McDrive restaurants are car-friendly - you don't even have to get out of the car to order (and eat). And if you're lucky, they're even located right on the main road or highway. A Burger King joint somewhere downtown can't compete with that. From a car perspective. Seems logical, but you can also emphasize it again. For example, with ten meter high directions to the competition. Very obliging - especially when the way to your own restaurant is only five kilometers straight ahead. A bitter but nice kick in the shins of the eternal competitor - powered by TBWA\Paris. (hae)

Roger Spahni holds a degree in business and production engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and will be responsible for the strategic and operational management of IT at Goldbach Group. He reports to Roland Wittmann, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO).

Roger Spahni's career has included positions at UBS as Business Manager Group Technology and at Swiss Life as Head CIO Office & Business Technology Center. He also built up the global research team for IT, media and telecoms at McKinsey & Company, which he led for six years. Most recently, he worked as a Web Project Developer, creating complex applications using the latest Internet technologies. "I am convinced that my background will enable me to further advance the Goldbach Group in programmatic and data-driven advertising delivery across all channels," says Roger Spahni, looking forward to his new task.

Mathis Marugg, the current CIO, is leaving the company at his own request after more than three years to take on new responsibilities.

Google's campaign is part of the "Digital News Initiative" (DNI), for which the internet company has set up a total funding pot of 150 million euros. Swiss projects are being supported with just under 1.8 million euros. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung was the first Swiss partner to announce its participation in the DNI almost a year ago. For the first round of DNI funding, Google launched the separate display of news pages in Google Search on Wednesday, which load particularly quickly on a smartphone as so-called Accelerated Mobile Pages. With the open technical standard, which is intended to ensure a fourfold loading speed, Google is competing against the "Instant Articles" of competitor Facebook, among others.

At the start of the project, media from six European countries released their pages, which were optimized as Accelerated Mobile Pages for mobile offers. As AMP is an open standard, it is not only media sites that can use this process. For example, there is an extension for the popular WordPress system that can be used to automatically generate AMP pages. In Paris, Pichai also announced the "Project Shield" initiative to protect news websites and online presences of smaller organizations in particular against so-called DDoS attacks. The abbreviation DDoS stands for "Distributed Denial of Service". It describes a process in which web servers are flooded with countless data requests from a wide variety of sources in a coordinated action until they are brought to their knees. In the past, media websites have also been attacked with DDoS when they have published critical reports. (SDA)

The share of the total advertising market increased from 11.4 to 12.7 percent compared to December 2015.

Travel on the catch-up chase

At 11.3 million, the Travel category reported the highest advertising print in January, replacing Trivago as the top brand in this category. Compared to the previous month (5.2 million in December), Travel more than doubled its advertising print. It thus displaces the Search & Find category in second place, which has an advertising print of 4.9 million. In third place is the Clothing & Accessories category with an advertising print of 4.5 million, naturally with Zalando as the top brand.

Out-of-Home Appears in a New Dress

Compared to the previous month, less was spent on Search (-7%) and Display (-4%) in the first month of the new year. The Print media group recorded an increase of 5 percent in January. The TV media group increased (+9%), while online advertising accounted for a total of 45 percent of the media mix in the previous month (52%). The out-of-home media group was restructured at the start of the year and now also includes the advertising volumes of digital advertising spaces.

The media mix also differs greatly within the categories. While the Dating category relies heavily on the TV media group, the Search media subgroup accounts for the largest share of the Search & Find, Clothing & Accessories and Finance categories.

Top 5 brands also very dominant in January

In the Health Care category, the top 5 brands claimed over 90 percent of the total advertising print. In the Dating, Consumer Electronics, General Merchandise and Food & Beverage categories, too, most of the advertising pressure can be attributed to the top 5 brands. Only in the Furniture & Furnishing, Search & Find and Clothing & Accessories categories do the smaller brands also have a relatively large share of the advertising print.

The Mediafocus E-Commerce Trend Report January 2016 can be found at here.

He died on Tuesday surrounded by his family at the age of 78, ZDF announced on Wednesday. ZDF program director Norbert Himmler paid tribute to Lustig as an "institution in German children's television". He told children exciting stories every week and explained interesting experiments without ever pandering to them.

Born in Breslau in 1937, Lustig trained as a radio mechanic and studied electrical engineering. He worked as a technician and sound engineer before appearing in front of the camera for the children's series "Pusteblume" in 1979. One year later, the show was renamed "Löwenzahn". Living in a blue construction trailer in an imaginary bear town, he brought children closer to nature, technology and the environment.

