Exponential Interactive, a provider of digital advertising solutions with a reach of over 700 million users per month, has presented the results of its study "The Power of Video-Driven Experiences: What attention, emotion and perception tell us about good advertising". According to the study, interactive video advertising formats evoke significantly more reactions from viewers than standard banners or pre-roll commercials, and are therefore considerably more effective.

Exponential commissioned the market research company Eyesee to investigate the advertising impact of interactive video formats. Exponential's own VDX format was compared with 30-second pre-rolls and standard banners using the following three key performance indicators (KPIs): Attention (duration of browsing and interaction), emotional response (type of emotional response) and brand perception (impact on brand lift), Eye-tracking technologies, interaction rate and facial expression measurement, and surveys were used to evaluate the KPIs.

The Study results prove that interactive video advertising attracts more attention, evokes more intense emotions and supports brand perception.

Interactive video advertising influences purchasing decisions. 17% of users surveyed who viewed a VDX pre-roll and 19% of users who viewed the VDX rectangle format stated that they would definitely consider purchasing the branded product shown in the future. For the standard pre-roll formats, only 13% of respondents stated this.

Interactive video advertising formats ensure a positive brand perception and leave a lasting impression. Compared to pre-rolls in standard format, interactive formats were able to retain attention for twice as long, the ad videos were remembered for longer and brand awareness increased.

The teaser as an invitation to engage with video advertising formats is more than just the gateway to an interesting experience. It benefits the brand in a very tangible way: 69 percent of users surveyed viewed the interactive teasers for more than 5 seconds, compared to only 11 percent of respondents to standard animated banners of the same size. Interactive teasers are three times more likely to evoke a positive emotional response and increase the user's attention for the advertising video. As many as 82 percent of respondents who viewed the teasers reported a "positive" or even "very positive" brand perception in the survey. Only 68 percent of viewers of standard banners reacted in this way.

"The study confirms what we see every day - namely - interactive video is convincing as a digital medium for brand impact," says Bryan Melmed, VP Insights at Exponential. "Choosing the right advertising format is immensely important for marketers and advertisers alike; advertising that targets engagement is more persuasive and is remembered longer," adds Stefan Kuhlmann, Managing Director Exponential DACH.

Methodology:

As part of the study, 500 participants were asked to browse various realistic-looking mock-up websites, just as they would do at home on their own devices. While browsing, their facial expressions, gaze and navigation behavior were recorded via webcam. They were then exposed to another mock-up website with editorial content and further dummy commercials. To evaluate the brand metrics, users had to answer seven questions to assess brand perception and recall.

Here for the complete study.

According to the statement, his focus is on cross-channel and cross-media brand management. In 2007, Ralf Löwe founded the full-service agency Skalpafloi in Hamburg with a focus on strategic planning and conception. He managed it for nine years. His industry experience ranges from automotive to fashion, travel, media and technology, to name a few. Previously, the Kiel native worked for renowned agencies such as Jung von Matt, McCann Erickson and Scholz & Friends. For Grey Worldwide, he most recently helped build up the Grey office in Hamburg as a unit head and as a member of the extended management team and the Germany board.

Löwe knows Evoq owners Sutter and Schaffner from previous joint projects since their agency was founded nine years ago. "Working with Evoq has always been effective and fun, which is why I was happy to accept their offer to be responsible for and further develop the areas of consulting and strategic planning," says the analytical thinker from the far north. "Means and possibilities in brand communication are more diverse today than ever before. That's why targeted brand management is all the more about keeping your head above water and not losing sight of the big picture in the face of so many moments. Or to translate it to Switzerland: climb to the top more often and look at the world from above," says Löwe.

Digitization is changing the world. Retail and shopping centers are no exception. "In a few years, more than 75 percent of the workforce will belong to the demographic group of 'millennials,'" says Robert Blum, CEO of Poinz. Early exposure to computers and digital media has shaped this generation's behavior, he says. And it's also having an impact on the way they shop, he adds. "That's why retailers and shopping centers will have to gear their communications to these consumers in the future in a way that is as targeted as it is adequate and individual," explains Blum.

