The digital transformation is also changing customer expectations. And customers' wishes have changed fundamentally. "Nowadays, customers expect a company to have a consistent and context-based presence across all channels as well as flexible payment and delivery options," says Markus Wenger, Country Manager Customer Engagement & Commerce at Hybris/SAP Switzerland, adding: "If you can't offer them that, you've already lost them. After all, the competition is just a click away." Various speakers gave practical presentations on this topic at the Smart Business Day and provided inspiration for modern companies. Simon Lehmann, CEO of Biketec, and Christiane Lehrer, Head of the Competence Center Social CRM at the University of St. Gallen, focused on the biggest challenges and opportunities of customer expectations in the digital transformation. Christian Wiesendanger, Head of Wealth Management at UBS Switzerland, provided insights into the impact of the bank's digital strategy on the wealth management business. Kilian Eyholzer, Global Head of eCommerce at Victorinox, spoke about the basic elements of the multi-channel strategy of the globally active family business and discussed the opportunities and challenges of its implementation. Michael Kocher, Head of Information Technology at Mammut, explained how the outdoor equipment company is now gradually opening up direct dialogue with end customers through the opportunities offered by digitalization. Markus Steinke, Group Vice President Marketing at Metrohm, spoke about the changes in customer expectations in the international group's B2B environment in recent years.

Social media in customer relationship management

WW: What do you see as the main challenges on the occasion of Smart Business Day?
Christiane Lehrer: When it comes to the digitalization of customer interaction, topics such as "added value for the customer", "personalization" and "relevance" of information and offers are very central. The topic of "customer trust" is also highly relevant in this context. Customer trust also plays a very important role when it comes to handling data.

What topics are you currently researching with data from social media channels for customer relationship management?
Christiane Lehrer: By social CRM, we mean a holistic approach to entering into dialog with customers via new digital channels. Unlike traditional CRM, the company now has the opportunity to extend the customer relationship to the customer's social environment through social media, for example. On the one hand, the aim is to pick up customers via the channels that are relevant to them. On the other hand, companies also want to learn more about the customer in order to serve them as precisely as possible based on their wishes and needs. However, many companies face the challenge of generating the customer knowledge required for a personalized customer approach from the large amounts of data available.
In a current research project, we are therefore looking at how customer insights can be generated and used in the context of social CRM and what value propositions the customer expects. As blindly collecting customer data does not make sense from our point of view, we are approaching the topic with so-called use cases. In workshops, we work with our partner companies to define areas of application for customer insights that are relevant to the company in question, always taking customer needs into account. Only in the second step do we define the analysis objectives and consider which customer data is actually required and which channels the data comes from.
The second current research project on omnichannel management is also related to this. Social CRM aims to interact with the customer as a personalized company. To achieve this, online and offline channels must be used consistently and linked together in a meaningful way. At the same time, the touchpoints can serve as a data source for customer information. This information can in turn be used to individualize customer interaction.
However, "customer insights" and "omnichannel management" are just two of the topics that occupy us. Since the Competence Center was launched at the beginning of 2014, we have looked at the social media readiness of companies and their social CRM goals and developed a model for measuring the performance of social CRM. From a customer perspective, we have examined the needs of digital consumers and the importance of privacy.

Which customer data is particularly relevant from your point of view?
Christiane Lehrer: Social media is an important aspect of social CRM. Social networks contain information about customers' needs, for example, but also about private matters such as hobbies. There is also customer feedback on brands and products. The challenge with data from social media is certainly that companies are often dependent on external platforms. This is why more and more companies are setting up their own communities in order to have sovereignty over their customer data.
In addition to mobile data, sensor data will also become increasingly relevant in the future. Data obtained via wearables, from smartwatches to the Internet of Things, will become more important. Products that previously only had a sales touchpoint, such as a coffee machine, will be integrated into the customer's social environment through proactive service offerings.

