We all know that no product or brand can stand out on price alone. The Swiss economy must focus more than ever on Swissness and the values associated with it. Price must play a secondary role. The focus must be on the customer, their needs and motivations. The customer defines the value of a service, the added value, which also fuels the willingness to pay a higher Swiss franc price. People must have the feeling that there is no other alternative than this Swiss product. This is easier with luxury products and services, but also applies to all other Swiss quality products in the mid-price segment. As a branding agency, we have so far been spared the effects of the strong Swiss franc, and I am convinced that this will remain the case. I was living and working in London when the recession hit in 2008. Advertising budgets were immediately slashed. Companies no longer had money for expensive, short-term advertising campaigns and realized that the only way they could maintain long-term relationships with their customers was through their brands. To do this, they had to be more relevant, more unique, more appealing, more indispensable than the competition. Branding agencies have benefited from this development. Savings were also made on employees. Workforces in large companies were drastically reduced. Those who remained needed strong motivation and values that they could represent. They had to realize that they played an important role and could directly influence the survival of the entire organization. This was the time when employee engagement really took off. So when we talk about a counter-cyclical approach, we are talking about investing in the brand and the employees, even in difficult times. It's about setting a "pull" movement in motion, creating a desire, a longing, and less of a "push" movement, setting off widespread communication.
 

The issue here is that advertising from the same product categories cannot be clearly assigned to one brand by the consumer. After three hair beautification products have been advertised in the advertising block or all the rejuvenating creams are trumpeting the miracle cure hyaluron, I know as much as before, but not which products they are.

But the car industry offers the most interesting uniformity. This is what we need to grumble about today. In due course, the parties' election advertising will get its comeuppance. Coincidentally, I have already discovered one such example of political unadvertising in a print shop.

Now to our favorites, the cars. It is completely incomprehensible and also inefficient, and therefore wrong, that the car brands have roughly identical advertising positions and roughly identical advertising implementations. On top of that, almost all cars in each category look more or less the same and have roughly the same performance. In other words, a one-size-fits-all approach.

From my cigarette advertising days, I know very well that my client at the time offered the same blend of cigarettes in three different brands on the market. The one with the clearest and most desirable positioning and its consistent advertising implementation won.

Now comes the biggest mistake made by the car companies: They advertise this one-size-fits-all pap at the same time, especially on posters. So before the show, this mush is plastered on all the billboards. That way, the chance of standing out is even smaller. Fiat 500 and VW commercials are the exceptions here.

There's a rule for this mass influx. Acyclical advertising is the path to success. Porsche has taken the most successful path with its clear positioning and unmistakable model. And they don't even need to be involved in this advertising mishmash. I will certainly have something to hear and see after the show. Namely when the others have shot their powder.

My theory: There are various factors that could be listed (see Motz 8 and 9/2014 with the 12 commandments of advertising). But the basic rule is common sense or even clever common sense. In the majority of automotive advertising, this is not even present. Sometimes I ask myself, who is the kind of solder who serves up such advertising pap for a lot of money? Let's put it this way: clear positioning. Entertaining, reduced message. Eye-catching implementation. And when it's quiet, talk.

My stand-up: I've made up my mind despite the draw - allez FCB.

Theophil Butzgraphic designer, advertising agency owner, inspirer and, for more than four years, also a mocker for Werbewoche readers. Please send any relevant information to [email protected].
 

The entire winter was already dominated by the anniversary, which culminated in the Pioneers' Party in February 2015. The Aarau agency Renzen was responsible for the direction and, together with Davos Services, for the organization of this major event at the Davos Congress Center.

Motifs from the past 150 years took visitors on a journey through time. Highlights included a performance by the "Swiss Tenors," midnight fireworks and a public show by renowned light artist Gerry Hofstetter, who made the convention center shine in a new light with a colorful mix of different effects and music, according to a statement Thursday.

Responsible at Davos Services: Annina Huber (CEO), Birgit Hürlimann (Project Manager). Responsible at Renzen: Marc Tabeling (Head of Consulting and Events).