In order to develop, test and implement future applications in the field of "Interactive Campaigning", the loyalty app Poinz, Swisscom and the outdoor advertising company APG|SGA launched a project at the beginning of the year. The aim of this project is to explore other ways of communicating and attracting customers. The idea is to use "interactive campaigning" to exploit the dominant use of the smartphone to link stationary retail with interactive means of communication. The two-week pilot project "Guess why beacons" was implemented from March 29 to April 12, 2016 in cooperation with the fashion label Guess.

23 interactive posters

The pilot project "Guess why beacons" used beacon technology in a new form. Beacon technology is based on mini-transmitters that send certain unique signals based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. In the process, the beacons do not store any data. For the pilot project, 23 APG|SGA billboards in and around the Glattzentrum, which displayed a Guess campaign sujet and referred to the project, were equipped with a beacon. The "Interact platform" launched last year by Swisscom formed the technical basis for this application (keyword location-based services).

However, in order for the communication between the poster and the potential customer to work, an additional transmitter is needed. This task was taken on by the app Poinz. Poinz is the Swiss market leader in digital customer loyalty. The loyalty app enables digital point collection, but also serves as a digital communication channel. In the "Guess why beacons" pilot project, passers-by with the activated app received targeted and automatic cash vouchers for Guess when they passed an APG|SGA billboard. However, the prerequisite for this was that the user actively allowed the Poinz app to access their location in advance.

First step to the Smart Mall

In the future, beacons will make in-store shopping as intelligent as cookies make online shopping, because they bring the advantages of online retailing to stationary retailing as well. The benefits of location-based services also seem to be an issue among Swiss companies. A recently published study of around 130 Swiss companies by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) and the University of St. Gallen shows that around a third are looking into location- and time-based communication services. Dorothea Schaffner, professor at the Institute for Communication and Marketing at HSLU, adds, "Studies also show that consumers are open to such forms of communication as long as a benefit is clearly recognizable to them." Andreas Ziltener, Professor of Entrepreneurial Management at HTW Chur, is convinced by beacon technology: "In the future, I can well imagine that interactive systems like the beacon will optimally guide customers through a shopping mall based on the shopping list they have on their cell phones. Shopping malls are definitely becoming more and more like smart malls." The pilot project by Poinz, Swisscom and APG|SGA is a very innovative, interesting step in this direction, he said.

Pilot test: Satisfied partners

The experience with the pilot project is viewed positively by all partners. "As an innovation leader in the field of digital loyalty systems, we are interested in testing different forms of customer loyalty and communication. The now successfully tested application of beacon technology offers our customers new, equally flexible and dynamic possibilities in addressing customers in the immediate vicinity of the point of sale," sums up Poinz CEO Robert Blum.

Swisscom project manager Joel Agard is also extremely satisfied with the project: "We appreciated the uncomplicated and agile collaboration with the start-up Poinz, with APG|SGA and with Guess. In addition, we were able to gain important insights that we can incorporate into the further development of the Interact platform."

APG|SGA also rates the potential of the interactive poster highly: "Via app and beacon, out-of-home advertising media can be used in an even more targeted and interactive way. Individual infrastructures like these ensure flexible, mobile addressing at highly frequented poster sites. This extension of the communication chain offers customers enormous added value because the advertising message reaches the target group at the right time and in the right place," explains Beat Holenstein, Head of Partner & Product Management.

And Guess? Did the tested form of advertising live up to expectations? "And how," reveals Guess Retail CEO Peder Casanova, "we can well imagine incorporating this innovative form of advertising into our communications strategy." (pd)
 

Havas Worldwide Switzerland was hired by Switzerland Tourism as its new lead advertising agency in 2015. Apparently, financial reasons played a role: "In the wake of the abolition of the minimum euro exchange rate, we saw ourselves forced to streamline costs so that as many resources as possible flowed into pure marketing," says Switzerland Tourism, the national marketing organization for Switzerland as a travel destination. They no longer want to work with a full-service agency, but rather produce more creative content themselves and consult external agencies on a selective basis. The quick end is unusual, because tourist country advertising is usually designed for the long term. Switzerland Tourism had worked with Leo Burnett for ten years from 2005 to 2014. This is also how Frank Bodin, head of Havas Worldwide Switzerland, sees it: "We certainly imagined it to be different and more long-term."

