have a main DSP [demand-side platform] with App Nexus, the global market leader in real-time advertising technology, and we have licenses with two others. And we still book some of our inventory manually and Google also has to be added separately, which accounts for around 30 percent of our inventory.
 
Do you also mainly use the Nexus app at Mediaschneider? Semmler:
Because there aren't that many who play in this league, you have to assume that. And the interface to Google also makes up a large part of our business.
 
What are the main advantages of a trading desk?
Prince: The main aim is to minimize transaction costs and optimize processes. Previously, we had to negotiate by telephone with every website and every network. We can also eliminate the costly but ineffective middlemen with their networks. Often, entire packages had to be purchased in the hope that some of the users would correspond to the required target groups. Today, we try to generate certain user profiles using cookies and can use real-time bidding to pick up these users at exactly the right moment with the right advertising material while they are surfing. This has important advantages for the advertising customer, as it eliminates all the wastage and duplicate purchases.
 
However, there is also criticism that there is arbitrage business and kickbacks and that the processes are not transparent. How do you deal with this vis-à-vis customers? Prince:
This is not an issue. If customers previously booked via networks, they are now around ten times more efficient a year later. Every advertising franc is thus optimized.
Semmler: Absolutely. New technologies always involve questions of understanding. We try to make this as transparent as possible for our customers.
 
Are customers demanding more transparency?
Prince: Unfortunately, advertisers still ask far too few questions. Otherwise they wouldn't want to book more clicks. They are often satisfied with the wrong metrics, because a click alone is useless. Performance-oriented metrics, such as the number of leads generated, are better. That's why we always strive to actively inform our own customers about the savings that RTB offers them.
Semmler: If goals have been defined, this can also be measured. However, there is always the question of which sites in a network the customer appears on. And here you have to explain once again that this system is associated with an absolute user focus.

How do you perceive publishers in Switzerland when it comes to this topic?
Prince: There are of course certain fears among national publishers because real-time bidding is associated with the performance track. But for us as an agency, it's not just about that. First and foremost, we want to reduce transaction costs ...
Semmler: ... yes, one hundred percent agree ...
Prince: ... for all parties. Firstly, for us, because we don't have to employ three people who are constantly booking flights. Then we don't want to have networks in between that also skim off margins. And we also don't want publishers to have to employ ten people to answer the phones and manually book, say, moving image advertising into the ad serving system.
 
But why do publishers refuse to use RTB processes? Some say that this is far from being an option for them.
Semmler: Of course my blood freezes in my veins when I hear that. I think it's simply a fear of the supposedly lower CPM. Of course, there are also certain forces that influence this.
 
Which ones?
Semmler: These are the forces that are running an arbitrage business today. And logically, they have no interest in it. We are primarily interested in the automated model. We certainly don't expect prices in the premium segment to collapse just because of automated purchasing.

What would be the answer to publishers as to why RTB is not necessarily bad?
Prince: We can now set up the technology so that we can start on January 1 or 2. A portion of the budgets that would otherwise migrate abroad will then be booked as premium. Three to five premium advertising formats will be defined so that they can be booked automatically. Of course, this is a little cheaper because the publisher does not have to do any work, but at high CPMs.
 
Why do publishers fear that prices could fall because of RTB?
Prince: Some of it is a lack of understanding of the technology. Because "bidding" unfortunately implies that it's about the price and not the process. I've also heard publishers ask 'how am I supposed to make a good offer to my good customers if I can no longer control what it costs?
 
What is the answer to this fear?
Prince: That you still have the masses. Special deals are still possible. Instead of real-time bidding, we will be talking about real-time advertising. And that's because it's about catching the right user at the right moment. This does not require a highly complex SSP machine [sell-side platform], modern ad servers are also sufficient. Then we can book in automatically with the publisher and the agreed CPM of, say, 17 francs applies ...
 
 ... without any actual bidding taking place, but it is automated
... Semmler: ... exactly. Then people can concentrate on their actual work again. Because a really good planner in the digital sector is too expensive to make bookings for online advertising by fax. If I look at the traditional TV market, for example, even there are better automated processes than we currently have online.
 
