Danilo Raggini has been with UKO for several years and brings experience as an audio engineer from more than 1,000 radio, TV and cinema spot productions, according to a statement Friday. Denny Spirig has been with UKO since April 2011. He acquired his understanding of client needs during more than ten years in advertising agencies and film productions.
 

New members of the Serranetga team are:

Anja LämmelCampaign Manager (most recently Pentasys, Munich)
Erwan EydtWeb Software Developer (last TBWA)
Fabian Keller, Planning & Social Media Director (most recently Hinderling Full Beard).
Pavlo Cadonau, Senior Account Manager (most recently Plan.net)
Philippe Lehmann, Screen Designer (last Newimpact)
Rahel Renggli, Consultant (most recently Media Consulta, Berlin)
Thomas Blumer, Text & Concept (last Scholz & Friends)
Thomas Spreng, CTO (most recently Reisen.ch)
Tino Elsener, Consultant (most recently Swissclick)

At the same time, the agency has given itself a new motto: "The new Next. Remo Prinz, partner and co-founder of Serranetga, explains: "The future is digital. Brands must be able to address their customers regardless of place, time and channel, and integrate user feedback into ongoing communication measures in real time. By combining creation, technology and media under one roof, we create highly effective communications in a digital world, always focusing on the user and their current environment."

On the one hand, there is the medium or the journalist who wants to get answers to his questions so that he can publish an interesting article or an exciting contribution. On the other hand, there is the company. Actually, the company would like to answer the questions. But woe betide if the questions are critical. Then panic breaks out. Reporting yes please, but of course only positive. It must be prevented under all circumstances that anything could be written or broadcast that is interesting and would correspond to the truth, but at the same time could scratch the painstakingly built image varnish a little.

But answers are only exciting, dear communication preventers, if they also provide facts. And an article is only interesting if it also highlights critical points. In companies with professional communications managers, cooperation is usually unproblematic. Unfortunately, however, there are still companies that feel that the media should act as the company's mouthpiece. And God knows, these are not just small companies with some PR guy on the side who hasn't understood what his real job is, namely to provide information and not to prevent it. Oh no, there are also big companies that do PR the North Korean way. Companies that either don't even allow critical questions or answer them with such PR jargon and professional jargon that the significance of the answers tends to zero. Or - more subtly - the deadline for authorization is simply missed or repeatedly postponed.

Here is a current example, the company in question is not a media house, mind you! Quotes and facts went to the company for authorization. Now nothing happened, the original deadline passed and the matter was promised to be settled by x o'clock.

Again nothing, and a day later the article came back. Entire paragraphs were missing, figures had been deleted and the journalist's wording had been changed so that the statement was no longer the same. We decided not to publish the article.

I know that my colleagues in the political press often don't fare any better. But that is little consolation.

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

A brand or organization that wants to build a community of brand ambassadors and brand advocates needs community members who are more than just fans. Community members are not won over through showmanship or provocation, but through the reputation and performance of a brand and organization. Brands and organizations fight for our attention with ideas and promotions in social media and want us to express our enthusiasm by clicking on the Like button and thus spread the message. Do we automatically feel so emotionally connected to the brand or organization after clicking the Like button that we consider ourselves part of the community? Hardly. Seeing a fan base that has arisen from an advertising idea or an NGO campaign as a community, or believing that it can be developed into a community, is unrealistic in most cases.

A community is a community of individuals who feel emotionally connected due to their common interest. Within the community, members exchange ideas, get involved, advise third parties and defend their interests in crisis situations. Fans, on the other hand, generally consume in passive mode. How often do we experience a collective outcry on Facebook that dies down very quickly? This was the case after the viral shock attack by Greenpeace against Nestlé Kitkat in 2010. The majority of the outraged fans hardly looked into all facets of the palm oil problem in depth and soon jumped onto a new topic. If Greenpeace has succeeded in gaining a few new members with this campaign, who have become involved financially and in the community, the campaign has already paid off.

The majority of social media campaigns are designed to gain fans who will pass on a message in order to increase reach. It is therefore incomprehensible that self-proclaimed social media popes mock the fact that Obermutten has gained 17,000 fans and has no long-term concept for developing a community. Who cares? The whole world knows about Obermutten thanks to a surprising idea. If one or two people spend their vacations there or buy a vacation home there, the campaign has long since capitalized. And if a "word of mouth" recommendation is made after the live experience, this is more sustainable than any recommendation on Facebook.