The mobile communications provider China Mobile recorded a slight increase in value (+2%) to USD 57.2 billion - enough to push last year's rising star Alibaba out of second place. Alibaba suffered a 20% drop in value compared to 2015 and is in third place in this year's ranking with 47.6 billion US dollars. Newcomer Huawei makes it into the top 10 straight away with a value of 18.5 billion US dollars and takes seventh place. These are some of the key findings of the BrandZ Top 100 most valuable Chinese brands study, which was conducted for the sixth time by the international marketing and market research company Millward Brown. The study analyzes the most valuable Chinese brands on the basis of key financial figures as well as market and consumer research data. The ranking is compiled by Millward Brown in cooperation with the media group WPP.

At 51%, privately organized companies contributed more than half of the total brand value of 525.6 billion US dollars of the 100 most valuable Chinese brands for the first time this year. This illustrates both China's continued course towards a market economy and the high resilience of strong brands in economically difficult times - the economy in China has recently slowed down noticeably.

"The results show that many Chinese brands have now caught up with multinational brands in important dimensions. Chinese brands achieve excellent scores in some key factors such as brand awareness and customer dialog, but still have some catching up to do in terms of differentiation," says Bernd Büchner, Managing Director of Millward Brown for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Tencent's success in the Chinese brand value ranking is based on a strategy that focuses on the user and successfully combines the categories of content, services and hardware. The Group has monetized the messaging service WeChat through a cooperation with the online retailer JD.com and the joint development of data-based marketing solutions. TenPay also belongs to Tencent - the platform is now the number 2 online payment service on the Chinese market.

Huawei and JD.com most successful newcomers

The most successful newcomers are Huawei (7th place with 18.5 billion US dollars) and JD.com (15th place with 9.4 billion US dollars). Huawei scores with its international presence and a very strong mobile communications division. There are three main reasons for the success of JD.com, a direct competitor of Alibaba: the internationalization of its e-commerce offering, significantly improved mobile platforms and various partnerships with international premium brands.

"The Chinese market is particularly dynamic in the area of mobile applications. In this respect, the mobile presence should already represent a brand in all its facets today: Advertising and marketing, social communication, shopping and payment. International companies that are already active in China or want to be active in the future should not underestimate the speed of digitalization," says Bernd Büchner.

Further trends from the current ranking:

Especially High-growth categoriesThe personal care (+61%) and jewelry retail segments (+61%) recorded the strongest growth, followed by the real estate, insurance, airlines and travel categories. Consumers are therefore still investing in luxury goods and spending a lot of money on personal care and health products.

The Rise of the technology brandsTechnology brands claimed 27% of the total brand value of the top 100 in this year's ranking. Just two years ago, this figure was 16 percent. Three companies from the technology sector also lead the ranking of brands that generated the largest share of their turnover abroad: Lenovo with 68%, Huawei with 62% and ZTE with 50%.

Innovative brands grow faster: If the brands are assessed according to their degree of innovation, the top third of the most innovative brands recorded growth of 29% between 2014 and 2016, whereas the brands in the bottom third grew by just 3%.

Letv and NetEase with the greatest momentum: The content provider Letv (32nd place and USD 2.8 billion) and the gaming platform NetEase (40th place and USD 1.9 billion) show the strongest momentum with growth of 81% and 73% respectively.

"Over the past 35 years, many brands have benefited from China's almost immeasurable economic growth. But those days are now over. In order to continue to increase their value in the future, Chinese brands must now also increasingly emphasize their uniqueness, invest in innovations and constantly deepen customer relationships," concludes Bernd Büchner.

A table of the 100 most valuable Chinese brands is available here for download (PDF). Further information material, such as infographics, a video and the detailed report can be found here.

At the beginning of the year, the Swiss Radio and Television Company (SRG) still did not want to know anything about broadcasting the matches of the European Football Championship in 4K quality. The investment in this technology was currently associated with high risks that could not be justified in view of the still very low device population, they said. Now, however, SRG is nevertheless betting on 4K, at least on a trial basis. It is taking over the 4K signals of a total of eight European Championship matches from the European football association UEFA. These are the opening match and all matches from the quarter finals onwards. They are to be broadcast on the SRF zwei channel.