When the Neue Zürcher Zeitung closes its printing plant, the public concludes that the entire printing industry is in crisis. If there were media journalism in Switzerland that was truly independent of the company that makes it possible, the story of why things got this far in the first place would be researched, for example. At the turn of the century, intelligent technocrats from the NZZ set up a project called "Zürich Print". Both print shops were faced with major additional investments. Despite the high print runs and volumes at the time, the technocrats knew that they had to make a big investment: 'Isn't it actually nonsense that both companies - one in Bubenberg, the other in Schlieren - are doing almost the same thing at the same time and inevitably creating overcapacity? Let's merge the two newspaper printing plants into a joint company and save tens of millions in investments!

In addition, the savings on paper purchases alone would have generated millions every year. But Tamedia rejected the idea. They wanted to remain independent. The irony of the story is that it now benefits anyway because it will print the NZZ.

Since the NZZ, the European champion in uncovering backgrounds from Hawaii to Azerbaijan, has so far been unable to communicate such and other basics of its radical decision on Schlieren to its employees, readers and shareholders, the polemicists can in principle spout any nonsense that suits their agenda.

And once again it is confirmed: in the publishing industry, the competition always gets you PR, and does so with select malice. Just a quick question: will we live to see the day when the Tages-Anzeiger and SonntagsZeitung report with the same openness on events and corporate decisions at their own company as they do on the printing and editorial problems of their local competitors? The decision to close Ziegler Druck would also have provided plenty of material!

Sometimes it helps to look at things from more than just Zurich. The contrast to Schlieren is currently being staged in Visp. The innovative SME publishing house Mengis is having the world's first digital newspaper printing press installed there. The Walliser Bote (circulation 22,000) will be printed on this new machine from July. The CEO of the family business wrote his thesis on digital printing and sees it as a worthwhile business opportunity. And unlike the managers, he is investing his own money in this vision.

The major newspapers, currently all in crisis and only surviving in the property accounts thanks to reserves and cross-subsidization, are acting like air conditioning units and playing up a print crisis to the public that does not exist in this generalized form. The business results of many small and medium-sized newspapers, which fluctuate between "satisfactory" and "excellent", speak against this undifferentiated crisis narrative - the only problem is that this is not communicated. They don't want to attract attention. And the "Swiss Media Association", formerly known as the newspaper publishers' association, is apparently so busy with internal squabbles that it no longer has time for clever and constructive industry PR. We haven't even mentioned the clever start-up ideas and encouraging start-ups in the print sector.

- Take grandparents, for example: the young publisher Dominik Achermann from Baden launched his project with a small six-figure sum as venture capital. After six months, he has 2,500 paying subscribers. He's not out of the woods yet, but he's ahead of schedule. Moral: there is still plenty of room for clever newcomers in the niches.
- Take Falstaff, for example: the bi-monthly magazine for "enjoyment, wine, food and travel" reports over 2000 subscription orders for its newly launched Swiss edition within just a few weeks. It is a magazine to kneel down to: 180 pages, well thought out, elegantly written, beautifully designed. Even the apparently unavoidable PR articles are at least decently done.
- There are also success stories at the upper altitude, where many traditional consumer magazines only have a short breath. Ringier's LandLiebe sold a certified 148,000 copies two years after its launch. Or the Swiss family: it is one of the domestic cash cows that provide Tamedia with the milk for its expeditions into the digital world.

Could it ultimately be that "crisis" is just another word for unimaginativeness?

Karl Lüönd is freer
Publicist and author
 

For Beni Hirt, joining Swiss Digital is the ideal opportunity to contribute his experience and skills to an ambitious young company, according to a statement on Thursday. Hirt is ex-CEO of Apps with love and left the company he co-founded at the end of 2014. The reason given was different views of the partners regarding corporate governance (Werbewoche.ch reported).

The former CEO of Apps with Love brings five years of experience as an entrepreneur with specific market knowledge in mobile technologies. His new business partner and CTO, Maroje Ljutic, sees this as precisely his strength: "He has worked with customers such as Swisscom, SBB, Post Finance, Fielmann and Roche, is well connected in the industry and complements my technical skills with business know-how."

In Bern, the small, agile team can respond quickly to customer requests and offer everything from a single source as a local contact, the statement continues. The Swiss Digital is part of the NTH Group, which employs more than 250 people in Europe with over 20 affiliated companies. These include 25 full-time mobile developers and designers. Thanks to the close cooperation, The Swiss Digital can offer its customers comprehensive solutions from the group's overall portfolio, such as specially produced beacons including software modules or its own data center in Zurich.

