The association BSW reacts with incomprehension to the currently published tender of SBB/IMS Infrastructure for the further development of the SBB umbrella communication. The approach of the largest national transport company ignores valid rules and recommendations of the entire industry, it says in a statement on Wednesday. In the open invitation to tender, agencies were asked to work for the federal government free of charge, nourished solely by the hope that they would be allowed to present their work in person in a second round. The SBB requires that, in addition to the usual references, complete free presentations, including creative concepts with implementations and binding offers, be submitted by March 23, 2015.

In addition, SBB expected that all participating agencies would be willing to assign the right of use, including the right of modification, to it without compensation. Ignoring the generally valid industry recommendations by a federal company is unacceptable for the association of leading communication agencies in Switzerland.

BSW Leading Swiss Agencies has therefore sent a letter to those responsible at SBB requesting that the current evaluation process be suspended and the conditions adjusted accordingly. A response to this is still pending, according to the statement.

Summary of industry recommendations:

According to the recommendation of BSW Leading Swiss Agencies, which has become the industry standard, the following approach is appropriate when selecting a communications agency:

1. in a first phase, agencies should be able to apply for the contract with an agency presentation, guideline offers and the demonstration of competencies. Such an agency evaluation without project-specific creation and concept work to be developed, does not have to be compensated.

2. in the second phase, the actual competitive presentation, the selected agencies (recommendation 3-4 agencies) are commissioned to develop project-specific creative work and concepts. Transparency must be maintained in this process. This means that the participating agencies must know who the other competitors are. The losing agencies are to be compensated with an appropriate cancellation fee.

3. the transfer of the rights of use (copyright) must be compensated.

 

Euro or Swiss Franc in a different way

The first case involves a violation of the Price Disclosure Ordinance PBV. The German travel company, which sells its offers on a website with a .ch domain, considered it sufficient to indicate the prices in Swiss francs only on the homepage. The reasoning: The advertised offers were those of foreign providers, which could only be booked in euros. This assumption is wrong. As soon as an offer is clearly addressed to Swiss addressees, Swiss legal norms are binding - regardless of what is stated in the imprint. Since the PBV prescribes the effective prices in Swiss francs, the complaint was upheld. Incidentally, less stringent rules apply to advertising. On a homepage, which according to Art. 13 para. 1 PBV is considered advertising in contrast to the offer and booking pages, euro prices would be sufficient.

Beware of overly flowery promises

The advertising of a supplier of slimming pills was unfair in several respects. For example, the advertisement "Simply take a capsule before sleeping, ... and lo and behold: you weigh less" is not permitted under Art. 10 of the Foodstuffs and Utility Articles Ordinance (Lebensmittel- und Gebrauchsgegenständeverordnung, LGV). This requires that any description or illustration must correspond to the facts. Also prohibited are references to preventive, therapeutic or curative properties or the advertising of foodstuffs with fictitious medical titles such as "Head of Development Prof. A. Bernd". According to Principle No. 3.2 item 2 of the Fairness Commission, any reference to persons must also be true. In this respect, the experience report by "Mona" was also unfair. The complaint was upheld, even though the so-called respondent claimed that the advertisement in question was merely a preprint that had appeared in error. Incidentally, mere assertions of the correctness of a statement or statements that have not been proven, such as "sold well over 1'000'000 times," as has been argued in two other cases, are not sufficient.

Puffery Exaggeration: Is the claim for a hearing aid "Hearing like a lynx" legally permissible or not? Factual claims in advertising must be true in themselves. If, however, there is a market-shouting exaggeration recognizable to the average addressee, the statement is nevertheless louder, as the Commercial Court of Zurich held in a comparable case in accordance with principle no. 1.1 no. 2 of the SLK 2012. Since "listen like a lynx" is such an exaggeration in the assessment of the Third Board, the appeal was dismissed.

No violation of the Lottery Act: Does the promise to win "if it snows more than 5 cm on Samichlaustag..." violate the Lottery Act? No, says the Third Chamber of the SLK, since the trader could not know how many heating pellets he would effectively have to give away if the condition came true. Thus, the planned nature of the game is missing as one of four conditions that must be met cumulatively for a violation of the Lottery Act. The other three are the prospect of a monetary prize, participation against payment - for example the conclusion of a legal transaction (compulsory purchase) - and chance in determining the winners or the amount of the prize.

