The Zurich PR agency Publicist PR & Communications, which specializes in SME communications, is further expanding its expertise in French-speaking Switzerland and has become a little more western Swiss. Martine Ayer joined Publicist as a strategic partner at the beginning of July. The French-speaking Swiss, who has worked as a communications and marketing manager for various Swiss and international companies, will contribute her know-how to the development of the agency and further expand publicist's presence in French-speaking Switzerland. Harry H. Meier, Managing Director of Publicist: "Martine Ayer is a stroke of luck for Publicist. As a strategic partner, she not only brings a wealth of experience, expertise and media contacts to the agency. She also underpins our clear positioning as a partner for cross-language communication in Switzerland. This enables us to offer our clients effective communication services in both parts of the country - and all from a single source."

The agency also announces a new mandate. From the beginning of September, Publicist will take over the media and PR work for the new Tivoli compact SUV from Korean car brand Ssangyong. Ssangyong is the fourth-largest Korean car manufacturer and is also enjoying growing popularity in Switzerland.
 

Do you remember the movie "Junior" from 1994? The role of the pregnant man even earned Arnold Schwarzenegger a Golden Globe nomination - one of the rare honors for the acting achievements of the later "Governator". What it would be like if men carried and gave birth to children is anyone's guess. And make a comedy out of it. Or a commercial. And an unexpected twist always works well. In the end, you have to laugh again or at least smile furtively. Or at least you've learned the English word for "fiber". (hae)

The customer writes his complaint directly on the Platform. The companies are automatically asked to comment. Once the case is closed, the consumer evaluates the handling of his complaint. The platform uses these consumer ratings to create a "complaints barometer. This can be viewed publicly as soon as ten complaints about a company have been received. This provides the public with information on the quality of the companies' customer service. The service is free of charge according to communication and is open to all. Specialists from the two consumer magazines K-Tipp and Bon à Savoir developed the website. In Suisse Romande, the service runs under Plaintes.ch.

The company can look back on a long tradition in business and advertising documents as well as outsourcing services. Baumer is regarded as a pioneer in this sector. This was recently demonstrated worldwide by the introduction of a latest-generation inkjet colour digital printing machine that prints individualized print media at a speed of up to 120 meters per minute. "Anyone who still believes that color digital printing is too slow, too expensive and of poor quality is very much mistaken," says Daniel Jud, Managing Director of Baumer.

In order to convey this progressiveness of the company to the outside world, the agency at the airport has created a new communication presence for Baumer with a 360° campaign. The corporate design, B2B dialog and tailored one-to-one marketing were all newly developed. From the magazine called "Vorsprung", the website, e-newsletters, letterheads and direct mailings, to advertisements, brochures and a modular trade fair presence.

The agency from Altenrhein created a differentiating market presence for Baumer: the clear, white arrows show that Baumer knows where it is going in terms of mailing production, document creation and handling.

Responsible at Baumer: Daniel Jud, Managing Director. Responsible at Agentur am Flughafen, Altenrhein: René Eugstair (Creative Direction), Dominique Rutishauser (Art Direction), Valeria Hörler, (Graphics), Miriam Egli; (Consulting/Text), Patricia Eugster (Consulting/Media), Ammann/Siebrecht (Photography); "Mit der Maus" (Programming).
 

Werbewoche: Christoph Eschmann, what are the reasons for Partner & Partner to make every working model possible?
Christoph Eschmann: We see the different working models as a great opportunity. For both employees and employers. Employees can pursue commitments alongside their job - children, sport, further education, politics, their own projects, etc. - and still pursue a career within a company. As an employer, we can also benefit from these commitments in terms of content and must constantly optimize our organization and processes due to the more complex planning required by part-time employees. This keeps us agile.