However, if this data is not used transparently enough, the customer quickly feels monitored and withdraws.
Christiane Lehrer: That is true. You can make key mistakes, especially when approaching customers individually and proactively. Either you approach the customer with the wrong content that is not relevant to them at all. Or you approach the customer at the wrong time, such as offering relocation assistance, even though the customer already moved six months ago. However, personal events that are used as triggers for a customer approach are particularly tricky. While a special offer for a birthday is still okay for most people, events such as a wedding or starting a family are taboo for many. You therefore have to be extremely careful with such triggers.
Jürg Stuker: A good example of this is the new Facebook "Memories" function. When a customer is presented with an old post in their own stream, someone presses the button without thinking - and the data analysis then assumes that this was a recent event. It is precisely when such functions change that it becomes clear how critical the data analyses from social networks still are. It is also difficult to assess whether customers really want all their data from social networks to be visible and usable or whether they are simply not sufficiently informed about it.

Do you still see a lot of development potential here?
Christiane Lehrer: The quality of social media data is currently not always satisfactory. For example, it is often impossible to say with certainty whether the customer details are correct - not everyone gives their correct address, name and date of birth on Facebook, for example. Mobile apps or sensor data will make it easier to identify customers. With this data, it will be possible to make better predictions and thus generate more relevant customer approaches.
Jürg Stuker: However, it should not be forgotten that the customer becomes suspicious more quickly the less he can establish a connection between the data he provides and the processing. They quickly feel infiltrated or controlled by others. And this is particularly tricky in the mobile sector, even though apps now ask for permission to use data, and in the new Android version this is also possible before the first use. However, access permissions are still used indirectly to quickly release information that was not intended to be released.
Christiane Lehrer: I agree: people are becoming increasingly aware, which is why privacy and data transparency are becoming more important. I also believe that those companies that already handle it responsibly will be able to differentiate themselves.

Interview: Ursina Maurer

The participant selects 8 out of 24 ingredients, determines the intensity and gives their seasoning mix a name. The winner, determined by Oswald experts, will be rewarded with a BBQ party worth 1000 francs and the winning blend will be added to the Oswald range in spring 2016. In addition, 100 barbecue tongs will be raffled off among all participants. The Zurich agency Match Communications created and implemented the communication measures for the BBQ promo campaign: a website Oswald-bbq.ch for participation in the competition, a flyer as well as trade fair panels and advertising materials for use at the various regional and local fall trade fairs.

By mid-October, over 4300 participants had chosen and sent in their seasoning mix. The campaign will run until November 30.

Responsible at Oswald: Lea Imwinkelried. Responsible at Match Communications: Roland Sennhauser, Christian Staub.

 

Description

If the speech melody of a presenter or off-speaker changes in a way that can be interpreted by listeners as an accent of a foreign language, this is known as commercial accent syndrome.

Cases

Overall, only a few cases have been documented, but they have gained a certain degree of notoriety due to their unusual appearance. For example, the case of a 36-year-old German who suddenly spoke with a Swedish accent. The long-standing narrator of American action movie trailers finds the resulting forced restriction to a furniture store brand a great burden. A 26-year-old Austrian woman speaks TV commercials for sparkling wine drinks and underwear with what appears to be a French accent. A farmer from Appenzell shows a different way of dealing with the disease. His seemingly Italian accent developed overnight, giving him numerous speaking roles for pasta, scooters and online marketplaces.

Trigger

Commercial accent syndrome is caused by neurological changes. Even light blows to the back of the head, for example by a concept manager present in the recording studio, can cause it.

Therapy

An effective treatment is still pending. However, initial successes have been achieved with the aspiration of stereotypies. This is done endonasally; in chronic poly-stereotypic cases, the entire cerebral cortex is also removed.