All in all, the unpegging of the Swiss franc will have a negative impact on our industry - but this effect will be much smaller than one would expect based on the excited reporting of the last few weeks.

If the Swiss franc stays at its current rate, we expect a reduction in Swiss advertising spending of no more than five percent. Of course, this will vary from sector to sector. The Swiss tourism industry or car importers, for example, will be much harder hit than the retail trade. The latter is suffering badly from shopping tourism, but it has already been doing so for several years - and has already adjusted its advertising behavior accordingly. We do not expect to see significantly more shopping abroad now. Swiss advertisers are also less affected than international companies whose budgets are planned in euros.

Overall, however, the effects on our industry are in no way comparable to the economic situation in 2008/2009. Mind you, this only applies to our industry. The export-oriented industry is affected in a completely different way, but this industry is of hardly any significance for media agencies.

But like all crises, this one will pick up on, reinforce and accelerate existing trends. As existing advertising budgets may come under pressure, advertisers will (have to) focus even more than they already do on the ROI of their investments.

The winning media of recent years, TV and digital, will continue to grow at an accelerated rate, at the expense of the other media (even if print is currently experiencing a small interim high due to supply-side advertising).

Even more than in the past, each individual medium must prove its effect on the consumer - this is where media agencies can help their clients significantly with advertising effectiveness research.
 

36.6 million people watched the Oscars on TV. That's a few million fewer than a year ago. Nevertheless, the overall reach has probably increased. Thanks to social media. St. Peter sent rare rain clouds to Hollywood Boulevard at the start. A greeting to "Jesus-lookalike Jared Leto"? He was referred to as such in a tweet with 14,000 retweets and 13,000 favorites. You can find out more on Storify via the link at the end of the article. 4.5 million mentions were recorded for the two top hashtags #Oscars2015 and #Oscars on Twitter. Not including Instagram and Facebook. The atmosphere was good. The users were in a good mood. According to Tagboard, only 3 percent of the content with the hashtag #Oscars2015 was negative. 20 percent were positive and 77 percent were neutral.

The show on the #OscarRedCarpet with its own hashtag contributed to the positive mood. The female stars made men look deep and women envious (or admiring). Wrinkle-free, shoulder-free! In short: flawless! And the dudes? Demurely buttoned up to the Adam's apple. The flawlessness also attracted critics in the run-up to the event. We have them to thank for the highlight of the evening from an advertising point of view. A campaign straight out of the new media handbook: activating, uncensored, value-based.

As the guardian of feminine naturalness, Dove threw itself into the Oscar fray as a kind of Winkelried of cosmetics. Not entirely fearlessly. To spread the word (after all, no one could be interested) and to protect herself (after all, the value shot could backfire), Dove has partnered with Twitter. Trust is good, control is better. That much management calculation is allowed. However, Dove has also been able to attract influential personalities with high follower and fan numbers for its dissemination work. Arianna Huffington, with over one million Twitter followers, is one of them. She posted several tweets and achieved several hundred retweets and favorites.

The #CampaignCredo - In the starter tweet, the credo for the #SpeakBeautiful campaign was issued: "Actresses at tonight's #Oscars should be celebrated for their talent, not critiqued on their dress."

The #CampaignInsight - Dove and Twitter have recorded over five million negative tweets about beauty. 4 out of 5 negative tweets are self-accusations. In other words, women who use social media to vent about their own flaws. 82 percent of all women say that the ideal of beauty spread via social media is unrealistic. They wanted to tweet against it.

The #CampaignStrategy - You can't reinvent the world in a tweet. But Dove's previous commitment makes the statement seem credible. And that's what matters. Value-driven brand ideas are not created by funny buzz. A side swipe at clickbaiting, which is currently increasingly affecting even previously trustworthy brands and media. Perseverance and action are important in the long term. It is also masterful how Dove uses calls such as "Spread", "Join us" or "Inspire others to feel it!" invites users to participate.