How long have you been implementing this principle at the agency?
Actually, since the beginning of the business. One of the company founders initially had his own film projects in addition to his involvement in the company and also shared family care with his partner. Flexibility in terms of time and location has therefore always been a must for Partner & Partner and never a nice-to-have. The principle was then consistently applied to all employees: at the end of the 1990s with an office in Berlin, later with employees who moved abroad, started families or developed their own projects alongside their work. Flexibility in terms of location and time was always reinterpreted, and the organization learned and improved as a result. Work-life integration was always the goal, not work-life balance. Incidentally, this was one of the reasons why I wanted to join this company back then. The forward-looking way of thinking and acting is unique here.

What does the implementation look like in everyday working life?
The concept of flexibility is very individual; in addition to the "larger" implementations mentioned above, there are also smaller ones. Some employees enjoy the opportunity to take a longer lunch break, others appreciate going home earlier from time to time or working when the children are in bed or their partner is not at home. Others move house and no longer want to travel to the office every day, while still others use our company apartment for childcare shortages. This flexibility requires a great deal of planning and project management expertise from the company on the one hand, and a technical and spatial infrastructure that makes it all possible on the other. We have both.

You often hear that interfaces and handovers are the big problem in companies with many part-time employees. What is your situation, do you have any problems in this regard?

Of course we have! We still haven't found a satisfactory solution, especially when it comes to vacation planning. At Partner & Partner, more than 50 percent of all employees work part-time or work from home. We need to optimize this on an ongoing basis.On the one hand, we work together virtually with chats and Skype meetings; on the other hand, face-to-face meetings also take place outside the office premises, wherever it is logistically convenient for the participants: in a restaurant, at the train station, at the airport or even at home.

That sounds complicated. Isn't such an organization far too complex and time-consuming?
Strangely enough, this is often how it is seen from the outside. However, we see this as a key opportunity for lean and agile business management and we believe that this will become increasingly relevant in the future. A company with hierarchical structures and processes set in stone has little chance in our digital and globalized world.

Does this mean that flexible working also pays off economically for your company?
Yes, not only for us, but also for our customers. Firstly, because it creates motivated and versatile employees and service providers. The distance from everyday working life enables a clear view of challenges and generates new impetus. Secondly, we only work when it makes sense and is necessary, and not when working hours dictate. Successes achieved by increasing efficiency are many times greater than the loss of interfaces that is lamented in many places. Thirdly, it requires and promotes efficient organization and clear internal and external communication. Team members and customers are informed and processes are adapted to the working time models where it makes sense and is possible.

What are the basic requirements for successfully establishing a flexible working model?

Mobile-flexible working and, above all, its implementation are a challenge for companies that should not be underestimated. It requires not only the provision of the appropriate technology and infrastructure, but above all a strong and functioning corporate culture. A culture that is based on transparency, trust, responsibility and forgiveness. All points that are also conducive to innovation. That is why we can proudly say that we are a progressive company.

The arguments put forward by opponents of flexible and mobile working often include a lack of social integration in the company and a lack of sanctions and control options, as well as far too much coordination effort. What is your experience in this regard?
As I said, this model has predominantly positive aspects for us. Mobile-flexible working is problematic if the wrong objectives are associated with it, for example if the company management sees it primarily as a measure to reduce wage costs or if employees use it to generate a lot of overtime.

How do you prevent this or how is working time "controlled" at Partner & Partner?
Our employees have the greatest possible freedom - the price for this is mutual trust and a high level of personal responsibility. We have unbureaucratically regulated annual working hours. Each employee is responsible for recording their own performance. All hours, performance and project units are recorded in a web-based organizational tool that was developed by our own software company Fineware explicitly for different working time models. Thanks to this tool, every employee can see their target hours or the current total of working hours and the profitability of their work for the company at any time. It also measures employee satisfaction. It is therefore less of a controlling instrument than a self-organization tool for employees and the company.

How do your customers benefit?
You'll have to ask our customers. Basically, however, we have received predominantly positive feedback regarding our organization, communication and efficiency. Our customers benefit from this directly in the projects, because it is faster and costs less. However, when there are Flexwork employees on both sides, the coordination is very complex. It helps if both parties have opted for this model and therefore want it to work. It is much easier to implement with customers whose employees do not have the option of flexible working hours. They usually only need to be convinced at the beginning so that the added value of this model is recognized. Once they experience our efficiency, their doubts are usually dispelled.

