The decisive factor here is how quickly you can correctly identify a music title, an artist or an album title from a selection of three suggestions. For five questions, you can prove your talent and compete with other music enthusiasts. In addition, a group of players can be put together via Facebook, in which you can then compete against other teams.

The motto of the game is: "Win together and then go to a concert together with the tickets you win". You can play along as often as you like. The existing music list is large enough to avoid repetitions that would spoil the game enjoyment. The best score of each player counts in the end. In the first round of the game, which ends on November 14, 2011, the top three teams can win tickets to a Lenny Kravitz concert.

The Feinheit agency is responsible for the concept and implementation of the game.

Responsible at Raiffeisen: Marcel Schumacher (Head of Campaign), Mario Dietsche (Head of Target Group Marketing). Responsible for fineness: Thileeban Thanapalan (concept and implementation), Moritz Zumbühl (CEO consulting until implementation).
 

It's here. After the social media revolution brought us the highly praised Arab Spring, it is now bringing us its anti-capitalist counterpart: the Occupy Wall Street movement. Whether we like it or not.

Called by the Canadian magazine Adbusters.org with the post "Are you ready for the Tahrir moment?", protesters have been occupying Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan in New York City since September 17. As a protest against social inequality in the United States, as the voice of the 99 percent of the population "who will no longer put up with the greed and corruption of 1 percent of the population". So far so good, I assume dozens of such demos take place in NYC every day. However, this action is now in its second month and has become a model for similar actions in numerous cities in the United States and around the world: Zurich, Rome, London and Berlin are just some of the offshoots of the protest. A total of 1500 events took place in 82 countries. Why this success?

The movement is accused of having no "real" message, no manifesto, no concrete goals. My question is: "Does this make the movement more harmless or more dangerous?" What we are currently experiencing is a historic moment. Because what we welcomed in North Africa is now about to happen to us: a protest that is becoming a cultural phenomenon. A peaceful protest that is intended to bring about political change. And this without wanting to address a specific target group other than ordinary "people". My question is: "Is there still such a thing as a target group?" Take a look on the streetcar and see who owns an iPhone. #occupywallstreet appeals to people of different ages, races, lifestyles and political orientations. Just like the iPhone. Just like Facebook. Just "people".

I am not here to pass judgment on the movement or its motivations. After all, this column is about social media. And these people know a lot about it. Because although they have no structure and no organization in the true sense of the word, they make better use of social media opportunities than any traditional corporation. And regardless of the outcome: The benchmark has been reset.

A few examples. An organically grown Facebook page with over 230,000 fans and a Twitter profile with over 80,000 followers are just the starting point. The movement goes even further and plays the entire keyboard. Or rather, it uses the entire long tail of communication. Be it with the free app "Vibe", which enables demonstrators to send anonymous messages. With the content aggregator Storify (sound, text, images and video can be easily collected and shared again), with the event planning tool MeetUp (because occupations are always an event too) or with the Tumblr blog (very intuitive and easy to use), which gives a voice to the 99 percent scattered all over America. And because you should also have something to read while occupying, the organizers also launched their own newspaper. Yes, a real newspaper. Printed. Old school. Simply different. Because the newspaper was financed through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com. For your information: The target was USD 12,000. However, almost 1700 supporters donated more than USD 75,000. Do you know of a company that operates so consistently in social media without a CEO?

It's no longer about finding the lowest common denominator (as is the case with the mass media), but about talking to those who are really interested. And that you provide them with content that is relevant. The demonstrators have understood this. And your company?
 

Switzerland really didn't need another advertising agency. Dominik Schoch and Roman Sonders were convinced of that when they founded Schoch & Sonders in 2006. "We've also done enough advertising in our lives, so we wanted to develop a different approach." The two business partners, who found each other only after a long and completely different career path, found their individual concept for an agency in an agency for brand management. "We believe that brands need to be managed, and by a strong hand - for life. That's a basic philosophy that drives us together."