From this perspective, Facebook is a communication channel that agencies use creatively to gain attention for a message in times of declining consumption of traditional media. The job is done when Facebook users express their sympathy with a Like and thus spread the message. If this goal is achieved, a lot has already been accomplished in times of sensory overload. Imre Sinka
 

The animal and bear park director is being honored because the positive worldwide reputation of Bern Zoo is to Schildger's credit, writes the Bern PR company in a press release on Thursday.

Schildger's inherent motivation radiates outwards and is the basis for communication via numerous channels, the press release continues.

Every year, the Bern PR Society presents the award to a personality who has achieved exceptional communicative achievements without specialist training. Last year, the Bernese rapper Steff la Cheffe was honored. (SDA)

WW: The job market as a barometer of the economy: What can you currently observe in the communications industry?
Stefan Poth: The job market is fairly balanced at the moment. In such times, companies find their new employees on their own, because there are enough people on the market. But, for example, agencies that do not have time to search themselves are happy to work with us in such situations. We also have some current mandates because someone is to be replaced who is still in office. A successor has to be found discreetly.

Your consultancy Smart.heads works for media, graphics, communication and advertising: Where is the most running?
In the majority of cases, we are looking for people for corporate communications. Head of Corporate Communications, specialists for internal communications, experts for online media. A smaller proportion is in the media sector. There, the mandates present themselves across the board. Last year, for example, we were able to recruit the editor-in-chief for a business newspaper, and we are currently looking for an advertising manager. We tend to look for more people in the publishing sector. But we are also looking for editors for trade journals. Occasionally, we also need people from the design sector. Specialists for corporate publishing. There is less going on in the area of printing. In this shrinking market, there is currently hardly any demand for new people, except for the top salespeople that everyone wants to have.

As an Internet pioneer, you are also considered a specialist for online personnel. It's supposed to be difficult to find well-trained people there. Is that true?
That's right. It is very difficult to find good people for online. During the last hype in 2000, many specialists and first Internet pioneers left. Now there's a shortage not only of young talent, but also of experienced people who have kept up the pace of development. It is also difficult to find experts in the community scene. Whereby this demand in the area of social media is a bit overweighted in my eyes. When companies advertise jobs, they are often only part-time positions or social media in combination with other tasks. Most definitely a shortage, however, is in online marketing. The combination of sales and sound knowledge in the online area is not yet very easy to find.

How big is the demand for new people in advertising?
For advertising agencies we are often looking for consultants, consulting group leaders or even online specialists. Currently, we are also looking for members for the management and partners for agencies.

Is the demand greater among employers or employees?
We have around 5,000 communications specialists in our file. That's been building up over the last ten years. So at Smart.heads, we always have more candidates than orders for new jobs. In very few cases, however, do we just pull a file with a candidate out of the drawer. We only use the file to check who might be suitable. Then we do research. We also know many people personally. We meet them at industry events and also speak to them directly. When you talk about executive search or headhunting, which used to be used only for top executives, we now also use it for specialists. We research them and approach them directly.

How do you experience candidates during such an executive search?
Often they are in good positions and satisfied. That's why they don't look at job ads. Or they see an ad by chance, find it exciting, but still don't apply. It often happens that a company does not find the right person for a job advertisement because the right person has not yet applied. This is where the customer comes to us in a second phase. Then we go and pick up the people. If you're not necessarily looking for something new, you have to actively contact them and make the position palatable. We can also provide more additional information than is possible in a job ad.

Can you also motivate people to switch via the price?
Salary is a criterion in very few cases. It should not be the main motivation. Of course, no one wants to change jobs if they earn less. But we may feel again and again: In our branch of communication the salary is not the most important thing. In the financial industry, it's different. That's why we don't lure anyone with money. There has to be a basic interest in the job and the company. Then the interview is started and the salary discussion only takes place at the end. However, we clarify at the beginning whether the client's salary budget matches the candidate's salary expectations.

Discovering more meaning and joy in work: Is this a trend in our industry?
The work-life balance is certainly increasingly an issue. We can see that many people are a bit fed up with agency life. The constant extra work in many agencies is taken for granted. As a result, there is little interest in switching from agency X to agency Y - because things will continue exactly the same there. You simply have a different name on your business card, but the work as such is the same, especially the work shifted to the night hours. This is criticized by many who are looking for something new. These people then often want to switch to the client side. This is a tendency that we can definitely see. Many experienced people, i.e. seniors from agencies, tell us: When I change jobs, I don't want to move to another agency, but to the client side.

