Exactly two years ago today, Watson went live and immediately attracted a lot of attention both inside and outside the industry. Much of what the portal embodied at launch was new for Switzerland and the local media landscape - such as the idiosyncratic mix of information and entertainment or the focus on social media marketing.

Native advertising as a revenue driver

Another unusual aspect was that Watson relied heavily on native advertising and content sponsorship right from the start, in addition to traditional banner advertising. Customers position themselves as "enablers" of editorial content that resonates with users through creativity and the right tone of voice, and thus optimally conveys the desired brand values.

According to the statement, a number of figures show that Watson has backed the right horse with native advertising: Since its launch, the portal has implemented over 200 native ad campaigns with customers from a wide range of industries. Watson already generates a third of its revenues with the new form of advertising.

Reader numbers rise steadily

However, Watson has not only established itself in the advertising market, but apparently also in the reader market. Traffic figures have been rising steadily since the beginning and are now around 1.2 million unique clients, 8 million visits and 70 million page impressions per month, according to a statement from Watson. The Watson app has been downloaded over 220,000 times.

The advertising month of December shows a decline in advertising pressure to 446 million gross francs. Compared to the previous year, however, advertising pressure was 2.5% higher than in December 2014. Cumulatively, the year 2015 ended with a total gross advertising pressure of CHF 4,949 million, which corresponds to a minimal increase of around 1% compared to the previous year.

The biggest changes

The largest year-on-year increases were recorded in the transportation (+26.3%), retail (+23.6%), cleaning (+19.0%) and pharmaceuticals and healthcare (+17.6%) sectors. The tobacco products sector recorded a massive decline in advertising pressure of 36.3%. Other major changes can be seen in the vehicles (-31.7%), political campaigns (-22.4%), services (-10.2%) and energy (-9.0%) sectors. 

Retail trade on the upswing

The retail trade sector generated gross advertising pressure of CHF 53.4 million in December, an increase of 25.7% on the previous year. This figure also corresponds to a good eighth of the total advertising pressure in the retail trade sector over 2015 (CHF 442.9 million), which demonstrates the considerable relevance of the Christmas business.

Successful digital & household sector

The new Digital & Household sector, which combines the previous sectors of household items/appliances, IT and office and consumer electronics, has two products in the top 10 most advertised products in December. In second place in the top 10 is the product Universal Music CD's and in third place the product Ifolor.ch. The telecommunications sector is also represented in the top 10 with two products: In 8th place is the product Teleclub Pay TV and in 10th place Salt Plus Swiss. 

You can find the entire Media Focus Advertising Market Trend Report with the most important developments from December 2015 here here.
 

As Managing Director Digital, Frank Lang will take over the management of the entire digital department with the main task of driving forward the expansion of competencies, positioning and representation on the market, as Publicis announced in a press release on Thursday.

As Business Director Switzerland, Lang will also be in charge of the consulting team for UBS Switzerland - including coordination with the international contacts on the agency and client side.

Publicis has thus hired an expert in digital marketing with around 15 years of agency experience. Frank Lang's first stop in the agency world was Factum Kommunikation, after which he worked for several years at McCann in Australia and, following his return to Switzerland, for over six years at Goldbach, most recently in the role of Managing Director of Goldbach Interactive. Lang holds a federal diploma in marketing management and is a regular lecturer at various universities.

With the mere support of desk utensils such as crayons, sharpeners and glue, up-and-coming German director Matus the First brings the whole range of sexual orientations and practices to the table. His message: "Be proud of who you are. Fuck the hate."

What his short film also makes clear is that you don't need plush vaginas and wooden penises to teach sex education at school. A well-stocked desk drawer will do just fine. (sis)
 

In the campaign by Havas Worldwide Zurich, this is made visible. Sound waves form themselves into unheard-of sounds: for once you can hear a flea fart clearly and distinctly, or you are amazed at the volume of a mouse pulse.

The campaign was launched in Schaffhausen in December and is visible on posters in the town center, on Schaffhausen buses and in isolated advertisements.

Responsible at Kummer Hearing Counseling: Roger Kummer (Owner). Responsible at Havas Worldwide Zurich: Frank Bodin (overall responsibility), Folker Wrage (CCO), Michael Kathe (creative direction), Hanning Beland (art direction), Yannick Schaller, Magnus Sambo (text), Marina Tanner (image editing, graphics), Ladina Scholz (consulting), Toni Gadza (print production).
 