What do you do if publishers don't participate?
Prince: We then book the initial contact with the Swiss premium publishers and the subsequent contacts via RTB - at significantly lower prices.
 
That does create a certain amount of pressure to move. Can you only run campaigns with foreign sites today? Prince: In the performance area, easily. Because we have two billion ad impressions available per month ...
 
... so there's no need for Swiss publishers at all ...?
Prince: ... not in the performance sector. But it would be welcome if we could book Swiss inventory, even at higher prices.
Semmler: At the moment, Swiss publishers are not earning any money from the budgets that run via RTB systems, and that is certainly not insignificant. And I think an incentive should be created so that they can participate in this growing pie.
 
The pressure on publishers is getting ever greater ...?
Semmler: You can certainly say that.
 
Can Swiss sites also be dispensed with for branding campaigns? Semmler:
No. We need the users on these platforms. But we can already get them today if the model I mentioned earlier is applied. I certainly need Swiss publishers for branding campaigns. No discussion.
 
What specific discussions do you have with Swiss publishers?
Semmler: I have regular contacts like this and try to take one step at a time. For example, to make the process-oriented advantages clear. Or to show that Swiss publishers could, let's say, earn money from a Dutch airline, which has hardly been possible up to now because the effort involved was far too great. I can already see that understanding is growing. But certain publishers are moving in a slightly different direction with their own network ...
Prince: ... Yes, the PPN, the purpose of which is going in the right direction. Namely the simplified booking of Swiss premium inventory, which is also enriched with relevant profile information. The shortcoming at the moment is that the PPN is self-contained and therefore cannot be combined with the RTB inventory. This eliminates the most important advantage of real-time advertising.
Semmler: And there are other large publishers, such as MSN, that make their traffic available via an SSP. Therefore, the understanding must grow and is growing.
 
To what extent are other existing networks and marketers also under threat and under pressure to adapt?
Semmler: Swiss networks are too expensive in terms of performance compared to all cross-border traffic. But from a branding point of view, it can make sense to buy Swissness in such networks.
 
Couldn't such networks also open up for RTB?
Prince: Of course they could. But their business model as middlemen would become obsolete. Because with automated purchasing via RTB, you could just as well book directly with the publishers.
 
You are both pioneers in this field. How else do you perceive the industry when it comes to this topic? Is everyone pulling in the same direction or are you also happy that publishers are not going full throttle with RTB?
Semmler: Whenever a high margin between traffic purchase and traffic sale plays a role, there is no great interest in changing the system.
Prince: All the training courses are classically geared towards environmental planning. Anyone who has a job today has no interest in doing something new. Even if you have a well-running business, you don't want to change anything. That is logical.
 
Could it still be that RTB in Switzerland will turn out to be a disaster?
Prince: No way - really no way. It cannot be the future that each publisher is booked in individually by telephone.
Semmler: No, I'll put my money where my mouth is. The modulation has a completely different quality, the contact class optimization has a completely different quality - no way.
 
Interview: Christoph J. Walther

Under the link Creative Ranking you can download an Excel file in which the awards won per agency or agency group can be entered.

In addition, it was decided that only the highest award given applies if a campaign has won several awards (for several individual subjects) in the same jury category of a competition. Awards for multiple individual subjects in the same campaign and category count as one award. Awards for special prizes such as Clio Healthcare or other sub-competitions do not count towards the ranking.

The completed Excel file must be submitted to Advertising Week no later than December 7, 2012 ([email protected]) become.

While the counts were made public via the traditional news services, the conversation on Twitter peaked at 327,452 tweets per minute (!). Shortly before his victory speech, Barack Obama announced his re-election as President of the USA on the net: His Twitter post has been retweeted around 563,000 times so far, and 2.5 million users on Facebook have liked the post - both absolute records. Because of the extremely inconvenient time for the European print media when the election results were announced, the electronic and online media triumphed.