Is demand in corporate communications also rising accordingly?
We can indeed see that the need for communications is growing among companies. In the area of corporate communications, we are always looking for Heads of Corporate Communications as well as Heads Media Relations. In recent years, we have recruited a number of Heads of Corporate Communications for industrial companies that previously had no communications department and created a new position. That's the situation in industry. In consumer goods, it's already standard to have a communications department. But in the area of capital goods, industrial products or B2B, this need has only been discovered more recently and therefore people are looking for appropriate communication professionals.

What age are such people?
If someone in an advertising agency is over 30 and not yet positioned in management or at least as a BGL, then it becomes difficult. In the senior area, where we mainly work, you're 35 or 40 at the most. In corporate communications, it ranges from 45 to 55 at the most in management positions.

How do you proceed with a search in a specific case?
If a company needs someone as soon as possible and does not require any special discretion in the search, we scan our database, place job ads and start direct approaches. If someone wants to have this in a very discreet way and does not want to publish anything, then only direct approaches or headhunting take place. In the past, we only made direct inquiries for top executives, but today we also do it for specialists. This means that if we are looking for a senior graphic designer, for example, we don't just place a job ad, we approach people in the agencies directly. These are employees who have not been laid off and who are not actively looking. We still approach them directly, draw their attention to the vacancy and give them additional information - then they can decide whether they are interested or not.

Such a search requires a large network?
This is true and also one of the reasons why we are actively involved in several industry associations and also have various partnerships, such as the new one with the MScom Alumni Association of the University of Lugano. We have listed our association memberships on our website. For the past five years, we have been the exclusive HR partner of the Association of Swiss Publishing Professionals (VSV). We are a new partner of Perikom, another relatively new professional association for HR management and internal communication. As a headhunter, you have to meet people in person, and that is possible through participation in these associations.

Are you also looking across the borders?
For an international industrial group that has newly relocated its headquarters to Switzerland, we had to recruit people for internal communications who absolutely had to be native English speakers. So we extended our search to England. This resulted in a partnership with the VMA Group in London. This is an international HR company with the same specialization in communications functions as we do, which has offices in London, Manchester, Brussels and Hong Kong, as well as partnerships in the USA. We are now the partners for the German-speaking region. Together with VMA, we can tackle the global labor market.

Is internationalization a big issue in Switzerland?
We can see that many large and listed companies in Switzerland are increasingly looking for English-speaking people. These internationally active companies don't care whether their Head of Corporate Communications is German, American or Swiss. Above all, they need people with international cultural experience.

What is the influx from Germany?
Here we can see pressure in a positive sense from good candidates who want to come to Switzerland from Germany. Germany is certainly an issue, as we know from various management positions in large publishing houses.

You also work as a lecturer in personal branding at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft (HWZ) in Zurich. What is that?
The idea is that we make the students in the bachelor's course Business Communications ready for the job market in the eighth and last semester. We discuss very basic things: What does a good dossier look like today? How does the application process work? How do I behave at an interview? What are the tricks in the application process? In addition to lectures, we offer voluntary individual coaching sessions with students. Where can you use them? After all, these students are mostly young professionals with no practical experience in the communications field. To this end, we show what is possible with social media today. What are the advantages of such networking? What should I not do? After all, we now know that legacy information is very easy to find on the web. In personal branding, we also show how to present yourself on Xing or LinkedIn.

Are such portals growing competition for headhunters?
That is still difficult to assess. It has certainly become easier for companies to contact the people they are looking for directly or to scan them on the web. A Xing profile can say a lot. But often such a contact is still not enough. You still have to contact people personally. And if a company directly addresses someone in the competing company, this can also become an unpleasant issue if people are poached from each other. In Switzerland, people tend to be more in need of harmony, and this then leads to agreements such as those in the watch industry. Especially in the advertising scene, where people know each other well, things have to be more discreet. An intermediary can intercept a lot and clarify the interests before the client talks to the candidate. If a candidate says that a new job doesn't interest him, then the client usually doesn't even find out that we have approached this person.