False pretenses: The operator of an electronic business directory did not dispute that the complainant had been included in the directory as part of a marketing campaign and without the complainant's knowledge. Therefore, the complaint that the alleged contract extension was a false pretense was credible. However, the operator of the directory believed that he could settle the case with a settlement proposal. In addition, he mistakenly regarded the SLK as an agent of the complainant instead of an independent professional organization. The complaint was upheld.

The app will be available in the four national languages and in English from the beginning of May. Users will be able to compete in various questions on Swiss politics and society. In addition to the knowledge questions, interested parties can also answer opinion questions on current topics. The survey form makes it possible to take the pulse of the community and uncover its concerns and worries.

Bus tour through Switzerland

A five-language national editorial team provides editorial support for the app and also develops its content. The media professionals from SRF, RTS, RSI, RTR and SWI travel across Switzerland in a bus and make stops in various regions of the country. This allows the players to compete live on location and exchange ideas with other "Politbox" participants.

"The app is aimed at a young audience," explains Sandra Manca, Head of SRF News, who is leading the "Politbox" project together with her colleague at RTS, Nicolas Roulin. This is an audience that has only a limited interest in political life and therefore has little contact with traditional political reporting. "We want to help young people to engage with Switzerland, its institutions and its role in the world."

In 2013, the newspapers published by the Somedia media group only received the delivery discount provided for press subsidies for newspapers obtained by individual subscriptions. Following an appeal by Somedia, the Federal Administrative Court still had to deal with the question of whether those copies that are delivered to all residents of a municipality on the basis of a municipal assembly resolution should also receive a price reduction for postal delivery.

For the title Arena Alva, the question only arose for 2013 because it was merged with the Rhiiblatt from the same publishing house at the beginning of 2014. The application for press funding for the newly created product Ruinaulta was approved.
In its ruling published on Wednesday, the Federal Administrative Court came to the conclusion that collective subscriptions do not fall under the "subscribed daily and weekly newspapers of the regional and local press" described in the Postal Act, which should benefit from a delivery discount.

The collective subscription is dependent on the political will of the majority of the respective municipal assembly. This means that there is a lack of "voluntary demand" on the part of recipients, as established by the Federal Office of Communications and now confirmed by the Federal Administrative Court.
In addition, collective subscriptions do not guarantee the financial and journalistic independence of a publishing house to the required extent. According to the St. Gallen judges, a large number of individual, self-paying subscribers guarantees a certain continuity.
The termination of individual subscriptions does not have a serious impact on the economic situation of a newspaper. (SDA)
 

The six motifs show architecture and design students from Tokyo, New York, Paris, Milan, Karlsruhe and Lausanne in their living or working environment together with a piece of USM Haller furniture. Its use and placement was left up to the students. In authentic statements, they express their thoughts on the design classic. The unusually natural and unvarnished portraits were realized together with the Swiss photographer Lukas Wassmann.

With this atypical appearance for a design furniture manufacturer, a completely new image style was created for USM. Contrary to industry practice, it puts people in their own personal environment in the foreground. The focus is not on the prestige, design or functionality of the piece of furniture, but rather on a deeper, meaningful value. This goes hand in hand with USM's efforts to bring the product closer to the people and, at the same time, to inspire future opinion leaders for the brand. The portraits of the students are closely linked to a cooperation with seven of the most internationally renowned design and architecture universities from the USA, Japan, Germany, England, Italy, Switzerland and France. In the spirit of an open discourse between USM and the opinion makers of the future, students led by their lecturers and a team of curators completely reinterpreted the principle of modularity as part of the cultural project "rethink the modular". In addition, a revealing experiment was conducted at the participating universities, in which students were asked to steal pieces of USM furniture.

The ad copy refers the reader to the digital platform Usm.com/project50which, as content hub, accompanies all measures of the extensive 360° campaign throughout the year (Werbewoche.ch reported).