But the Swiss print media were not idle either. Norbert Neininger, publisher and editor-in-chief of Schaffhauser Nachrichten, tweeted at 3:50 a.m.: "#US elections At five o'clock is the editorial deadline for our extra. Provided the result is known by then." Announced on social media, there was a very classic extra sheet distributed in the Schaffhausen area (see page 46). A relic from the Stone Age of the press, which perhaps met with positive acceptance for that very reason. If that's not convergence!

The Aargauer Zeitung had an amusing idea for its front page (see page 47) - without knowing the election results when it went to press. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, it was quickly publicized outside its own readership.
I, too, could not escape the fascination of the election broadcasts. At 6:30 a.m., I went to the mailbox, took out the NZZ and Tagi, and put them on the page. Instead, I downloaded the e-paper onto my iPad and was surprised: The NZZ had the same front page as the printed edition. In the article, then a reference to the current coverage on NZZ.ch, but without a corresponding active link. The Tagi at least still managed to bring an up-to-date picture of the election winner on its app. A bit of press stone age would not have been so bad here, because in the past, at least part of the print edition had an updated alternate page. With the e-paper, that should actually be possible, too. So much for convergence.

Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
 

Per Januar 2013 stösst als Mit-Inhaber und CEO Jan Maurer von Wirz Wietlisbach Dialog zu den 15 Kreativen von /Department. Gleichzeitig steigt der langjährige Department Senior Art Director Toma Perret als Mit-Inhaber und Creative Director in die Agentur ein. Die beiden Gründer, Oliver Brunschwiler und Johannes Eisenhut bleiben als Mit-Inhaber in ihren bisherigen Funktionen operativ tätig. Mit der Erweiterung der Geschäftsleitung von zwei auf vier Partner wollen sie die Kompetenz der Agentur im Bereich Brand Strategy, Corporate Design, Digital Branding und On-/Offlinekommunikation stärken und den interdisziplinären und integrierten Ansatz der Agentur weiter ausbauen.
 

Hugo Keller is a Swiss certified public accountant and has many years of experience in corporate finance at a major bank and as a mandate manager at a business, trust and consulting firm in Switzerland. Twelve years ago, he joined Andreas Messerli AG as a member of the Executive Board, where he took on the role of CFO and later also that of COO. 

The communications industry is undergoing major changes. The relevance of social media and online communication has increased and is now an integral part of the communication mix. Measures that used to be considered below-the-line have long since ceased to be so. The tasks and responsibilities of media and advertising agencies have become more diverse and complex as a result of these new channels and opportunities. In addition, communication is becoming increasingly professionalized.

What do these changes mean for communication service providers? What will happen next? What will cooperation between agencies and clients look like in the future? Is the full-service agency a thing of the past? Will we only work with specialized agencies on a project-specific basis in future? What expectations do clients have of agencies?

A new research project by the Institute of Communication and Marketing (IKM) at the Lucerne School of Business in collaboration with the Center for Marketing Management at the ZHAW School of Management and Law is addressing these questions. It is supported by the industry association BSW Leading Swiss Agencies, the media agencies Mediamix and Mediaschneider and the research institute MRC Research & Consulting. The main sponsor is the Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI, the federal government's innovation promotion agency. In particular, the study is dedicated to the challenges and foundations for the success of communication service providers in Switzerland. The aim is to determine which factors influence the cooperation between agencies and customers and on what customer satisfaction with the services of communication service providers depends. Based on a preliminary study, a model was developed that measures satisfaction and records the factors that determine it. The model should therefore also provide indications of how collaboration can be improved.

Agencies and customers wanted

In the next phase of the project, a comprehensive survey will be conducted in the communications industry. The researchers and partners of the study are calling on agency managers and agency clients (communication managers and marketing managers from both SMEs and large companies) to take part. As the reliability of the results increases with the number of participants, active participation is desirable. Based on the results, recommendations for action will be derived and prepared for the main implementation partners - for example for BSW training courses. Last but not least, the study results also serve as a mood barometer for communication service providers.

