As Schweiz am Sonntag writes in its current edition, the Miss Switzerland pageant is on the rise again after the gloomy last few years. At least as far as the TV ratings are concerned. A total of over 1.6 million viewers - four pre-shows and the final - watched the 2015 election. According to the organizers and Schweiz am Sonntag, around 580,000* viewers watched the crowning of the new Miss, which is a high figure compared to the ratings of the last three years. In comparison: when Guido Fluri took over the event in 2013, the ratings were at an all-time low of 185,000 viewers, and the following year they were still meagre compared to previous years at 240,000 (Werbewoche.ch reported).

This also makes it easier to digest the fact that the mood on social media in particular was anything but positive. Lots of mockery, lots of ridicule, calls for the Miss Switzerland contest to be canceled. Things seem to be different in the "real" world: Miss Switzerland pageant spokesperson Nik Schwab emphasizes to Schweiz am Sonntag that the majority of personal and direct feedback has been positive. This feedback is important to the organizers. And the sponsors - including L'Oréal - also seem to have enjoyed the show. According to Schwab, many of them extended or confirmed their commitment immediately after the election. (hae)

* The Miss Switzerland organization speaks of a net reach of 364,000 as reported by Mediapulse and argues on the basis of TwitterThis value is decisive for a sponsorship format and is therefore the KPI. With the rating, the common measure used in Switzerland to show the viewer performance of a TV program, the figures would be significantly lower.

Mazzara announced that the portal and the program grid would be "thoroughly revised" for the new year. One reason for this is that mobile is "enormously important" for Joiz and the program is therefore to be geared more strongly to mobile use. 65 percent of online users consume Joiz on their smartphones. It's a matter of "finding new forms" to "better capture this effect of "I'm in the moment". But the company wants to hold on to television as a beacon, because it works very well. Mazzara doesn't get more specific in the interview, despite being asked, because he can't say much in detail at the moment.

In return, he announces that Joiz will make a profit in Switzerland for the first time this year thanks to advertising revenue and the 300'000 viewers reached per month on all channels.

Once started as a TV operator, Joiz has now created a second mainstay by developing an interactive platform that is unique in Switzerland and is now being resold to various international companies. This expansion is an important step in creating long-term added value for the company, Mazzara said. Although this business area is far from the journalistic touch at launch, he said, the company will remain a TV operator and will also invest in journalism. "I firmly believe in the power of programming. We will not prevail with technology alone," Mazzara is convinced. That's why they created the new position of editor-in-chief, he said. (hae)
 

The commercial "Sainsbury's OFFICIAL Christmas Advert 2015 - Mog's Christmas Calamity" was uploaded to YouTube on November 12 - three days later, the number of clicks is already approaching seven million. This is an impressive, record-breaking number, even for very viral films. The reason: the supermarket chain is bringing back Mog, the children's book cat drawn by Judith Kerr. Kerr brought him to life in 1970 with the book "Mog the Forgetful Cat" - and, unusually for children's book heroes, let him die of old age in 2002 with the 16th book ("Goodbye, Mog").

A plush Mog and a book version of the ad will also be launched with the commercial. The proceeds from the products sold exclusively at Sainsbury's will be donated to the charity "Save the Children". Incidentally, Judiht Kerr herself appears in the commercial as a neighbor. The agency AMV BBDO is responsible for the viral hit. (hae)

 

The diplomas were presented by Professor Piero Martinoli, President of USI Università della Svizzera italiana, and the academic director of the EMScom program, Professor Francesco Lurati.

The program prepares experienced communications professionals to develop new perspectives in the management of stakeholders, reputation and corporate identity at a strategic level. In addition, graduates should be able to contribute to the strategic positioning of their organization. An essential part of this training is the practical, real consulting projects. In consulting mandates for companies or institutions, program participants put what they have learned from theory into practice one-to-one. This year, there were three consulting mandates from Switzerland: Givaudan (Switzerland), Swiss Re (Switzerland) and Unilever (Germany).

Presentation of the Burson-Marsteller Award for Consulting Excellence

The best consulting project is recognized with the Burson-Marsteller Award for Consulting Excellence. Matthias Graf, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Switzerland honored the members of the consulting team for Unilever: Roberta Buzio (Italy), René Felder (Switzerland), Carolin Hoyer (Germany) and Daniel Schaltegger (Switzerland). The project team developed an action plan with the aim of presenting organizational structures and appropriate communication support so that employees successfully become promoters of Unilever's sustainability policy (Unilever Sustainable Living Plan). The measures developed include activities that Unilever will address to its stakeholders in the DACH zone.