Published so far:

Cataract (celebriti invisibilis)
Campaign break (damnatio memoriae)
Obsession with order (normomania)
Customer distemper (procure distemper)
Director's Cut (conceptus amputatis)
Salmon jam (risum interrupta)
Premature mark effusion (ejaculatio logo praecox)
Idea bedsores (decubitus idea)
Panic-progressive disorder (morbus pendulum)
Margin inflammation (gastritis profit)
Success strabismus (strabismus successus)
Gold fever (febre auri)
Platitourette (repetitio nausea)
Visual fetishism (stimulus best practice)
Probonose (thrombosis facsimile)

Looking at your cell phone can be deadly. At least when it happens at the wheel. Campaigns from all over the world address the dangers of texting behind the wheel (cf. "Last but not least", 28.10.2014). The fact that typing text messages fatally diverts attention away from the road should be clear by now. Another bad habit is not much less dangerous - but all the more widespread: Checking your smartphone to see what you've missed. But the main thing you miss is what's happening on the street. The McCann Istanbul agency has communicated this with little effort and police permission by preparing particularly safety-relevant traffic signs with "Missed" symbols and corresponding notices. (hae)

 

Between July and September, the operating result rose by almost a third to 129 million euros within a year. Net income adjusted for special effects rose by 30 percent to 62 million euros. The publisher of Bild and Welt confirmed its profit growth forecast for the year as a whole and slightly increased its sales target. "Our priority this year is growth," said Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. He sees great potential in the classified ads on the Internet, such as car, job and real estate portals. The journalistic brands in Europe and increasingly also in the English-speaking world also have potential, said Döpfner.

Axel Springer is increasingly targeting the Anglo-American market and recently acquired the US business and news portal Business Insider. In a presentation on the quarterly figures, it was stated that the Group has sufficient financial leeway for further investments in the digital business. The media group is increasingly shifting its business to the internet and abroad. In the first nine months, the digital business contributed more than 60 percent to sales and a good 70 percent to profits. The share of sales generated on international markets rose to just under 48% of total revenue.

Bild.de: Adblock blocker successful

Since mid-October, Bild.de has blocked its website for users of adblockers (Werbewoche.ch reported). As Döpfner says New-Business.com explained at the press conference on Wednesday, the initiative has already proven to be a success after just two weeks: Two million unique users had switched off their adblocker since the start of the anti-adblocker campaign. Although the absolute reach of Bild.de has fallen slightly as a result of the anti-adblocker campaign, the marketable reach has increased by three million visits per month, according to Döpfner. However, only a few users had chosen the new subscription offer "Bild Smart" for 2.99 euros per month as an alternative. (hae/SDA)

 

The agency wants to show how simple and practical the real estate software is structured. Whether from the comfort of an office chair or on the road with a mobile device - in the future, a property manager can manage all properties efficiently with Garaio REM. The claim and the 3D key visual playfully show the new Garaio REM world. In addition to the key visual, a microsite, the product release event and an elaborate sales mailing were realized together with the Garaio marketing team.
 

The marketing graduate joins the team in Zurich as Directors & Sales Representative. First and foremost, she will advise agencies on the choice of directors and look after the portfolio of MCQ directors. With her fun-loving, approachable nature, she brings a breath of fresh air to the team and the industry, the company writes in a statement. After years of experience in the media industry in sales and promotion at Radio Energy, Radio 24, Tele Zueri and Belcom, she now supports the design and further development of Who's Mcqueen Picture.

The MCQ team from left to right: Sabine Strastil (Finance & Administration), Clemens Petersson (Line Producer), Nina Notter (Directors & Sales Rep.), Philipp Petersson (Executive Producer)
 

Four part-time employees have reached retirement age. Another 14 part-time employees are being supported in finding a solution outside the company. Publishing and advertising sales at nine locations in German-speaking Switzerland and commercial printing in Wil with a total of 230 employees are not affected by the changes.