For the two, a brand has "character and personality, just like people. In a few seconds, I know whether something is my thing." For Schoch & Sonders, the path to a successful brand is "the active, consistent, continuous and focused alignment of the signals sent out, directed at all the senses." This is because a product or a company incessantly sends messages to the market, whether intentionally or unintentionally. People absorb these impressions through all their senses. Only the sum of the subsequent feedback "turns companies and products into brands". The desired reaction of the target group "can therefore only be influenced indirectly".

With this premise, the agency acts as brand leader together with the brand managers of its clients. As such, Schoch & Sonders develops the brand strategy and the brand design up to the complete brand appearance. Its clients have included Migros from the very beginning. In the meantime, several brands are also managed for M-Electronics. The start-up got its second reference with Emmi. This company has remained loyal to Schoch & Sonders to this day. The elegant packaging and the brand strategy for Kaltbach's cave-aged cheeses were created at the agency on Zurich's Stationsstrasse. Schoch & Sonders is particularly proud of the success of its "revival" of Gala cheese, after this old cult Swiss brand had to be repackaged following the transfer from Gerber to Emmi.

Dominik Schoch's design work is just as unmistakable on around 100 spices in the Migros range. The bookstore chain Orell Füssli has recently been presented with a comprehensive new look by Schoch & Sonders. Currently, work is underway on the presentation for a company in the pharmaceutical sector. A large car customer wants special light installations. A chocolate manufacturer has a new design developed.

Depending on the workload, eight to twelve permanent employees and freelancers are permanently engaged for Schoch & Sonders. In the "ideal case", the agency wants to be involved with its clients as early as the development of a new strategy. "Anyone who only orders a new and preferably funny campaign" is at the wrong address with the brand developers. "Clients come to us because we go through an entire process with them." To this end, it can also always be very valuable for the agency to work with the client to define the task in a joint workshop.

Another specialty of Schoch & Sonders is that they also work closely with specialists in the field of neuropsychology. "What signals does a brand have to send out so that the consumer is rewarded enough to go into the store and know which product they ultimately want to take out of the rack?" The two CEOs found the possible answers to this question on completely different career paths.

Dominik Schoch enjoyed five years of training at the art school in St. Gallen. This was followed by an introductory tour of various agencies in Zurich. "Ten years in the By Heart team were important for my development," he looks back. Here Dominik Schoch was allowed to have a formative influence on Feldpausch, PKZ, Burger and other brands from the fashion and beauty sector. Passugger was also a grateful customer.

During this phase, he said, he discovered his "passion for brands" and realized that in the future he wanted to do something more consistent than just traditional communications and advertising.

"I saw my fulfillment more and more in creating beautiful imagery and developing a sense of successful brands." As this approach fascinated him more and more, Schoch once again wanted to take a step further in his career. Dominik Schoch spent more than ten years working in agencies doing design work for national and international brands before going freelance. But the new challenge was not to be simply a change of style to another agency. "I wanted to live out my own ideas and pre¬ceptions." It was precisely at this stage that Do¬minik Schoch was introduced to his future partner Roman Son¬der. He hit it off with him right away. After a short time, the two "founded the agency on a white sheet of paper" and sketched out all their ideas, processes and visions together.

Roman Sonders came to the brand "not so straightforwardly. After an apprenticeship as a machine mechanic, he first worked in this profession for six months. But he realized early on that machines were not his thing. Sonders first set off on his travels. He used the longer time in France, the USA and Australia to learn languages. Back in Zurich, he "got stuck" in the hospitality industry. Today, the brand specialist knows that this "helped him a lot" in his later development.

In the hospitality industry, Sonders learned "to work really hard. Nevertheless, after three years of mixing drinks, "it became too boring for him, although I was allowed to work in a very dignified cocktail bar." While observing his guests, the bartender also became increasingly interested in the mechanisms of marketing. Sonders attended part-time marketing courses and then joined the company that was importing Hooth drinks to Switzerland at the time.

During this market launch, Sonders learned "on the job" how a still unknown beverage can become a trendy brand within a very short time - and how to subsequently make the most of the demand commercially. Sonders was able to gain valuable experience in the areas of marketing, advertising and promotion. "We worked a lot below-the-line with promotions at the POS in the restaurant, which of course benefited me as a former hospitality professional."