Responsible at USM U. Schärer Söhne: Alexander Schärer (Chairman), Stéphanie Borge (Group Marketing Director), Deepak Matthews (Digital Marketing Manager), Sandra Schär (PR). Responsible at Scholz & Friends Switzerland: Dan Nessler, Manuela Miksa, Gregor Fitz, Sabine Bremermann, Lukas Frei (creation); Michèle Gutmann, Tanita Bohny, Petra Moser, Tobias Baumann, Martin Samsel (consulting and strategy). Photography: Lukas Wassmann

On-demand television is used more extensively in French-speaking Switzerland than in German-speaking Switzerland, said RTS Director Gilles Marchand on Wednesday at the annual media conference in Geneva. Of the 13 minutes of television on demand, four minutes concern RTS programs. Most programs are accessed by viewers aged 30 to 49. RTS also saw a high increase in online views via smartphones and tablets, with the number of visits per month to its website and via smartphone apps rising 24 percent year-on-year to 10.25 million in 2014.

In television, RTS's market share remained stable at 35.3 percent, while the radio stations' market share reached 57 percent. RTS recorded its highest TV ratings during the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina, with 543'000 viewers.

Political broadcasts and Matterhorn

In the election year, RTS is launching "WMa Parole!", a new discussion program in which citizens will debate with politicians from April 8. It has also created the smartphone app Politbox, which allows users to test their political knowledge. Starting May 11, "Bonjour la Suisse" will feature portraits of four foreign families who have settled in Switzerland. In July, the program "Opération spéciale" will be dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn. (SDA)

Blattner, 48, studied physics and mathematics at the University of Zurich. As head of the Laboratory for Web Science at FFHS, Blattner worked closely with industry and business and led various big data projects to success. As Chief Data Scientist at Tamedia Digital, Marcel Blattner is currently responsible for the development and implementation of complex data analyses that generate direct added value for all stakeholders. Blattner is author various publications. He is particularly fascinated by the fundamental upheaval in society brought about by digitalization: "Developments in the field of human-machine interaction have a lasting impact on our lives. Being able to actively participate in these disruptive technologies and pass on the knowledge is one of the most exciting things" in his opinion.

CAS Disruptive Technologies

In this certificate course, students learn which technologies are on the rise, what impact they are having on the business world and how new intelligent methods of data analysis are changing business processes. They learn how they can benefit from this development as decision-makers in companies. Topics such as big data and data science, swarm intelligence, digital security, wearable computers, quantum computing and 3D printing are all covered. The CAS Disruptive Technologies is a self-contained certificate course with a certificate of achievement. Students with MAS admission (Master of Advanced Studies) can take it as an elective module for the MAS Digital Business. More at www.fh-hwz.ch/casdtc.

The introduction of the new logo is the first step in the development of a comprehensive, globally recognizable brand identity, which will be launched at the 2016 Motor Show. The neutral location of Geneva is very attractive for car manufacturers from all over the world - this is embodied by the new brand.

Every year, the Geneva Motor Show welcomes over 10,000 media representatives from 90 countries. In 2014, over 135 journalists from the People's Republic of China, 179 journalists from Russia and 197 journalists from the USA were accredited. The first Geneva Motor Show was held in 1905 before gaining international status in 1924.

Yallo had previously specialized in prepaid offers for Switzerland and Europe - the target group was correspondingly intercultural. Communication mainly took place in post offices, kiosks and smaller stores. Yallo invited several agencies to pitch in order to expand its range and realign its communication. The Alpha 245 agency came out on top and was immediately commissioned with the new image and a new advertising presence.

Because Yallo ranks fourth in the Swiss mobile phone market, the agency at Letzigraben has derived a small but strong positioning: The mobile phone provider that can definitely keep up with the big players with its unbeatable offers. This positioning is embodied by a small animal, which firstly is characterized by courage, strength, intelligence and great achievements, secondly wears Yallo's corporate color well and thirdly stands out pleasantly from the petting zoo of cute advertising figures: an ant.

By the way: Switzerland has already taken the smart ant from Yallo to its heart - shortly after the first poster was posted, more and more people are using the Yallo flat rate.