Under the name frappant, the realigned agency offers visual communication and the development of web solutions from a single source. It employs around 17 creative minds, is independent and owner-managed. The aim is to combine forces in market cultivation, the development of new products and innovation as well as the achievement of cost synergies, according to a press release issued on Thursday.

The merger was officially announced and celebrated at Restaurant Du Nord in Bern on January 21, 2016.
 

The providers have joined forces in the interests of a competition-friendly, federalist media policy, as they announced on Thursday. With the letter of demand to Bakom, they want to send a signal for a limited role for the SRG in the joint venture.

The loose alliance includes AZ Medien, Basler Zeitung, the TV stations 3+,4+, 5+, Goldbach Media, various local radio stations and TVs, the cable network association Suissedigital and the TV platform Zattoo.

Swisscom, SRG and Ringier announced the joint venture for their joint advertising platform in August 2015. The publishers and their association announced their opposition. In mid-December, OFCOM prohibited SRG from using the joint platform until the end of March at the latest. It first wants to carry out a review under broadcasting law. However, the Competition Commission has already approved the joint venture.
 

Users often use the same terms to describe themselves in career networks. A recent list from LinkedIn confirms this: both in Switzerland and internationally, "leadership quality" is one of the most frequently used buzzwords. But if you want to be remembered, you should stand out from the crowd. However, if you look at the self-descriptions of many professionals in career networks, you read the same thing on many profiles: they all have leadership qualities, think strategically, are motivated, and of course creative - or at least want to be. Based on its more than 400 million user profiles worldwide, the business network LinkedIn has now determined the top 10 most-used keywords in Germany and globally in 2015.

 
Differences in occupational groups

The evaluation of the LinkedIn buzzwords revealed subtle differences between individual occupational groups: Marketing experts and sales specialists always work strategically, while HR specialists have particularly strong leadership qualities. Students, on the other hand, prefer to describe themselves as "passionate". But it's not just the Swiss who use these terms to describe themselves. On average worldwide, most users claim to have leadership qualities. The attributes of motivation and creativity also rank highly globally.

To present a good image of yourself online, Alexandra Kolleth, Member of the Executive Board Germany, Austria, Switzerland, advises: "A strong online profile is very important in today's job market. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete and up to date. You should add a photo, list your expertise in detail, as well as map your professional career. On LinkedIn, a user's contacts can also attest to the skills they attribute to themselves. So if you have the opportunity to get a public recommendation on LinkedIn, you should take advantage of it. Nothing provides more credibility than third-party confirmation, and a meaningful profile increases the likelihood of ranking high in search engine rankings."

Most engaged marketers

LinkedIn also compiles an annual list of "most engaged marketers" based on a number of metrics, such as the number of connections you have, how often you interact with other users on the platform, membership of groups, etcetera. Alexandra Kolleth, Member of the Executive Board Germany, Austria, Switzerland, on LinkedIn's Most Engaged Marketer Ranking: "Marketers in Switzerland see tremendous value in building their own network, being provided with high-quality content, and keeping up to date with what industry peers are liking, discussing and sharing. In the DACH region, over seven million members are already taking advantage of the opportunities and benefits LinkedIn offers them as a platform to network with other professionals and executives. We are particularly pleased to be able to showcase marketers from a wide range of industries in the latest ranking." (uma)
 

The Top 5 Most Engaged Marketers 2015 in Switzerland are:

1)      Andreas Tölke, Head of Content Mgmt., Social Media & Communities Digital Private Banking (VP) / Innovation / Finance / Digital Native at Credit Suisse
2)      Patrick Zanello, Sales Director DOOH at Goldbach Media (Switzerland) AG
3)      Alicia Montoya, Vice President, New & Social Media at Swiss Re
4)      Riccardo RossiDigital Marketing, Social Media and Brand Manager at Mondelez International
5)      Ernesto Izquierdo, Conseiller en communication digitale - Réseaux sociaux d'entreprise - Social Media & RH at International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC
 

NZZ Content Solutions offers customers a full range of services - from conception to editing and realization, in print and digital. The portfolio of services includes customer supplements in the titles of the NZZ Media Group, stand-alone corporate magazines and, in the future, video formats and digital storytelling.