As a result of this success story with Hooth, Roman Sonders got a taste for it. He wanted to further his education as a marketing planner and later also completed the communications manager. During this time, he worked his way through a wide variety of areas, both on the client side and on the agency side. In addition to event management, he was also able to get to know sponsoring. The most important clients at that time were Feldschlösschen and Smirnoff. For them, Sonders designed and supervised the first event platforms, without allowing it to become too commercial and thus chummy for the target group.

During these times, Roman Sonders was also able to build up an extensive network with many "contacts that are still relevant and functioning today. One of these contacts led to a new job as an online marketer at Qualiclick. Just in time before the IT bubble burst, Sonders reoriented himself as communications manager at Ford. There he was in charge of the entire brand in Switzerland and, in addition to classic advertising, was increasingly responsible for holistic communication. Sonders recalls with particular pride how, thanks to his ideas, he was able to make Ford's appearance at the Geneva Motor Show his responsibility. "I recognized the value of the salon because I came from the event industry." This station was Roman Sonders' last before founding his own agency.

Roman Sonders still likes to get his strength from sports. He used to be a multiple Swiss champion in relay swimming and was part of the Swiss youth squad. Dominik Schoch also has an affinity for demanding sports. Around his job changes, he has always traveled to Asia for longer periods of time and trained in Asian martial arts. Schoch has passed several exams and most recently underwent rigorous training in a Shaolin monastery. At the same time, of course, Asian imagery has decisively influenced the designer during these trips, which are still taken regularly - albeit for shorter periods. "You can absorb a lot of information as a creative when you travel through these countries with your eyes open."

And the goals of Schoch & Sonders? The rooms in the agency offer space for 20 employees. From then on, it would become a strategic decision whether to add an optionally already reserved floor and thus also another hierarchy level. Or perhaps the connection to an international network? "I'm sure no one in New York or Shanghai is waiting for us," quip Schoch and Sonders. But some "new business at a higher level" would entice them. An international brand, for example, run by Schoch & Sonders out of Switzerland. "Preferably from the fashion industry."

Andreas Panzeri

 

54.2 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed from 13 Swiss cities said they use the Internet for fun. 52.3 percent read news and magazines, 51.9 percent use the internet for continuing education, and 28.9 percent use it to purchase products and services. The search engine Google ranks first among the most-visited websites, with 22.9 percent of regular users. The social network Facebook follows with 18.7 percent. In third place is the video platform YouTube, with 6.5 percent of regular visitors. Internet users aged 55 and older are by far the most willing to make purchases. According to the study, this group spent an average of 1,862 francs on online purchases in 2010. By comparison, those in the 25–34 age group spent 10,078 francs. The online platform Ricardo.ch is used most frequently for online purchases, followed by Amazon, EasyJet, and eBay. Schoch &

Until now, anyone who wanted to enjoy a real Züri-Gschnätzlet would have preferred the traditional Kronenhalle restaurant in the birthplace of this menu. If you like it a little quicker, you can also find your favorite dish at McDonald's these weeks.

Every autumn, McDonald's offers Swiss Weeks with sandwiches made from hearty rural Swiss specialties. During the promotional period in October and November, this year's national campaign features the McRaclette for cheese lovers and, for the first time in McDonald's history, the delicious McZüri, inspired by Züri-Gschnätzlets and prepared with real veal. As a side dish, there is also the Swiss Rö s t i .

The menu also includes the McGrillschnägg with a "decent pork sausage". All three sandwiches were developed and created in Switzerland. This is also reflected in the advertising by the long-standing in-house agency TBWA Zurich. In the TV commercials, produced by Pumpkinfilm, everything is a little different from what we are used to. "Somehow more rural," says CD Thomas Ammann. The films were "naturally produced in Switzerland", says account director Remo Christen, swearing by the local quality. Despite this - or perhaps because of it - the new campaign has made waves in the USA. In the online edition of the Chicago Tribune, the new specialties from Switzerland were celebrated with a gourmet tip under the headline "Swiss get McDonald's First Veal Burger".