Orders Swisscom to pay the costs

However, SRG spokesman Daniel Steiner does not want to know anything about a U-turn. The trial is limited to the duration of the European Championship. For the transmission, only rented infrastructures will be used, Steiner told the news agency SDA on Wednesday. The costs of the trial will be borne by Swisscom, which will broadcast the 4K trial program. Steiner did not want to say how much the trial will cost. The partners had agreed to maintain silence on the matter. The broadcasts of the relevant games of SRF two in 4K quality can be received via the new TV box from Swisscom (Werbewoche.ch reported). As the telecom provider announced on Wednesday, the box can be ordered in stores from Thursday. According to Steiner, SRG has not yet set the date for the introduction of a 4K regular operation. In principle, however, the distribution of the corresponding programs would also be possible for other telecom providers such as Cablecom and Sunrise. Both SRG and Swisscom deny that the cooperation is related to the new Admeira advertising alliance between SRG, Swisscom and Ringier.

Thrust for new technology

4K, also called UHD (Ultra High Definition), is the successor technology to Full HD. Instead of a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, the latest TV generation conjures up 3840 x 2160 pixels on the screen. The sharpness of detail is doubled, and the images look even more real. Corresponding TVs that can resolve such sharp images have been on the market for years. Until now, however, TV broadcasters have failed to offer them. This should now change. Even though regular operation in 4K has not yet been officially determined at SRG, the trial balloon at EURO 2016 is strongly reminiscent of the launch of the HD suisse channel in the run-up to EURO 2008 in Switzerland and Austria. The broadcasting of the games in HD quality resulted in a push for the new technology. And for SRG, the new channel served as preparation for the switchover of all programs to the new technical standard in 2012.

Only a question of time

In Switzerland, only the streaming provider Netflix offers movies and series in 4K resolution that are available to everyone. Last year, however, small shopping and fashion channels also launched programs in the new standard. More and more videos can also be streamed in 4K on the Internet platform YouTube. So it should only be a matter of time before the technology also catches on with the larger TV broadcasters. At the beginning of April, the German-French culture and information broadcaster Arte already launched a test operation in 4K resolution. Swisscom expects the first live TV channels in 4K to be available to its customers from the end of May. With the launch of the first 4K-capable TV box, the telecom giant is currently ahead of the competition. But competitor Sunrise also wants to launch a comparable box in the coming weeks, as it explained on request. The hardware is already ready for the market, only the software is currently being optimized. Cablecom is even less specific. Cablecom wrote on request that it will continue to follow the 4K trend and make the technology available to customers in due course - when the content and corresponding demand are available. However, the network infrastructure is already equipped for the transmission of 4K content, it added. (SDA)

Newly elected to the Press Council were:

Sonia ArnalDeputy Editor-in-Chief Matin Dimanche, Dennis Buehler, Federal House Editor Südostschweiz and Aargauer Zeitung, Denis Masmejean, Le Temps journalist and media law expert, François Mauron, in charge of the local editorial office of La Liberté and, representing the public, Barbara Hintermann, Secretary General of the Foundation Caux-Initiatives of Change.

Re-elected were: Dominque von Burg, President of the Swiss Press Council, Francesca Snider, Vice President and Max Trossmann, Vice President as well as Marianne Biber, Michel Bührer, Annik Dubied Losa, Jan Grüebler, Matthias Halbeis, Michael Herzka, Klaus Lange, Markus Locher, Francesca Luvini, Casper Selg, Anne Seydoux, Franca Siegfried, David Spinnler as members.

The subjects, which combine spectacular animal images with surprising headlines, are now in use on posters and online.

Responsible at Zurich Zoo: Alex Rübel (Zoo Director), Markus Rege (Head of Marketing & Education), Dominik Ryser (Head of Online Marketing & Advertising). Responsible at Matter Gretener Lesch: Peter Lesch (strategy), Daniel Matter (creative direction), Dominik Imseng (text), André Schmid (graphics), Verena Knof (consulting). Media: APG/SGA Out of Home Media, Clear Channel Switzerland, Goldbach Media.

Swisscom will show the opening match and all matches from the quarter-finals onwards in 4K resolution. In addition, in cooperation with Teleclub, two Raiffeisen Super League matches will be broadcast in UHD quality every week from the 2016/17 season. This is made possible by the launch of the new UHD-capable TV box for Swisscom TV2.0, which can be ordered from all Swisscom sales outlets from April 14, 2016.