Can your customers benefit in other areas?
It is interesting to note that we have several clients in our portfolio who see employer branding or occupational health management as an integral part of their work. These include the Swiss Commercial Association, Health Promotion Switzerland (with the Friendly Workspace label) and AXA (Flexwork). We have already designed campaigns for all of them. Our self-image and our experience in this area flow into the development as specialist knowledge. In short: we know what we are talking about.

How important do you think employer branding is in today's working environment?
The aim of employer branding is to strengthen the employer brand. However, you don't become a popular employer through advertising, fruit bowls or self-written statements on company review platforms, but by actually living what you claim to be. Overall, our "flexible working models" approach has given us a strong employer image with a good reputation in the industry. This naturally makes it easier to recruit good employees and brings us interesting projects. We are convinced that employer branding - when practiced holistically and over the long term - is essential for modern employers. In an increasingly tough market environment in which employees are expected to deliver top performance at a rapid pace, companies would do well to offer them the best.

Interview: Thomas Häusermann

An article from the current print edition of Werbewoche

The profound change in the media industry requires a clear stance. NZZ is therefore pursuing an umbrella brand strategy and a consistent journalistic orientation with strong digital integration - with corresponding impact for the brand. At its core, the brand positioning combines free thinking with decisive action - borne by the claim to provide orientation as a leading media house and to enable the formation of opinion in the spirit of the liberal original idea.

 

In a further step, Meta Design revised the appearance. In the process, the brand agency developed a visual basis and defined the umbrella brand strategy across the company and product levels. This included the gentle further development of the familiar, historically anchored logo.

At the same time, Meta Design developed the brand language for the NZZ umbrella brand. This includes the regulated handling of tonality and the central messages for brand communication. MetaDesign also created guidelines for naming products and subscriptions - and, not least, created names for brand-new digital offerings such as the recently launched app "NZZ Selekt.

The brand will appear successively over the individual offerings and products in the coming weeks and months. With its adapted appearance, the NZZ is clearly taking its cues from the media market, its responsibility to society, and ultimately its mission - and is equipped for the tasks and challenges of these times.

Steven Neubauer, Managing Director NZZ, Member of the Executive Board: "We set the bar high from the start and are now consistently implementing the umbrella brand. We are convinced that this will enable us to strengthen the NZZ brand and that we will benefit from it in the long term." Alexander Haldemann, CEO Meta Design: "To further develop a traditional brand like NZZ means to show reverence without lacking the necessary courage. I think we have succeeded in this. We are proud of the result."
 

With the acquisition of the additional 51 percent, Xentive and its approximately 70 employees will become a 100 percent subsidiary of Publicitas.

Christoph Marty, CEO Publicitas: "Our media partners and customers rely on reliable systems and processes. Xentive makes a significant contribution to ensuring that we remain an attractive service partner for them." The close cooperation with Mediaspectrum as a system supplier for the cloud-based end-to-end order management system Sales Pro and as a development partner for future-oriented, smart solutions for processing advertising orders from planning to billing will be continued. Mediaspectrum played a key role in the transformation of Xentive into a high-performance service provider.

The two journalists, Eric Laurent and Catherine Graciet, were arrested on Thursday after a meeting with Moroccan representatives in a Paris hotel, according to informed sources. A sum of money had previously been "handed over and accepted". A lawyer for the North African kingdom said that the two journalists had demanded three million euros so that they would not publish a book about the king. Laurent and Graciet had already published a book in 2012 that was critical of Mohammed VI.

(The book "Le roi prédateur", published in 2012, on Amazon.com)
 
In July of this year, Laurent is said to have contacted the King's office, said the lawyer hired by Morocco, Eric Dupond-Moretti, on RTL. At an initial meeting in Paris, the journalist allegedly said: "Listen, for three million euros, I won't publish the book I'm preparing with Catherine Graciet." Morocco then pressed charges. The Paris public prosecutor's office launched an investigation and monitored further meetings between the journalist and Moroccan representatives.