Image: Google Streetview

Nasty market environment

The newspaper printing industry is experiencing overcapacity. Market prices are under strong pressure. In addition to existing printing orders from Swiss media, Zehnder Print has also printed well-known English-language newspapers such as the International New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on a contract basis. Under the impact of the overvalued Swiss franc compared to the euro, the clients have moved the printing of these publications to northern Italy. Due to falling market prices and insufficient utilization of production capacity, primarily on the night shift, the printing center in Rickenbach TG will no longer be able to cover its costs in the near future.

Job guarantee for all full-time employees

40 employees of Zehnder Print in Rickenbach are affected by the discontinuation of newspaper printing. They were informed personally by the owner couple last Tuesday. 22 employees, including two apprentices, were offered guaranteed follow-up solutions. Another apprentice will finish his apprenticeship at Zehnder Print. The seven full-time employees in the Administration and Technology departments will continue to be employed by Zehnder Print until further notice. Their employment guarantee ends at the end of June 2017. The management is relieved to have found a solution with Swiss partners for rotary printing. This will allow jobs to be retained and secured in Switzerland in the long term. The job guarantee means that the employee will be offered a job internally or externally that is at least as well remunerated as the previous one.

Part-time employees: Layoffs not ruled out

With regard to the 18 part-time employees, four of whom have reached retirement age, redundancies cannot be ruled out. The employees who are still of active working age will receive comprehensive support from Zehnder Group's HR department in their job search. If, due to the discontinuation of production in Rickenbach TG, layoffs for part-time employees become unavoidable, those affected will be paid three months' wages beyond any termination date without a follow-up solution. Employees of retirement age who do not continue to work for the company will receive one month's salary beyond the date on which they leave the company. As required by law, those affected were also invited to comment on the planned measures in a consultation process and to submit suggestions on how terminations could be avoided or their consequences mitigated. The contract with DZZ will not come into force if better solutions emerge from this consultation process and are accepted by the Board of Directors of Zehnder Print.

Customer orders seamlessly continued

With the closure of the rotary printing facility in Rickenbach TG, the long-established printing company from eastern Switzerland is giving up newspaper printing in its own production. However, the cooperation with DZZ will improve the service for Zehnder Print's newspaper printing customers, as the company emphasizes in a statement: The facilities in Zurich offer the possibility of producing multi-page newspapers and create more flexibility in page jumps (two instead of four). 

A review is currently underway to determine whether the successful commercial printing operation, which is suffering from a shortage of space in Wil, should be relocated to Rickenbach. If this review is negative, the production buildings and parts of the facilities in Rickenbach TG will be up for sale.
 

Transforming the ever-increasing volumes of data into intelligent data is a challenge. The digital transformation has given rise to new approaches and algorithms in market research and data science has found its way into physics. New methods for evaluating data in real time are emerging - advertising efficiency research is becoming ever more comprehensive. Digital tools and technologies promise an efficient marcom mix, comprehensive tracking, real-time reports and all values combined on one dashboard.

Comprehensive Approach to Managing Online Campaigns

Alexander Horn, Research Consultant Media Insights at GfK Switzerland in Hergiswil, has been focusing on the topic of online campaign measurement for years. He spoke to Werbewoche about tracking methods, efficiency research tools and comprehensive reports.

Werbewoche: There is still a great deal of untapped potential in online advertising. Can the new tracking methods and efficiency research tools live up to this potential?
Alexander Horn: The measurement results have so far clearly shown that online advertising has significant potential for optimization. And this potential is, in fact, still greatly underestimated—both in terms of increasing reach and cost-efficiency. Clients who reallocate a portion of their current media mix to online marketing can reach a larger target audience more cost-effectively and efficiently. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve a better distribution across the various media channels, generating maximum performance with minimal budget expenditure.

However, this also means that as many channels as possible should be taken into account.
The data can now be tracked across multiple devices (PC, smartphone, tablet), both in the browser and in the respective advertiser apps. In addition, we have a partnership with Facebook that, while it has been in place for some time, has now been further expanded. This is a clear indication that we are very active in this area and are also bringing additional partners on board to expand our comprehensive approach.