TBWA is also repeatedly responsible for premieres in Switzerland for the communicative creations. The campaign is led by the network's Zurich agency, which can work independently for McDonald's local market several times a year. Zurich is also allowed to regularly send creatives from Seefeld to Paris to work on new pitches for the whole of Europe. Successful ideas are then adopted and adapted internationally.

McDonald's is celebrating its 35th anniversary in Switzerland this year. During this time, the chain has grown to 151 restaurants. 80 percent of the ingredients for these locations are supplied from Switzerland, with a large proportion of the meat, for example, coming from Bell.

Numerous McDonald's branches are currently undergoing a redesign. Vitra chairs make the groove of fast food history. The restaurant is to become a meeting place for everyone. To demonstrate this, the advertising has also been consistently filmed at the POS for two years. Andreas Panzeri

 

Fatima Vidal from Schreibszene Schweiz is the initiator of the November writing event. The November writers meet to exchange ideas, virtually in the internet forum or in physical form at the writing meetings, which are organized at various locations. As a highlight, the columnist couple Sybil Schreiber and Steven Schneider were able to get involved in November writing. So much so that they are opening their writing studio in November 2011. However, the two will not be present as course leaders, but also as November writers. Guest apartments can also be rented for the event: In the Hirschli Bad Zurzach writing enthusiasts can rent a writing suite and make themselves comfortable in the literary kitchen. From October 29 to December 3, 2011 with a 30 percent discount on the regular price. If you would rather write through November than freeze, visit Novemberschreiben.ch.

A new newspaper is published in Basel on October 28. TagesWoche reports on "everything that moves the Basel region, Switzerland and the world". The journalistic response to the situation at the revamped BaZ is published once a week as a printed newspaper and reports daily updates online. "TagesWoche focuses on quality, in-depth coverage and active dialog with the readership," promise the publishers at Neue Medien Basel AG. Managing director is Tobias Faust, co-editors Urs Buess and Remo Leupin. The Zurich agency Ruf Lanz won the race for the launch campaign. Newly advised by Heike Rindfleisch from Basel, Markus Ruf, Danielle Lanz and copywriters Maren Beck and Andreas Hornung are deliberately focusing on outdoor advertising. This is because "creatively used posters are ideal for publicizing the new TagesWoche in the Basel area quickly and concisely." Words are played with pointed headlines. The creatives have come up with numerous hand-picked special posters. The subjects can also be found on the newspaper's blog, where - "Trust us blindly" - you can already subscribe to the paper. Andreas Panzeri

Where are the marketers' pain points? That was the central question for Canon when the technology provider turned to the renowned market research company CIM in London. As part of the transformation of the technology group into a more and more service-based company, Canon set up the Consultancy Services business unit in 2010. In future, this unit will provide C-level management consultancy services and thus compensate for the loss of the printing and copying business in the long term. The commission for the study is not entirely altruistic, but the results are as interesting as they are surprising for all marketers.

The qualitative part of the study consists of 25 in-depth interviews conducted in April of this year with international managers from the fields of marketing, brand and communication management. They include brands such as AON, BMW, BP, Siemens, Vodafone and Zurich. The project team summarized the statements of the key contributors in seven topic areas. These already reveal the pain points mentioned at the beginning: "Strength does not protect against malfunction", "Cost control has become a way of life", "Technology is not the answer, but part of it", "Problem solving and value creation require a holistic approach", "The changing digital landscape harbors risks and opportunities", "Measurability is important, but difficult to implement", "Best practice: highly valued, but hardly used".

High Swiss participation

Based on these insights, an online questionnaire was developed, which forms the quantitative part of the survey. Between June and July, around 200 high-level marketers answered the sometimes challenging questions. "Around 20 companies from Switzerland took part in the study, which is a large proportion in Europe," says Daniel Brüngger, Consultancy Services Manager at Canon Switzerland. "Doing more, with less" developed into a veritable mantra over the course of the study. This is the central question across all areas of marketing: how can I generate greater efficiency with less investment? Even if, as Daniel Brüngger himself admits, we already suspected where the pain points were, the qualitative analysis is still surprising. One example: Only just 10 percent of all organizations surveyed stated that they also regularly measure the impact of various communication channels within a campaign. While the success of traditional advertising cannot be optimally tracked with today's tools, the responses via social media are easy to retrieve. "People will invest more and more in the measurability of marketing measures," Brüngger is convinced.