Other awards in the EMScom program

The SPRI award for the highest overall grade point average was presented by Peter Eberhard, SPRI President, to Roberta Buzio (Sealed Air).

List of diploma students with nationality, position, employer and place of work

1. Roberta Buzio, Marketing Communications Director Europe, Sealed Air, Italian, Italy
2. Maria Antonieta Durán Gutiérrez, Project Manager-Global UHNW Evolution, UBS AG Wealth Management, Mexican, Switzerland
3. René Felder, Chief Executive Officer, B-Sources Outline AG, Swiss, Switzerland
4. Carolin Hoyer, Corporate Brand and Sustainable Business Manager, Unilever, German, Germania
5. Tommy Jakobsen, Director Communication Management, Lego Systems A/S, Danish, Denmark
6. Mian Shahzad Khalid, Director Marketing and Communications, United Snacks Pvt Limited, Pakistani, Pakistan
7. Martin Luginbühl, Project Manager Marketing, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Swiss, Switzerland
8. Patrizia Luisi, Strategic Planner & Account Supervisor, The Youcan Company Srl, Italian, Italy
9. Dunja Mesic, Head of Marketing Communications for Corporate Solutions, Swiss Reinsurance Company, Serbian, Switzerland
10. Jörg Polzer, Director Corporate Communications, Infront Sports & Media, German, Switzerland
11. Daniel Schaltegger, Chief of Media, FIS Alpine World Ski Championship St. Moritz 2017, Swiss, Switzerland
12. Nicola Strazzari, Head of Research and Development, Vision Plus Media Enterprises, Italian, Italy
13. Sibylle Zumstein, Head of Newsroom, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Swiss, Switzerland
 

After establishing various offices in Europe, America and Asia, Adello is opening another location in Malaysia. This will cover the rapidly growing demand for intelligent communication solutions on the large continent with additional local teams, according to a statement. Pearly Teong will assume operational responsibility as business development director. Ms. Teong brings with her a track record of more than 10 years of experience in the media business and reports to Ron Kwok in Singapore, who is responsible for the APAC region. She will be based out of the new office in Kuala Lumpur and in her first 30 days, she and her team have already won mandates for well-known clients such as Nissan, Maxis, McDonalds and Shell. Ron Kwok is pleased about the further expansion step: "Asia is the mobile market with the highest usage worldwide and still shows an enormous growth. Adello operates the world's fastest analytics backend with its patented, proprietary Programmatic Buying Platform AdCTRL and offers the leading solution for Machine Learning-based Big Data Analytics in real time on it."

The technology has received 14 international awards and nominations, most recently the Silicon Valley Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum Award 2015. Thanks to 100,000 decisions per second, AdCTRL maps and recognizes target groups significantly more clearly than with previous approaches. This leads to significantly increased post-click conversion rates, which ultimately benefits advertisers, users and publishers alike. Adello founder Mark Forster is also pleased with the development in APAC. "The team reached the threshold of profitability in its first year and continues to show tremendous momentum. Triple-digit growth is expected annually for the next three years. In Asia, desktop has long been displaced by mobile and now budgets are following that reality. We will take this into account with new teams," says Forster, who has spent the last few weeks in China as part of the Venture Leaders program.

Judith Wipfler, the team leader responsible for broadcasting at SRF, is delighted with the high proportion of humor among the new preachers, according to a press release. The age mix ranges from mid-30s to mid-60s, all of them are grounded people who are in the midst of life and faith: They include family fathers, youth pastors and adult educators as well as Liza Zellmeyer, a Christian Catholic priest.

As part of the rotation, some team members leave the SRF radio pulpit and new preachers step up to the microphone. They are selected in an elaborate casting process carried out by Radio SRF together with the radio representatives of the regional churches and the Swiss Evangelical Alliance (SEA). At the beginning of November 2015, the training seminar for those selected took place over several days at the SRF studio in Basel. The new voices will go on air from January 2016.

The following preachers are new to the event: Deacon Damian Pfammatter (Roman Catholic), Priest Liza Zellmeyer, (Christian Catholic), Priest Michael Pfiffner (Roman Catholic), Pastor Christian Ringgli (Free Church Movement Plus), Pastor Stefan Moll (Protestant Methodist Church Baden), Vreni Ammann (Roman Catholic parish representative in St. Gallen), Eugen Koller (Roman Catholic), Christian Rutishauser SJ (Roman Catholic; picture), Pastor Elisabeth Wyss-Jenni (Reformed), Mathias Burkart (Roman Catholic), Ralph Kunz (Reformed).

The photos "Grand Tour of Switzerland" by Switzerland Tourism and "Matterhorn Key Visual" by Mammut Sports Group prevailed. This year, the renowned industry award of the SDA subsidiary news aktuell celebrated its tenth anniversary.