You yourself started as a repro photographer and then went through a versatile development. What triggered the shift to being a job broker?
The common thread in my biography has always been graphic industry, communication, Internet and media. After my apprenticeship, I completed an engineering degree in Lausanne. My first job was then in Zurich in business consulting with Hannes Zaugg. We specialized in marketing, organization and communication consulting for publishing houses and the graphic arts industry. One area at Hannes Zaugg was also executive search and personnel consulting in the graphic arts industry and the media sector. However, I was still too young for this specialization. So I switched to the media industry as a specialist editor. Later, I became publishing director in Lucerne and managing director at a media company in Zug. For seven years, I independently accepted management mandates on a temporary basis. For example, for the Scout24 Group or Swiss Life. In the process, I had to recruit a lot of people and put together teams. So human resources was always an issue. After seven years of wandering around, I wanted to have my own office and a fixed environment again. Then came the question: What do I do? I had a large network and had recruited many people. I like working with people, I can judge and assess them. That's how Smart.heads came into being in 2002. I saw it as my chance to stay in the industry and in the network I know.

What are the goals now after ten years?
With the partnerships as well as our internationalization we want to expand more. Since January 2012, we have been the official Human Resources partner of the Alumni Association of the MScom program of the University of Lugano (Executive Master of Science in Communications Management). With Smart.heads, we will coach the now more than 200 international members in career issues and support them in selecting suitable positions in challenging management positions in the field of corporate communications.

And if any of our readership is interested in your services: How can I get in touch?
As a company: simply contact me directly and make an appointment. As a candidate: it's best to send your resume by e-mail. Then we will be happy to contact you and discuss how to proceed. What we also offer is a change of sides: from the agency or from an editorial office to corporate communications. What we do not do is a complete career counseling in a longer program. What we can offer, on the other hand, is a job market clarification: crystallizing the personal USP and looking at how best to position oneself in the industry. Interview: Andreas Panzeri

Smart.heads has been recruiting specialists and executives from the functional areas of communications, marketing, advertising, media, graphics/design and e-business since 2002. The company is based in Zug and works nationally and internationally on a mandate basis for clients in various sectors (industry, luxury goods, agencies, media, etc.), but always functionally specialized. www.smartheads.ch Keystone
 

WW: You have been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Zurich Journalism Prize for a year now. After a lawyer, the foundation is now headed by a former journalist. Does that mean anything?
Andrea Masüger: No. It is important that the foundation is managed by someone who has contacts and knows the media scene. My predecessor was a media lawyer and therefore had good connections in the media world. But it is important that there are journalists on the jury. The Board of Trustees is more about maintaining the network.

How do you want to make the award better known to the public?
We have gained the impression that the Zurich Journalism Prize has been sold a little short of its value in recent years. It is the most important journalism prize in Switzerland. For many years it was practically alone. In recent years, there have been many new smaller and larger prizes. Now there is even a prize that claims to be Switzerland's media prize. We therefore want to reposition and upgrade the Zurich Journalism Prize. To this end, we have decided on a number of measures.

Which ones?
We used to have different categories. There was a newspaper prize, a magazine prize, a young talent prize and a prize for the overall work. Now we are making the whole thing more flexible. There are no longer any categories; a maximum of three prizes will be awarded, regardless of whether the entries were published in newspapers or magazines. Online contributions can now also be submitted. There will also be a prize for lifetime achievement. But we also want to become more active. The foundation should also be visible outside of the award ceremony. We have set ourselves the goal of organizing one or two media policy events in the Zurich area each year. The Zurich Journalism Prize label should take on a new meaning and not just be associated with the award ceremony.

Who can submit?
Submissions can be made by the author themselves, their editor-in-chief or a colleague. All text contributions that have been published in a medium in the cantons of Zurich and Schaffhausen can be submitted. This is for historical reasons, as the Zurich Press Association is behind the prize.

What measures are planned to encourage more people to submit?
All newspapers in the Zurich/Schaffhausen area are contacted with the aim of appearing on their notice boards or being published on their intranet. There are flyers and a website. We have now been able to recruit ambassadors to represent our cause in the larger publishing houses. Most of them are senior journalists or deputy editors-in-chief. The Board of Trustees meets with them once or twice a year for a mutual exchange of ideas. These ambassadors should promote the Zurich Journalism Prize in their publishing houses and encourage people to submit entries. Perhaps they can also point journalists to articles that should be submitted. They are our link to the editorial offices. It is often the case that editors-in-chief do too little to encourage their staff to submit articles. I don't really understand this, because it is a positive sign for the editor-in-chief and an incentive for his further work if his newspaper or one of his journalists wins an award. It's also a kind of "editorial marketing", but not all bosses understand that.

In contrast to the other awards, the jury is relatively small. Are you thinking of expanding the jury?
No. The larger juries usually have subgroups for the various categories such as print, television, etc. We don't have to. That's not necessary for us, as they are all text entries. The quality of the jury is more important than the quantity.

How much is the prize money?
A total of 40,000 francs.