What is the current state of advertising effectiveness research in the digital sector in Switzerland?
We are currently devoting all our energy and time to consolidating the products in highest demand in order to develop a comprehensive product offering. This is currently one of our main priorities: a comprehensive approach to managing online campaigns. Essentially, this approach displays all relevant KPIs from the measured usage data and links them to stored structural data. The usage data includes, on the one hand, viewability measurement—that is, the visibility and duration of online advertising on the user’s active screen—and, on the other hand, the measurement of actual campaign contacts per person that occurred within the GfK cookie pool. This pool contains all structural data for over 21,000 individuals. This includes basic demographic information such as gender, age, region, household size, and employment status, as well as additional information relevant to planning, such as consumption data and media usage. For every contact with online advertising, we can identify the underlying demographic data. We bring these two elements—visibility measurement and contact and demographic data—together for our clients in a single dashboard. This provides, so to speak, a comprehensive overview at a glance, allowing users to immediately understand everything. This also makes it possible to compare multiple campaigns with one another.

And on top of that, you can also evaluate the campaign’s advertising impact. Our measurement technology makes it possible to identify which individuals were exposed to the campaign. These individuals are surveyed after the campaign period ends. This allows us to further determine how the campaign performed across various branding metrics. We use this classic test-and-control-group approach as an additional option to optimally combine the three impact parameters: target audience reach, optimal exposure and visibility, and creative evaluation.

The Link Institute, in collaboration with Adwebster, also takes this comprehensive approach, providing real-time sociodemographic data.
That’s right; apparently, a major innovation is being celebrated here. But we’ve actually had this product on the market for three years now. For us, it’s already a standard product that GfK has sold over 70 times. The key factor for the validity of the data is that the campaign is measured on both desktop PCs and mobile devices (smartphones and tablets)—something GfK has been able to do for quite some time. This distinction should always be taken into account when comparing offerings.

However, the announced real-time report includes one feature that sets it apart from your product: an intelligent integration of survey and behavioral data.
To analyze advertising effectiveness, it is essential to link measurement data with survey data, as the campaign’s impact cannot otherwise be analyzed at the level of actual contacts. The analysis of effectiveness is based on various contact classes. In our view, survey data is a useful but not truly relevant addition to a real-time report, since the measurement is already complete before the survey data is available. Instead, we place much greater emphasis on the integration of viewability reporting, which, starting in 2016, will be presented alongside contact and structural data within a single dashboard.

How does GfK measure viewability?
We work exclusively with Meetrics for viewability data—the only MRC-certified company in Europe. The American nonprofit organization Media Rating Council (MRC) has established a definition of when an ad format is officially considered viewable. Meetrics therefore measures the viewability of video and display ads in accordance with these standards.
Currently, a campaign’s viewability metrics are still reported based on GfK reports, but this will be integrated into GfK’s own dashboard in 2016. Although customers can book these measurements together, the figures are currently reported only in separate reports. With the new technical solution, all figures will then be visible at a glance.

Interview: Ursina Maurer

On November 16, the GfK Insights presentation on the topic of digital research at the Park Hyatt in Zurich. Among other things, the conference will focus on an all-encompassing controlling approach for online campaigns, which shows both the viewability of the formats used and the socio-demographic structure of the audience reached. Participation in the event is free of charge, the number of participants is limited.

 

The fashion label AD.M, which designs polo shirts for men in particular and originates from Rosarot, has visually refreshed its website and perfected its user-friendliness. Of course, the Zurich-based advertising agency Rosarot lent a hand right away: The behavior of online shoppers was analyzed, the site was developed accordingly and the design was given a new masculinity. The Website is responsive and thus serves the man on all devices in a clear, masculine look.

The redesign of the website is a continuation of the current campaign, which includes brochures, advertisements and flyers as well as a TV spot. Rosarot is responsible for all advertising measures.