Movies, Live TV and YouTube content in UHD

With the new box, a selection of UHD titles (movies and documentaries) will also be available for rent at launch. According to the announcement, the offer will be expanded continuously: From probably the end of May, the first live TV channels will also be available in UHD. Soon, customers will also be able to stream YouTube content in UHD with the new box. As of now, they can also watch their own videos, for example filmed with their smartphone, in the highest resolution thanks to the newly integrated media player VLC. "The new box is even smaller, faster and more economical, and shows customers images as sharp and brilliant as never before. As a football fan, I'm already looking forward to watching the games in the very best picture quality," said Dirk Wierzbitzki, Head of Swisscom Products & Marketing, in a statement.

New customers will receive the new box from April 14 when they take out a Vivo package with Swisscom TV 2.0. Existing TV 2.0 customers can buy the new box for 119 Swiss francs. In addition to the new TV box from Swisscom, the prerequisites for using content in UHD quality are a UHD-capable TV set and a minimum bandwidth of 40 Mbit/s. UHD is the successor technology to Full HD and is also called 4K because it displays four times more pixels at 3840 x 2160. The new TV box also supports High Dynamic Range (HDR), which enables more color depth thanks to higher contrasts and thus a more natural and significantly better picture quality.

Voice search - also in Swiss German

The new box also comes with a new remote control with integrated microphone. Customers can use voice input to simplify the search and no longer have to type in the terms. They can search for movie or program titles, actors, sports clubs or other keywords. In addition to High German, the voice search function supports all Swiss-German dialects and French - Italian will follow later this year.

A three-pronged strategy - aimed at Europeans, Americans and Asians and, thirdly, at Swiss residents themselves - is intended to boost business in Swiss tourism. According to the Director of Switzerland Tourism, Jürg Schmid, something urgently needs to be done for the Swiss vacation region, as many of the country's tourist facilities are barely making any money. One could even speak of a "non-profit industry", he told the news agency SDA. For this reason, his organization has been trying for around two years to play on one of Switzerland's particular strengths, namely its geographical compactness. Visitors to the country can experience four cultures, from urban to rural, within a relatively small area in a very short space of time, explains the director. In other countries, you always have to get on a plane to do this, he tells SDA.

To this end, Switzerland Tourism has been running the "Grand Tour of Switzerland" marketing campaign for several years, which aims to anchor the idea of a compact tour of Switzerland tailored to individual needs in people's minds. This offer is expected to attract around 50,000 visitors to Switzerland in 2016 alone. From 2021, the tourism organization expects around 200,000 guests to take up the idea of the round trip and generate a turnover of around 225 million francs. When asked about the concrete impact of the money spent, Schmid refers to an evaluation whose methodology was developed together with a university. According to this, his advertising measures generate around 16 percent of all overnight stays in Switzerland every year. As the director explained to SDA, this generates a turnover of around 3 billion Swiss francs. (SDA)

Despite falling electricity prices, unfavorable currency effects and a generally challenging environment, the BKW Group can look back on a successful year and look to the future with confidence. This is also conveyed by the annual report that Agentur Process designed and produced for the energy and infrastructure service provider this year. The simple and clearly laid out mandatory section was supplemented with a diary that takes up the highlights of the year. Under the title "Stories of our journey into the future of energy", it reviews the events and successes of the year.

Process has designed the diary in the form of a typical notebook. The year is divided into the four business quarters. An illustrated quote on the subject of energy introduces each quarter. The individual diary entries are lovingly hand-drawn, sketched or written with handwritten typography. Picture snippets, collages and even a small photo love story give the diary its own authentic character. A chronological account of an eventful year is told in words and pictures. The topics are as varied as BKW itself: From the decommissioning of the Mühleberg nuclear power plant to the commitment to Swiss skiing.

The employees play a key role in the diary. It was clear from the outset that they should receive the diary as a gift. As a thank you and as a reminder of an eventful year.

Multifaceted, colorful and full of exciting stories. This is how BKW presents itself in its 2015 Annual Report - which can also be viewed online - and concludes with a quote from Oscar Wilde: "I never travel without my diary. You should always have something exciting to read with you."