Veit Dengler, CEO of NZZ Media Group: "Content marketing is becoming increasingly important in the market. With NZZ Content Solutions, we are ideally positioned to offer our customers all services in this area from a single source."

The NZZ Content Solutions team will draw on a network of high-profile journalists, the media company wrote in a statement on Thursday. At the same time, a clear separation between the editorial department and the new NZZ Content Solutions is ensured, it continues. 

The market reacted positively to the new offering. "Our first commercial print supplement, which we produced with Post Finance on the subject of working capital management, met with great interest in the market," says Karin Carpentier, CEO of NZZ Media Solutions.

The commercial management of the new NZZ Content Solutions division will be taken over by Elmar zur Bonsen. Since 2013, he has headed the Brand Journalism and Professional Media Relations courses at MAZ, the Swiss School of Journalism in Lucerne. Previously, he was Publishing Director and member of the Executive Board at the Zurich agency Infel, Deputy Publishing Director at BurdaYukom, the former corporate publishing subsidiary of Hubert Burda Media, and Editor at the Süddeutsche Zeitung. 
 

How do the media, advertising and communications industries deal with these changes? This question was discussed by Viktor Baumgarnter, communications trainer and co-host of the evening, Martin Spillmann, member of the Board of Directors of Serviceplan Suisse and Marco Boselli, Editor-in-Chief of 20 Minuten. The panel discussion was chaired by Claudio Rotter.

Viktor Baumgartner gave input on the difficulty of reaching the other person with a message. He believes it is important to know what you want and say what you want (to achieve) and communicate this in an impressive way. "Those who master these skills gain trust, credibility and confidence in the media, investors and customers."

According to Marco Boselli, attention stress is also a major issue for print and online media. "Listening attentively, fully immersing ourselves in a text and researching on the internet, with the pressure of competition and publication pressure on our backs, are the big challenges for us."

In a relaxed atmosphere, the speakers and moderator highlighted current aspects of the topic with a high-caliber audience and highlighted possible solutions in the discussion. (uma)
 

"We are very pleased about the strengthened cooperation with the Swiss Trade Association. This will enable us to represent our common interests even better - particularly in the area of digitization," Simon Osterwalder, managing director of Suissedigital, was quoted as saying in a statement on Thursday.

A central point of the future cooperation is a commitment as the main sponsor of the synergy 2016 event, which will take place on November 2 in the Kursaal in Bern. This year's theme of the event for small and medium-sized enterprises is digitalization. It is planned that Suissedigital will also collaborate with the SGV on the content of this topic in the current year.
 

However, the daily average market share declined slightly, from 32.2 to 30.3 percent. SRF also lost viewers slightly in the most important hours of the day, the main evening from 7 to 10.30 pm. Here, the market share fell to 38.8 percent (down from 41). This is according to the audience figures published by SRF on Wednesday. However, SRF is not surprised by this, because there were no major sporting events in 2015. As expected, the market shares declined somewhat.

"Of course, the lack of sports events is not the only reason," SRF Director Ruedi Matter admitted to the media. There is more and more competition, he said. Especially later in the evening, SRF programs are having trouble getting viewers in front of the screen and keeping them there. Programs like Rundschau, Club and Arena are under pressure in terms of ratings. But they are still frontrunners in their broadcast slot, Matter stressed. "That's what we're interested in." In addition, he said, these formats are important for the country.

Politically under pressure

SRF is also under pressure politically. Fee-financed television is coming under increasing criticism. Matter emphasized, however, that this pressure "has not affected the design of our programs." But everyone in the house is of course aware of the need to offer the best quality, he said. "This also includes that we remain journalistically independent."

SRF should have it a little easier again this year - at least in terms of market share. With the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the Summer Olympics in Rio, the European Football Championships in France, and the Schwing- und Älplerfest in Estavayer-le-Lac, there are several major events on the schedule. One of the numerous thematic focuses this year is dedicated to a fictitious eight-day power blackout in Switzerland. In a documentary entitled "Blackout Switzerland", SRF traces the drastic consequences such a power blackout would have. Within a few days, the country would be transformed into a lawless space in which not even the water and food supply would function.

Ruedi Matter, Director SRF, at the annual media conference (Image: SRF)