Responsible at AD.M: Peter Picca (Managing Director), Chantal Jenny (Product Management). Responsible at Rosarot: René Karrer (Creative Director), Andreas Steiner (Concept, Text), Sven von Osten (Graphics), Stephanie Steimer (Polygraphy).
 

The new generation of Apple TV has been shipping in Germany and Switzerland since this week. Teleboy offers 113 channels, 47 of which are in HD. Among them are all the major public and private stations in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. No registration is required to use the app. The first version is available immediately in the App Store. Initially, this will only include essential functions to enable users to watch live TV. Features such as a recording function as well as time-shifted TV are to follow later this year, according to the announcement. With the app for Apple TV, Teleboy wants to push its positioning on the TV market and assert itself against the classic providers.

Zattoo also in the starting blocks

According to a statement on Tuesday, Zattoo will also launch a live TV app for the fourth Apple TV generation "very soon". The team is working at full speed on the first version, which will soon be made available in the App Store. Like Teleboy, Zattoo is limiting this first version "in the sense of a preview" to "essential functions related to live TV". Further functionalities, such as a program guide and time-shifted TV, will subsequently be added in short development cycles. For Zattoo, the presence on Apple TV is an important piece of the puzzle in order to position itself as a real TV alternative to cable and satellite TV in the living room as well, the statement continues. To this end, applications have already been developed in recent months for platforms such as Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Google Chromecast, among others. (hae/pd)

Twint is Switzerland's first integrated payment and shopping app. It promises a new shopping experience without cash and cards and works at the store checkout as well as in online or app stores, at vending machines or between friends. Following a pitch process in the spring, Partner & Partner was entrusted with developing Twint's communication strategy. "The challenge of launching Twint is twofold: not only is a new brand being established, but a completely new product is being introduced at the same time," says Luc Holzach, strategist at Partner & Partner, describing the appeal of the task. "The launch will take place in three stages: First, we want to anchor the brand in a specific environment; in a second step, we want to win over merchants; and in the third stage, we want to establish Twint nationwide," he says, explaining the communication strategy.

In the first phase, the focus is on building a community via social media. The primary target group includes 25- to 45-year-old urbanites with an affinity for technology and lifestyle. With this Twint community, the market position will be built and strengthened as it holds together the converging lifestyle and liking for the brand. "Cultivating the same through market cooperation in the event sector is central," Luc Holzach elaborates, emphasizing the need for a catchy claim: "To communicate the brand feeling in a sustainable way, Twint is used as an adjective. The claim is "... that's Twint". It is also the linguistic bracket around the emotional positioning."
"Twint is not just a payment app, it's a way of life."

The phase of business customer acquisition was successful. In cooperation with Ronorp, many retailers and trendy stores were acquired throughout Switzerland. National Twint pioneers are the Coop Group and the SV Group. Starting in November, SBB is gradually equipping its ticket vending machines with Twint.

The large-scale roll-out in the third and current phase aims to make Twint known to the general public, but without moving away from the Twint community of the first hour. TV commercials and virally distributed clips are being used as communication measures, which, together with posters, are intended to anchor the fresh, young brand messages in the long term and emotionally. The communication with the merchants mainly takes place with mailings, advertisements, banners and trade fair appearances.

 

Responsible at Twint: Michael Hügli (overall responsibility/marketing management), Evelyn Schneider Reyes (project management communications), Christine Kilchör (trade fairs/events). Responsible at Partner & Partner: Luc Holzach (Strategy/Consulting), Martina Sager (Project Management), Michèle Shouman (Project Management digital), Benno Maggi (CD Film), Gianfranco Acocella (CD Art), Chris Fotheringham (AD Graphic Design), Phillip Bührer, Jonas Lutz (Graphic Design), Matthias Ziegler, Mathias Zimmermann (Text), Stefan Weber (UX Design), Andreas Beugger (UI Design); Community Activities (Ronorp); Who's McQueen (video production), Humbi Entress (direction); Oppenheim & Partner (PR); Goldbach Media (mobile/online advertising).