After 25 years, Lustig retired as presenter of "Löwenzahn" in 2005. In 2007, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. (SDA)

Photo: ZDF, Tivi.de

At the 6th "Show your App" Awards in Munich at the beginning of February, IQ mobile was honored with the special award for the best location-based app in the DACH region. The implementation specialist unit for all mobile technologies and communication solutions received the award for the Ikea Family App.

The "Show your App" awards were held in Munich for the sixth time. The award honored the best apps from the entire DACH region. The jury of experts from the media and industry evaluated the submissions according to the criteria of design, usability, functionality and cost-benefit ratio.

Special price for IQ mobile

The Ikea Family App developed by IQ mobile received a special award. The app was recognized as a "Best Practice Location" by the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA). "The Ikea Family App not only digitizes the Ikea Family Card, but also combines it with up-to-date information about restaurant, partner and product offers in markets selected by the user. Ikea Austria is thus one of the first companies to use beacon technology nationwide, which is why LMBA decided to award this special prize," the jury said in explaining its decision.

The Ikea Family App

Anyone who has installed the app and activated the Bluetooth function will receive messages at predefined points in selected IKEA stores in Austria, such as "Find out if there are any new offers" or "Time for a break! For example, with a free coffee for Ikea Family members and a juicy raspberry cake!".
For this purpose, IKEA Austria has been using beacons since last year, which enable this form of wireless customer communication. Beacons are small Bluetooth transmitters that communicate with smartphones via apps and have been installed by Ikea in selected stores - so far exclusively in Austria. The app detects that an Ikea Family customer is in the shopping store, and the beacons send messages at specific locations to those customers who have activated their cell phones for this purpose. The app for the modern shopping experience is optimized for Android, iOS and Windows and is available in Austria and Switzerland. So far, the IKEA FAMILY app has been downloaded over 40,000 times. The technology was realized by IQ mobile.

IQ mobile has been supporting Ikea Austria in the implementation of its mobile marketing strategy since 2008. The award once again confirms the success of the cooperation. "With IQ mobile, we have an innovative and professional partner who thinks and acts in the interest of our customers," emphasizes Paul Holaschke, Marketing Manager Ikea Austria.
 

AZ Digital, the digital unit of AZ Medien, submitted a proposal to Google last fall for funding as part of the DNI. This project has now been selected from several hundred applications from all over Europe. The idea is to launch a local petition portal where citizens can publish their own concerns, initiatives and ideas for their local area and put them to the vote. Topics that meet with a high level of interest on the part of the population can then be taken up by the editorial team, addressed, forwarded to the responsible body and accompanied in terms of content. The project, which will be realized in the next 12 months, creates a simple and at the same time specific offer for users to participate in the local political discussion.

For the project, which was developed under the responsibility of Javier Vázquez, Head of Project Management, Google is providing the Aargauer Medienhaus with a mid-six-figure sum. With the "Digital News Initiative" (DNI), Google is pursuing the goal of "promoting high-quality journalism in Europe through technology and innovation" together with European media houses.

"We are very pleased that our project proposal was selected as part of the Google Digital News Initiative. It gives us the opportunity to give the exciting topic of "citizen participation in political processes" a new, digital framework. This will make more local issues known to a wider public and also accessible for media coverage. Everyone involved benefits from this," said Peter Neumann, Chief Digital Officer AZ Medien, in a statement.

The website offers professionals daily industry news, a job market, a calendar of events, an extensive supplier directory and access to a free archive of over 10,000 articles. The completely redesigned website is optimized for mobile access.

With this step, owner and publisher Pascal Rub is launching the third stage of the transformation of the specialist publication Alimenta. In fall 2014, he launched the trade magazine and the associated website Alimentaonline.ch take over. The editorial team headed by Roland Wyss-Aerni always remained independent, while the marketing and production team was integrated into the Rubmedia structures without any job cuts.

In summer 2015, the editor-in-chief of the internet magazine Foodaktuell.ch, Guido Böhler, joined the team as part of a succession solution and sold media entrepreneur Rub the rights to his website. Over the past six months, the merger product has now been created in the form of a comprehensive industry platform. The journalistic management continues to rest on the three shoulders of Roland Wyss (Editor-in-Chief), Guido Böhler (Editor-in-Chief online) and their deputy Hans Peter Schneider.

The new specialist portal, which is designed for mobile use, was planned, programmed and implemented by the young Bern-based WordPress web agency Cubetech over the last six months. Not only were the new appearance, the user-friendly navigation and the extensive article database created, but the basis for new editorial workflows was also laid. The interface from the content management system (WordPress) to the layout program (Indesign) will make it possible in future to bring articles from the daily online medium into printed form even more quickly - without the disadvantages of double data storage and media disruption.