Finance versus marketing

Another result of the study: less than 10 percent of organizations confirmed a collaboration between marketing and finance. In other words: Anyone who has the head of finance as an enemy has a constant sword of Damocles hanging over their budget. And another figure that makes you sit up and take notice: Only just 15 percent of those surveyed present their marketing efficiency to top management. Overall, the study reveals potential for improvement in many areas. According to Brüngger, this is at a high level. Accordingly, the aim is to complete a transformation from "good to great". This also includes dealing with technology. Brüngger: "Marketing is becoming more and more technological." It therefore makes sense for marketers to familiarize themselves with the possibilities in this area and for technology providers to know what companies want and need. "The best example is Steve Jobs. He managed to merge marketing and technology," says Daniel Brüngger. However, the study results are only part of the story. This is why Canon also recruits a panel of experts to discuss the findings of the study with the participants from different perspectives at the presentation of the results in the various countries. Brüngger calls this round the "so-what session": What do the results mean for the marketers present and their companies? For the Swiss presentation on November 2 (see box), the Consultancy Manager was able to secure the following panel speakers: Stéphane Bloch, Vice President Chocolat Camille Bloch SA and founder and owner of the EthiQ agency, Peter Felser, BSW President and Chairman of the Board Spillmann/ Felser/Leo Burnett, Erich Papke, Managing Director BMW (Schweiz) AG, Sandro C. Principe, Head of Strategic Marketing and Business Development Swiss Post Solutions, Thomas Schwetje, Head of Marketing/Services, Coop Switzerland, and Martin Wetzel, Head of Marketing and Communication, Schindler AG. Says Brüngger: "Peter Felser represents the entire creative and agency side, while Thomas Schwetje, as head of one of Switzerland's largest marketing budgets, can take on the perspective of a high spender. Erich Papke, for his part, has a different perspective, as he has to take into account corporate guidelines from Munich and implement them in Switzerland with local agencies. Sandro Principe, on the other hand, represents a business sector that develops new marketing solutions in the printed sector, while Thomas Wetzel represents a Swiss group that is primarily active abroad. And Stéphane Bloch not only represents a traditional Swiss company, but also an agency that is committed to sustainability in marketing." The 90-page study will be available in mid-November. It will then also provide a country-specific view of the results. Simone Fankhauser Managing Director and Head of Strategy/Consulting.

WW: Mr. Eicher, in an interview you said that the aim of your work is to enter into dialogue with the consumers and target groups of a brand or product through spectacular and unconventional stories. What if the product to be advertised is completely unspectacular and conventional?
David Eicher: At its core, every product and every service has a story that can be dramatized. We use these stories to generate offers that are useful for consumers and offer them added value. After all, people want something in return for the attention they pay to a brand. Teens in particular use different media channels in parallel and prefer to be involved rather than simply consuming. Advertising is becoming usevertising. When I say spectacular or exciting story, it doesn't always have to be something as funny as a viral spot or an extravagant campaign like Nike. It can also be something that simply integrates users into the development of new, innovative products or services. In this respect, I really believe that every product, every brand, every service offers the opportunity to develop consumer-involving concepts.

You also said that alternative advertising can only be effective if it is strategically embedded in the overall communication package. That doesn't exactly sound like a lot of creative freedom.
Klaus Brandmeyer, the former head of the Institute for Brand Technology in Geneva, used to talk about the genetic code of a brand. There is a core message, a central idea, a core positioning that every product and every brand stands for and that you want to convey to your audience. This can be done in the traditional way, via the POS, events and, more recently, via web-based channels. The aim is to make the core idea a common thread running through all activities. We often work together with the lead agencies of large companies. They provide the initial direction and we then use our expertise and creativity to convey the core message using our own means. At the end of the day, a cohesive brand image should reach the consumer. It makes no sense for each agency to tell its own story that is not part of a central brand message.