How many submissions do you expect?
(Laughs) As many good ones as possible! So far, there have always been between 120 and 170 entries

When is the award ceremony?
On May 23 at the Casinotheater Winterthur.

As I said, there are many journalism prizes in Switzerland. What is special about the Zurich Journalism Prize?
We are the most traditional and important journalism prize in Switzerland, which continues to specifically promote print journalism and now also online journalism. The Zurich area has the highest density of quality publications in Switzerland. This is an obligation. We also want to remain independent and not merge with other awards. We have given ourselves a new, modern and more lively outfit. This is reflected in our new logo with its retro design, which is intended to emphasize the future of the written word. We are also seeking cooperation with the most important journalistic journals and key industry publications such as Werbewoche.

Interview: Pierre C. Meier

This article comes from the current print edition the advertising week.

Board of Trustees
Andrea Masüger (Chairman), CEO Südostschweiz Medien
Esther Girsberger, publicist
Kaspar Loeb, Dynamics Group AG
David Strohm, NZZ am Sonntag

Jury:
Fredy Gsteiger (President), SRF
Susan Boos, WOZ
Marco Meier, publicist
Margrit Sprecher, publicist
Alain Zucker, Tages-Anzeiger

Ambassadors:
Balance sheet: Dirk Schütz, Editor-in-Chief
The Observer: Andres Büchi, Editor-in-Chief
The Landbote: Colette Gradwohl, Editor-in-Chief
Handelszeitung: Beat Balzli, Editor-in-Chief
Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Luzi Bernet, Head of News
NZZ am Sonntag: Thomas Isler, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
Ringier AG: Hannes Britschgi, Head of the Ringier School of Journalism
SonntagsZeitung: Simon Bärtschi, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
Tages-Anzeiger: Alain Zucker, Head of Background/Reporter
WOZ Die Wochenzeitung: Susan Boos, Editorial Director

Zurich Journalism Prize Office:
Monika Menne
Kirchweg 61, 8102 Oberengstringen,
Tel. 044 750 29 68, e-mail: [email protected]
www.zh-journalistenpreis.ch
 

The campaign focuses on a product that clearly demonstrates this plus: KMU Office mobile, a combination offer for fixed network, Internet and NATEL, with which KMU customers can make free calls, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

In the campaign, an oversized plus sign symbolizes this added value as impressively as it does unmistakably. The TV spot tells the story of how the plus sign came into being. We see Swisscom employees creating the symbol out of large soap bubbles with great skill and dedication.

The production of the soap bubbles stands for the commitment and the great dedication that Swisscom employees provide to their customers every day throughout Switzerland, the statement continues. Accordingly, the campaign was staged with real Swisscom employees who were specially cast for the campaign. Filming and photography took place in Basel, Zurich and Lausanne.

The campaign can be seen on TV, on posters and online. It has been regionally targeted and adapted.

Responsible at Swisscom (Switzerland), Bern: Giuseppe Luciano (Head of Marketing Communications SME), Oliver Butscher (Communications Manager SME). Responsible at Contexta, advertising agency BSW, Bern: Nadine Borter (overall responsibility), Moritz Staehelin (creative direction), Claudio Parente (graphics), Raphael Gammenthaler (text), Evelyn Brodmann (consulting). Responsible for the film production Rosas & Co, Zurich: Eric Will (director), Nadia Rosasco (producer). Photography: Stefan Minder, Zurich. Media: Mediaschneider, Zurich.
 

That is around 3 percent of the entire workforce. At the same time, the US food multinational invested 25 percent more money in advertising in its home market in the first quarter than in the same period last year. The reorganization that has been initiated is showing "good results, is on track and will have an even better impact as the year progresses", explained company boss Indra Nooyi on Thursday, according to SDA. She announced the plans in February. One of the reasons: Coca-Cola had recently grown faster, in the first quarter, for example, by 6
percent.

In the same period, Pepsi increased by 4 percent to a turnover of 12.4 billion dollars. "The first quarter shows how strong our brands are," said Nooyi according to SDA. Now, however, Pepsi not only has to fend off Coca-Cola, but also digest higher raw material costs. The company has passed on some of these costs to customers through higher prices. In order to simplify their business, both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have taken over large bottling plants in the recent past.

So a company that can afford to increase its advertising budget by 25 percent is cutting 8,700 jobs. Does that say anything about the quality of the products? The fact that Coca Cola simply tastes better cannot be attributed to the reorganization - but the thought of it leaves a bad aftertaste.