The #CampaignControlling - I am not aware of the campaign objectives. #SpeakBeautiful can be described as successful from a neutral perspective. According to Tagoard, an aggregation platform specializing in the qualitative and quantitative content analysis of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, 30% of the tweets were positive, 65% neutral and only 5% negative. The campaign also achieved impressive quantitative KPIs. 39,000 mentions for the campaign and 37,000 for the @dove Twitter profile. According to the Tweet Issue Today analysis tool, this is number three, just behind the official Oscar hashtags!

The #CampaignsModeration - The fact that the campaign was also hosted during Oscar Night probably contributed significantly to its success. My tweet was immediately thanked.

Beat Hürlimann

More in-depth information with tweets, Instagram posts and charts can be found via
huerlimanncc.com on Storify.
 

In the short term, the removal of the fixed exchange rate has two effects.

Firstly, due to the strength of the Swiss franc, strongly export-oriented customers who produce in Switzerland are not releasing the planned advertising budgets for the current financial year in full. There is an understandable reluctance due to the uncertain impact on the current result.

Secondly, the strength of the euro in turn led to a short-term demand shock for companies that import their products from neighboring countries, as purchasing in neighboring countries suddenly became much more attractive. This meant that companies had to and did react very quickly. Where price adjustments could be made due to the changed exchange rates, these were communicated quickly and consistently with appropriate measures. In the medium term, individual companies will also have to focus their communications on their service and support offerings in order to maintain their appeal. In contrast to the last currency crisis, this time there was not an adjustment over a period of time, but an immediate shock. In the short term, this leads to stronger negative expectations, which ultimately have a significant impact on economic growth. The magnitude of the reduction in advertising spending over the next few months is industry-specific. However, there are not only budget reductions due to the two effects mentioned above.

The situation will prompt many clients to question the efficiency and effectiveness of their marketing communications investments. In the process, one or the other client will recognize the attractiveness of a skillful interplay between traditional and new media genres. An acceleration of the digital transformation is thus quite conceivable.
 

The reactions so far have been rather positive for the advertising market. Many advertising clients have already had to respond to the tense situation with traditional communication measures. However, it remains to be seen how the currency issue will affect the Swiss advertising market over the next six months. In some sectors, however, the cost pressure will sooner or later have an impact on advertising budgets. Our surveys of our members show that funds have been shifting to digital channels for some time now. This trend will continue in 2015. These are opportunities for innovation and new business models, including in communication! Those who adapt more quickly will be among the winners.
 

In the tense five-minute film, he was seen for a few seconds at a switchboard and later on a chair. The film was distributed on the Internet and on the company website. Three years later, the man left the company and demanded that his former employer delete the film within ten days, as well as compensation for pain and suffering, because he felt that his right to privacy had been violated and that he no longer wanted to be part of the company. The company refused to comply with the testimonial's demand and was found to be right in all instances. The judges ruled that the employee had given his written consent to the recordings and that this did not automatically expire when the employment relationship ended. Conclusion: Never film your employees at work - unless your name is Fischer and you run a bedding factory in Wädenswil ... afh

The current strength of the franc has advantages and disadvantages. Advantage: Our cross-border employees (Germany/France) earn a lot more, do not suffer from the otherwise "frozen" wages and are therefore (even) less fluctuating. The more unpleasant: customers want supplier offers from abroad and become unfaithful to the principles that purchasing is done where the money is earned. There is also already an increase in entire projects being awarded to foreign (low-cost) agencies. In general, economic pressure is causing clients to review their budgets and then cut them. Experience shows that a recession, which cannot be ruled out, leads to cost-cutting measures, which are usually felt first by marketing budgets and then by the media. Our industry is therefore affected by the euro exchange rate. It requires a lot of creativity from the agencies to master this crisis and to keep the jobs.
 

It was a race against time. Many thought that such a rebuild could not be accomplished in one night. That was two years ago at the WEF in Davos. Gogo Gärtner and her partner had taken on the job of transforming the pool room at the Grandhotel Belvédère into a festively styled party room within a few hours. "The difficulties already start at the entrance. If the people from security think we're not allowed through with our articulated lorry, then you simply can't get through. Or the entrances are suddenly clogged with cars from other suppliers. " But Gogo Gärtner knew: "If we don't make it, we'll never be in Davos again. If we make it, we're in!" In such a situation, even Gogo Gärtner and her partner René Kaufmann got nervous. "But we were a super team. We finished on the seconds. The guests were already standing in front of the door when we directed the last spotlights."