Is there still a need for education on the part of companies with regard to the possibilities of alternative forms of advertising?
Yes, for sure. Firstly, it is not only in Germany that many marketing decision-makers' careers have been closely linked to traditional media. As a result, there is also a certain fear of contact with the new media. These can only be overcome through professional expertise. And this is where we hit the nerve of the second point: many agencies that have previously held this advisory role often have the same reservations as their clients. This is why these new topics are sometimes neglected. However, these are essential in order to position oneself as a modern, contemporary brand. To reach target groups that can no longer be reached via other channels. Alternative advertising must be integrated into the marketing mix and online must be recognized and established as a second leading medium. This will also change the pecking order within agencies.

You often mention young people in connection with online advertising. Are the opportunities on the web limited to this target group?
No, no matter whether B2B or B2C, no matter how old, how conservative or how progressive the target group is, there are always opportunities and tools in the online or social media sector to involve customers. One example: We manage the entire social media activities for Ferrero's Mon Chérie brand in Germany. Here we are talking about consumer groups in the 45 to 50-plus age bracket. The brand now has almost 59,000 fans on Facebook. If you look at the interaction rates, the Mon Chérie page is always among the top ten of all brand pages in Germany. The will to engage with a brand, to move in its world, is just as present among older people. After all, social media marketing is not about appealing to teenagers. It's about making offers to consumers of all ages that they find interesting and that bind them to the brand. The aim of every brand must be to grow the fan base around the company as much as possible. The quality of customer relationships must be intensified and optimized in order to ultimately convert the occasional consumer into a brand ambassador.

Listening to you, one gets the impression that traditional communication is an obsolete model.
Social media is not completely replacing traditional advertising, but rather complementing it. Television continues to record growth, particularly in the up to 14 and over 50 age segments. It is only in between that age group that traditional formats, especially print, are struggling. The sudden announcement of new products and offers can certainly be better advertised via traditional channels. Not least because they work with completely different budgets. Brand emotionalization certainly also works better via large-scale moving image offerings such as TV. I can do everything else better via the Internet. The advantages are obvious: good measurability, more precise delivery of the advertising message, more diverse opportunities to interact with the target group, more cost-effective and I can act based on success. These are all things that speak in favor of new forms of advertising.

There has been a Zurich branch since the beginning of October. Why Switzerland in particular?
We have been supporting Swiss companies from Germany for many years. This means that we not only work for the German market, but also for the Swiss and international markets of these customers. These include Mammut, Ricola, Orange and now also Migros and Kraftfoods Switzerland with Tassimo. We wanted to improve the quality of service for our customers by ensuring this local presence. We also recognized that there is a market for alternative advertising in Switzerland, but not yet a full-service offering that comes close to what we offer.

Have you already acquired new customers?
We have three pitches in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to present ourselves in my two preferred sectors - the automotive industry and the financial sector. But I also want the team to be properly constituted first, for the processes to be established so that we can go out with a clear conscience and say: We have a 20-strong team here. And that will be the case in November.

Zurich today, London tomorrow?
We are already supporting international campaigns from Germany and Zurich. Of course, where the haptic perception of a product is concerned, it would make sense to be able to handle shipping in the respective country. It is already our intention to build a pan-European network. But for now we are taking this step, i.e. we want to establish the Zurich location first, see if it works as we imagined, and then we can talk about further expansion.
Simone Fankhauser

In a nutshell
In 2000, photographer and advertising manager David Eicher founded Webguerillas GmbH, a full-service agency for alternative forms of advertising. Today, the Munich-based company employs over 60 people. Its services include viral campaigns, social media activities, guerrilla, word-of-mouth and mobile marketing as well as concepts for blogs and websites.

 

It is organized and carried out by Swissfilmassociation. The submitted works are as diverse as the film and audiovisual industry. They are judged and awarded in the categories Commercials, Corporate, Television and Multimedia & Interactive.

On Sunday at 5:15 p.m., Advertising Week on Star TV will show clips from this year's shortlist; also viewable at. Startv.ch/advertisingweek. Reporting on the award will then follow in two weeks.