With "Matterhorn Key Visual", the Mammut Sports Group secured the title of PR Image of the Year 2015 for Switzerland and is the winner in the category "Corporate Communications".

Photographer Robert Bösch captured the Matterhorn for mountain sports specialist Mammut. 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Swiss landmark. To mark the anniversary, the outdoor specialist, together with mountain guides from Zermatt, traced the route over the Hörnligrat in a chain of lights. In doing so, it paid tribute to the first climbers around Edward Wymper. Mammut employees formed a large part of the chain with their headlamps.

Winning photo PR Picture Award 2015 in the category "Tourism, Leisure & Sports" and PR Picture of the Year 2015 for Switzerland: "Grand Tour of Switzerland 2015", submitted by Switzerland Tourism.

Switzerland Tourism, also winner of this year's PR picture award, was able to convince the jury and the audience with a picture of Lake Neuchâtel in the canton of Neuchâtel The photo by Sebastien Staub shows a couple on the spectacular "Passerelle de l'Utopie", which juts far into the lake.

Presenter Jens Petersen (News Aktuell), Thomas Vetsch (Switzerland Tourism) and presenter Jule Gölsdorf (f.l.)

The expert jury of the PR Image Awards selected the best images in seven categories from over 1'800 submissions from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This shortlist was available for public voting for two months. Around 10'000 trade journalists, PR professionals and marketing experts rated their favorites during this period. In the end, a combination of jury verdict and public vote ensured the decision.

The winner for Germany this year was the photo "Togetherness" by David LaChapelle, submitted by the PR agency Fischerappelt, Relations.

The best PR picture of the year 2015 from Austria is the photo "Advertising campaign Tomson Photography" by Tomson e.U.

Users can effortlessly choose between the two variants. YouTube Music is aimed primarily at mobile users of YouTube. These users can now turn off videos and let only the music play - and thus not consume much battery or data volume. "Most people who listen to music in the U.S. do so in their cars," said YouTube developer T. Jay Fowler. Selected tracks are stored temporarily on Youtube Music and can thus be listened to even without an Internet connection. On their own "channels," users can have new tracks suggested to them that may suit their tastes and set how experimental they want to be.

In addition to original songs by artists, the site will offer cover versions, concert recordings and amateur contributions from other users. "The magic of YouTube Music is the huge pool of content," Fowler said. "We don't want to be just another competitor, but instead get even more people excited about streaming music." Youtube Music will be available only in the U.S. for now. Customers of the premium service Youtube Red, which was only launched at the end of October, also get Youtube Music for the subscription price of just under ten dollars per month, and free of advertising. For other users, the service is free of charge, but from
Advertising interrupted.

Industry criticizes too many free titles

Streaming is becoming an increasingly important distribution channel for the music industry. Universal Music Group, the world's largest music label, made more than half of its digital revenues from music played directly from the Internet for the first time last quarter. Currently the largest streaming provider is Sweden's Spotify, with 75 million users, 20 million of whom have paid subscriptions. Musicians complain that the method does not offer sufficient revenue opportunities. Youtube itself was criticized even before the launch of its streaming service for having too many tracks on the site for free. In its blog, Youtube most recently announced that the video portal and Google had now transferred more than three billion euros to the music industry. "I want to remind all users that music has its own value, and it's worth paying for," developer Fowler said. (SDA)

As an umbrella organization, Swiss Recycling represents the interests of Swiss recycling systems. Its members are recycling organizations active throughout Switzerland. As an umbrella brand, Swiss Recycling wants to draw the attention of the Swiss population to how recycling recyclable materials conserves resources, saves energy, reduces CO2 and thus creates valuable secondary raw materials. The Zurich-based communications agency Vizner Borel was able to assert itself as Swiss Recycling's lead agency.

At the center of the nationwide campaign is a "Speakers' Corner" made of recyclable materials. Here, a wide variety of people from all over Switzerland have their say - and they all have an opinion, an argument, good reasons or a vision as to why separating and recycling recyclable materials is worthwhile for everyone. Prominent personalities such as Bertrand Piccard and Dominique Rinderknecht were also invited to appear at the Speakers' Corner. The campaign, which was launched with the front page of the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten, will be supported with advertisements, on the website All-make-with.ch and deployed with online measures throughout Switzerland in the long term.

Responsible at Swiss Recycling: Patrik Geisselhardt (Managing Director), Claudia Bucher (Project Management Marketing / Communication). Responsible at Vizner Borel: Lajos Vizner, Guillaume Borel (overall responsibility), Markus Binggeli (strategy), Martina Glaser (consulting), Gian Maurizio (art direction), Jürg Waeber (text), Dan Cermak (photography), detail (litho).
 