Responsible at Yallo: Giuseppe Bonina (CEO), Dino A. Parrella (CMSO Chief Marketing & Sales Officer), André Hodel (Head of Marketing), Frida C. Hirt (Communications Manager). Responsible at Alpha 245: Patrick Senn, Patrick Beeli (Creative Direction), Barney Rees (Art Direction), Patrick Bucher (Text), Andrea Staub, Claudio Gentili (Consulting) Suzana Kovacevic (Art Buying), Pam Hügli, Diana Rossi (Overall Responsibility); Illusions (3D-Illustration), Photoby (Agent).
 

The problem is well known: After five seconds, YouTube skips the pre-roll spots before the clips with a button. Unsurprisingly, most users don't let a second pass before finally getting to the desired video content. In the eyes of most YouTube users, advertising is seen as an annoying, at best necessary evil that needs to be avoided at all costs. Ok, in view of the conspicuously frequent trash commercials "Off on vacation", this is a perfectly understandable attitude.

It is surprising that the advertising industry does not make it its business more often to use the first few seconds that everyone is forced to watch more efficiently. Commercials that can tell a story for 30 seconds on television fizzle out ineffectively on YouTube if it is not even clear after five seconds who wanted to advertise what.

No rule without exception. For example, DDB Madrid showed back in 2013 for the then new Golf GTI that notorious skippering does not have to be a barrier to creativity (Werbewoche.ch reported). The fastest commercial in the world would have been over long ago anyway if you had been allowed to skip it.

The Martin Agency from Richmond has now gone one step further for car insurer Geico. The agency manages to get you to see the actual commercial after five seconds - and still get stuck staring at the Geico logo for another minute. The clumsy dog does not allow any discussion about skipping. If you watch the commercial in full screen, you will also recognize the no less funny, suppressed reactions of the human actors. (hae)

Note: The commercial was subsequently replaced by the Cannes version, as the original version was deleted.

All spots of the campaign:

Domenic Rimathé and ifolor are linked by a long-standing partnership, according to a statement. In 2010, for example, the 38-year-old online specialist was responsible for ifolor's new brand identity as Managing Director of a digital agency with offices in Kreuzlingen and Zurich. Before taking up the position as Chief Marketing Officer, Domenic Rimathé was Group Website Manager at ifolor. "With Domenic Rimathé, a proven online marketing specialist with almost 20 years of digital and e-commerce experience is taking over the position of Chief Marketing Officer in our family business," says a delighted Filip P. Schwarz, CEO of ifolor.

After his training as a media businessman, Domenic Rimathé entered the digital business and founded his first own multimedia agency. After successfully building up and establishing the agency, the native of eastern Switzerland sold his shares and worked for 15 years in various roles at well-known agencies such as Aseantic, Futurecom and Planetactive/Neo@Ogilvy. Before joining ifolor as Group Website Manager, Domenic Rimathé was Head of Consulting and Partner at A-Sign.

Since the beginning of February 2015, Domenic Rimathé has been responsible for all marketing activities at Ifolor. He is supported by a 44-strong team of marketing specialists. To ensure that the family-owned company from Lake Constance can continue to maintain its role as market leader for personalized photo products in Switzerland and Finland, Domenic Rimathé is particularly concerned in his new role with the efficiency, measurability and ongoing optimization of all communication measures.
 

The tasks ranged from naming, image, strategy and planning to the implementation of advertising and PR measures. The campaign will start in March and run until the end of the month, according to the press release. Online and ambient measures will be used in the second communication wave in May/June. The visual language is direct and is aimed at women in German-speaking Switzerland between the ages of 13 and 43 who are unsure about their pregnancy for various reasons or could get into difficulties as a result.

Hilfeschwanger.ch

Responsible at the Inselhof Triemli association: Christina Isenring (Office), Manuela Morson (Project Management), Marianne Böckli (Communication), Romana Leuzinger (President). Responsible at the agency Haut: Lea Rindlisbacher (consulting, media), Florian Graf (text/project management), Adrian Haut (consulting/strategy/overall responsibility)
Fabian Leuenberger (Art Direction). Responsible at Bernardini + Schnyder (Web): Reto Schnyder (Management).