The survey - an online questionnaire that takes around 15 minutes to complete - consists of two main parts. The first part is specifically dedicated to the Swiss market and industry and is derived from practical experience. The second part covers service quality and, as it is based on a cross-industry standardized and internationally applied questionnaire, is comparable with other economic sectors and countries.

Potential participants will receive an invitation to take part in the survey. If you have any questions or are interested in the study, please contact the head of the project Anja Janoschka (Professor at the IKM of the Lucerne School of Business) and Cary Steinmann (Professor at the School of Management and Law, ZHAW) ([email protected]/cary.steinmann@ zhaw.ch). imp

 

This is to be dramatized in a surprising way in the key visual of the new 4MATIC campaign. The subject shows a team of horses galloping up a mountain road in critical weather. The four horses are different types of power. A powerful Arabian, a sturdy brewery steed, a small dwarf pony and a young foal.

The four unequal 4MATIC horses are not only galloping through the Swiss winter. The campaign developed by Jung von Matt/Limmat will be offered for global use and will probably also be adapted for the advertising markets of Sweden, Russia and Lebanon, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

The campaign consists of advertisements, posters, special inserts in the Sunday press, TV SRF Meteo sponsorship, online banners, special online formats and a giveaway.

Responsible at Mercedes-Benz: Christina Koch (Advertising Management & Brand Manager Passenger Cars), Laura Ballestrin, Désirée Weibel, Myriam Dünnenberger (Project Management). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Alexander Jaggy, Lukas Frei (Creative Direction), Adrian Merz, Lorenz Clormann (Art Direction), David Hugentobler (Text), Lukas Frischknecht, Tobias Wirz (Graphics), Ilonka Galliard, Deborah Herzig (Art Buying), Nicolas Schoberth, Danijel Sljivo, Martin Schlatter (Consulting), Carioca Studio, Mackevision (Image Editing).

What it's all about: all bankers are dressed the same, I can only recognize mid-range cars by their logos and there's hardly any difference between price promotions. As if it were too risky to stand out from the crowd. So the clients will be wary of taking a creative risk. The same theory, I suspect, is used by advertising agencies. They are careful not to preach that effective advertising has to be eye-catching, funny and different. They do their best to fulfill the task at hand with all the requirements. The bigger the advertising budgets are, the more hokey the advertising is. Just don't lose that customer could be the motto.

On the other hand, when Migros puts funny ads on TV, Coop dares to do the same. Interesting. And confirms my theory. The assumption that customers without competition or associations are braver and more creative, such as Suva or the dairy cow, also confirms my theory. Small and local customers such as Pneu Egger are also among the brave ones. These are favorite customers of the creative ones. These small customers only have a limited budget and can't afford to hide. So they want to stand out at any small price.

In my first column, I grumbled about the "Orange Me" campaign. Today, almost two years later, their communication has not become any clearer. I don't understand this disco color magic. And the mockery of BMW from March 2011, where they advertised that they were 200 percent: Now the BMW ads and their peers aren't even 50 percent visible. Most websites are still a joke in terms of text and graphics. Party advertising to win votes still operates on the principle of head-salad. It is still common practice for companies to write and design their advertising in-house in order to save money and then place it for a lot of money. Sunrise has learned nothing from the June 2011 mishap. The advertising has no concept, the implementation and the CI are still just as ugly. In August last year, Swiss created a new logo - unnecessarily in my view. To date, however, this new image has not yet been applied everywhere. Inconsistent. Swisscom is trying by all means to improve its image. The current campaign with the elaborate shadow film is puzzling to me. I may be too stupid or too old, but unfortunately I'm still a customer. Why all this elaborate nonsense? Cablecom, one of the few companies I have grumbled at, has positively surprised me. I like the commercials and their image correction. Maybe they've read my rant. Everyone else certainly hasn't. So, look ahead and not at the competition. Speak plainly, wittily and visibly. And listen to me.

My stand-up of the week is the following farmer's rule: "If it snows on the leaves in October, it will be mild winter weather." Farmer Butz.