140 years after the Schweizerische Milchzeitung was founded, its successor publication Alimenta / Foodaktuell.ch, which now covers the entire food industry, remains fit for the digital structural change. Again, without layoffs or job cuts, according to a press release.

The new publisher will be built by the two companies W. Gassmann and GO Group. In the future, AutoScout24 will concentrate fully on its core business again, according to a statement issued on Wednesday. Twelve issues of the eMagazine Wheels! have already been published.

The interactive format offers a multimedia reading and information experience for tablet, cell phone and desktop. Over 30,000 readers have installed the Wheels! app on their mobile devices in 14 months and regularly find out about the top news from the car and motor industry thanks to specialist and advice articles, reports, vehicle comparisons and new car reports.

The marketing of wheels! will be taken over by Gassmann Media, which already has excellent relationships in the relevant target markets. Together with the previous producer Go Group, Wheels! will now be continuously developed further, according to the statement. AutoScout24 will remain "Preferred Partner" of the eMagazine.

Christoph Aebi, Director of AutoScout24, explains: "With this new format, we have shown that digitization does not stop at the car industry and offers exciting opportunities for readers, customers and advertisers alike. In the future, however, we want to concentrate on our core business again. We are all the happier to have found ideal successors in the two companies W. Gassmann and Go Group, who want to further develop the product." Marcel Geissbühler, Managing Director of Groupe Gassmann, also sees opportunities in this step: "We can take over an extremely innovative, fully digital and already well-positioned product with which we see real market opportunities and which can ideally complement our portfolio. If the automotive industry follows suit, we will establish the communication platform of the future on the subject of mobility for young digital target groups."

Google received over 1,200 applications. Today, the company announced the 128 winning projects from 23 European countries that it will fund this year with a total of 27.3 million euros as part of its Digital News Initiative (DNI). The NZZ project, with the working title NZZ Companion, is one of 33 so-called major projects that will receive a higher funding contribution. The planned app will use active and passive personalization to provide users with information and news that best suits their reading context, usage behavior, and situation.

"We are delighted to receive this funding. It allows us to apply our expertise in data analytics and data-driven publishing to a novel, user-centric media product," said Anita Zielina, editor-in-chief of New Products, in a statement.

With the Google DNI, Google is working with eight leading European publishers to promote innovation in quality digital journalism. The DNI Innovation Fund has earmarked €150 million over the next three years to promote European quality journalism through innovation and technology.

Ringier has held a minority stake in the Schober company since 1995. Within the Schober Group, SDM is responsible for the consumer data business (B2C).

The two companies have a long-standing partnership: Schober and Ringier have been cooperating in Switzerland for more than 20 years and jointly market B2C offline data. With the re-acquisition, Schober will focus even more strongly on bundling the two business areas B2B and B2C in the future and intends to drive forward its positioning as a data and technology provider in the Swiss market.

According to the press release, Schober will continue its collaboration with Ringier: in future, the joint business relationship will focus on the areas of data and analytics.

Felix Ritter is a dramaturge, coach and trainer for communication, presentation and soft skills. At the Campaigning Summit Switzerland, he will lead a workshop for the entire room entitled Campaigning Body and make it physically tangible what it means to move people. The summit will also be accompanied by over 200 participants, 4 top keynotes from international and interdisciplinary speakers, including a marketing book bestseller and interactive BarCamps & pre-evening workshops, as the organizers further announce.

In his many years of experience, Felix Ritter has worked for ZDF, local.ch, the universities of Hanover & Heidelberg, various church organizations and many more. In his impulse workshop, he will teach how to use movements and tricks for body and mind. His themes are that campaigns need emotion and clear, direct communication. This also includes finding your stand, experiencing the power of your own voice and becoming the mouthpiece of your campaign. If you don't believe what you say, if you can't visualize your visions and infect others with your enthusiasm, you've already lost. "Make me a fan and don't try to sell me anything" - nothing is more challenging than countering this defensive attitude with authentic campaign power.

With this new program item, the organizers want to increase the interactivity of the Campaigning Summit Switzerland 2016 by another level, in addition to expanding the BarCamps introduced last year - i.e. workshops by participants for participants.

Popular tickets

Just under 40 places are still available for this year's edition of the Campaigning Summit Switzerland. The Campaigning Summit Switzerland is organized and sponsored by Business Campaigning.