The Paris publishing house Editions du Seuil confirmed that the journalists were working on a book about Mohammed VI. It should be published at the beginning of next year. (SDA/uma)

Trained promoters offer all interested visitors a free cooking lesson; parents and their children can cook a recipe of their choice with Uncle Ben's and conjure up creative and healthy dishes.

Uncle Ben's is dedicated to the socially important topic of healthy eating and to this end has come up with a concept that actively involves families and their children. "Ben's Beginners" focuses on the fun that children experience when cooking together. The promotion mechanism includes a large Ben's Beginners show kitchen, which is set up inside a sales outlet and allows children to prepare their favorite rice dish on site. Fresh food is available, which is cooked with different types of Uncle Ben's rice to create a simple, healthy and nutritious dish.

USP successfully won this contract in a pitch against other agencies and this year is taking on the complete project management from A to Z for the large-scale activity. From mid-August to the end of October, the Switzerland-wide cooking promotion tour will be held in 20 Coop stores. USP is responsible for all phases of project management for the roadshow and is in charge of logistics, including setting up and dismantling the stand infrastructure, coordinating the entire implementation with the Coop stores, procuring all promotional materials and recruiting, scheduling and training the promotional staff. The entire campaign is accompanied by an attractive photo competition with online voting, in which participating families can win attractive prizes.

Based on the insight that many people are happy to contribute to a cleaner environment if they don't have to sacrifice anything in the process, Serranetga developed the campaign umbrella "Do it as usual. But more environmentally friendly". The core message is intended to anchor the image of Energie 360° as a provider of sustainable energy solutions in the minds of a broad section of the population over the next few years.

The cross-media campaign includes a TV spot, print and display ads, and the campaign landing page Energy360.ch/how-ever. In addition to information on the energy solutions of Energie 360°, the latter shows familiar situations from everyday life that illustrate that renewable energy can be used at any time. Next year, OOH and other measures will follow.

Responsible at Energie 360°: Iris Isenschmid (Head of Communication), Ramona Schocher (Planner Communication).Responsible at Serranetga: Maurizio Rugghia (overall responsibility), Florian Beck (ECD), Daniel Zuberbühler (Client Service Director), An-drea Nikles (Project Management), Florian Bosshard (AD), Mitch Bekk (AD Film), Thomas Blumer (Text), Vanessa Habisreutinger, Christina Alessio, Till Graf (Media), Shining Pictures (Production), Stephan Usteri (Director), Jan Mettler (Camera).

The redesign of the team by Eclat is intended to reflect the exceptional quality of the magazine through high-quality layout, text and images. The challenge in the implementation was to bring the wide-ranging content into a clear and reader-friendly structure. With more white space, new fonts and a balanced color concept, accents were set. In reference to the rainbow, the agency plays with the identifying symbol of the worldwide LGBT community. Hatched areas and simple lines give the magazine a uniform look.

Starting this September, the magazine will also be represented in Germany with a German edition.

 

The transformation of "Graubünden Ferien" GRF into a sales-oriented organization and its positioning on the market have progressed so far that GRF can now enter a new phase, the organization announced on Thursday. The Board of Directors and Director Gaudenz Thoma have therefore come to the unanimous conclusion that the future of GRF should be tackled under new management.

(Director Gaudenz Thoma. Picture: Graubuenden.ch)

When asked about the rapid departure of the Director at the end of August, GRF President Marcel Friberg said that the decision to change course was a process that had taken several months.

On to new shores

Thoma himself was quoted in the press release as saying that it had been wonderful and intensive years. He will remain associated with Graubünden, even if the time has come for him to move on to new shores. The outgoing director will still be available to GRF on a selective basis and will receive a salary in accordance with the contractual agreements.

The position of director will be advertised publicly to fill the vacancy. A new, three-member management committee has been formed for a transitional phase. Myriam Keller, previously Thoma's deputy, will take over operational management on an interim basis. At the same time, the organization is working on the future strategic direction of the tourism organization. (SDA)