Tag On for TV commercials, advertisements, banners, Radio spotdirect marketing. All with the support of Timea Bacsinszky, Honda's new brand ambassador.

The convergence point ? The Honda Dream Days, the famous open days, attracted many visitors with a competition for test drives. Roll-ups, stickers, totems, window decorations and 1:1 scale stills of Timea, the decoration concept of 45 Points of Sales was specially designed for the occasion. Three specific brochures for the new models, the "Honda Collection" product catalogs and the latest print and digital edition of Challenge, the official customer magazine produced by Trio from A to Z, supported the campaign.

Responsible at Honda Motor Ltd: Vincent Roch (Advertising Manager, Honda Switzerland).
Responsible at Agence Trio: Sonia Duperret, Florence Genoud (consulting), Fabian Monod, Renaud Cusenier (art directors), Christophe Muller (web design), Pascal Bigler (desktop), Chloé Petit, Guillaume Roud (text).
 

The use of discount coupons, especially cashback coupons (for cash discounts), is often complicated, especially if the coupons are not applied directly at the checkout: The coupon must be collected and the proof of purchase sent in by post. The redemption period is five to eight weeks - this is anything but encouraging for consumers.

A French-speaking Swiss start-up has found the solution to this problem with a web platform on which consumers can directly request the redemption of their discount coupons and take advantage of other promotional offers. In collaboration with HighCo, the Lausanne agency Lauris has launched the bilingual portal Cash-Cash, the first e-cashback website in Switzerland.

Cash-cash.ch is easy to use. The current offers - discount coupon, 100% cashback, double pack offer, etc. - are presented on the website, which can be accessed via all devices, especially mobile devices - whether from home, on the move or directly in the store, in front of the shelf. After purchasing the product, the consumer simply has to upload a photo of their receipt as proof of purchase and request a refund of the amount stated in the offer. The money will be transferred directly to their bank account within a maximum of seven days. Consumers get money back after every purchase transaction. Cash-Cash does not use an online wallet/ purse into which a certain amount must first be deposited before users receive their money back. The website is committed to complete transparency.

Edgard Lauris, founder of Cash-Cash, is convinced: "Couponing is and remains the best sales promotion tool ever invented. It allows brands to demonstrate their generosity. They can increase the purchasing power of their customers and generate more traffic in stores at the same time. This is known as "drive-2-store" marketing. In the digital age, the coupon must also be further developed and dematerialized. Web coupons have been gaining popularity worldwide since 2013, but with the advent of the age of mobile devices, the opportunities for direct interaction with consumers and offering promotions while shopping have become even greater. Cash-Cash's goal is to become THE reference when it comes to assisting customers in-store with their purchasing decisions - before every purchase - giving customers access to instant, exclusive and personalized offers."

Coupons in Switzerland

In Switzerland, the special situation in the retail trade forces brands to use the coupon systems of the two market leaders. The development of the multichannel coupon, i.e. a coupon issued by a brand that can be redeemed in all stores, is therefore too complicated. Therefore, according to the press release, innovations and alternatives are needed that can complement the current offer without competing with it.

There are basically only two types of couponing. A coupon is a means of payment that entitles the holder to a discount on a specific product for a fixed period of time. If the refund is made directly at the checkout, it is referred to as an instantly redeemable coupon. If it is redeemed indirectly via other means, it is referred to as a deferred redemption offer. In the case of a deferred cashback offer, the customer receives all or part of the purchase amount back, but not at the checkout, but by transfer directly to their bank account. Although most of the coupons used today were collected in-store and therefore activated by a retailer, this will most likely no longer be the case in the future. Digital coupons - web coupon, drive, load to card - have gained popularity with the rise of the smartphone and meet the expectations of modern consumers.

Switzerland is catching up with other European markets in terms of shopper marketing solutions, write the creators of Cash-cash. This is partly due to the supremacy of the Migros-Coop duopoly, which has long had the sole say in Swiss retail. However, the arrival of German competitors on the market, combined with the pressure exerted on Swiss retailers by global digital giants Google and Apple, is reshuffling the cards when it comes to web-2-store promotions: "Our platform enables brands to offer Swiss consumers '100% cashback' or 'first purchase free' offers, as well as discounts in any form, which they can find out about directly in store, at home or on the move. This interaction with the consumer is a real revolution in promotional marketing." Cash-cash's first partners in the "Food" category are the French brands Michel & Augustin and Saint Albray, which are better known in French-speaking Switzerland than in German-speaking Switzerland.