Three 17 meter long walls with four different colored fabrics on top of each other had to be stretched and illuminated with a sophisticated system of LED lights. The rest of pool-room was lined with an abrasive wall. "The lighting effect, the height, the stability and the workflow: everything had to fit exactly. The preparation had to be absolutely perfect. We therefore rehearsed the entire conversion in our warehouse. With such a short setup time, there are not two minutes left to try something out again or to rethink it. There must be no surprises. Which is otherwise the case with every event."

After the success experience two years ago, Gogo Gärtner and her team were again at the WEF this year. Nolina supplied a lot of signage. Also for the opening of the Durchmesserlinie last summer, Nolina was allowed to deliver a large part of the decoration for the inauguration ceremony of the Zurich train station. In addition, important elements for the lettering and signaling were supplied. The oversized lettering "Thank you" is now emblazoned in Nolina's studio in Rickenbach near Winterthur.

We make the impossible possible

In just nine years, Nolina has grown from a one-woman company to one with over ten employees. The company specializes in articles and decorations for advertising, events, anniversaries or trade fairs. The offer also includes adhesive foils for cars or locomotives. With several high-tech printing machines, everything from T-shirts to huge billboards can be printed.

Nolina's clients include event and advertising agencies. Rufener Events, for example, has been one for years. For such assignments as well as the regular jobs for the watch fairs in Geneva and Basel, the specifications are clear and Nolina works exactly according to plan. In Basel, Nolina is also often called in as "the express people" when tireless creatives suddenly have a last-minute idea. "For other jobs, we can be creative ourselves. We have all the necessary specialists on our team," explains Gogo Gärtner. The founder of Nolina, who is still active in daily business, trained as a typeface painter. Today this is called "Gestalter Werbetechnik ". 15 years the young woman in the Aargau worked "with enthusiasm" on the occupation. For a short time Gogo Gärtner also let herself be employed in the decoration department of IKEA. "But that was not creative enough for me. There were too many guidelines." Later, the font painter "unplanned" to get away from her learned profession and slipped into the cosmetics industry. In the beginning, she enjoyed being allowed to work "on people." Later she ended up in sales. Finally, she became the manager of a wholesale company. "The trade thing came about, that's how it is in life sometimes," she says today, looking back on this successful development of an important market player. But with her ever-increasing responsibility for sales and employees, at some point at the helm of an entire company she only had numbers on her mind. "That didn't fit anymore."

Gogo Gärtner thought it was a cheeky idea to take the plunge again at 40, and opened his own studio for lettering painting. "With this work, I soon realized: I learned the right thing. Designing advertising technology is still a dream job for me." That was nine years ago. Her studio needed to fit into 60 square meters. The trade woman who had just left the business wanted to keep the risk measured. "After all, after ten years I was out of the window. A zero start. You also missed a lot of the technology. In my early days, I still cut and drew by hand. Today there are machines for everything. I had to catch up a lot." After three months, though, she knew, "I'm back in the right place." True, she could have gone back to retail at any time. "That gave me the security I needed. Nevertheless, I then sold my shares in the trade while the new studio was still being set up."

Müli barn becomes a creative factory

After a year, the first apprentice daughter has joined. After four years, the company with the fantasy name "Nolina" counted three people. With a "healthy growth", the studio became so big three years ago that Nolina had to look for a new location. Since November 2014, the motley team has been working in the old mill in Rickenbach near Winterthur. With this mill stylishly hollowed out and newly refilled with life and machines from the field of graphics, further growth is naturally limited. With more employees, however, Gogo Gärtner would no longer have as much fun as in the current ideal constellation. "Likewise, I can no longer maintain the philosophy of the company if it becomes massively larger. From a certain size, I would be back to just the numbers as I was back then in cosmetics. I still want to be able to help screw things along myself."

Gogo Gärtner was also able to live this out extensively during the conversion of her studio. For decades, the barn of the old Müli in Rickenbach stood empty and fell into disrepair. The entrepreneur breathed new life into the 200-year-old building and turned it into the business headquarters of her Nolina applica. Gogo's partner also helped with the planning and implementation. He works in a related field and runs his own company for scenery construction. In addition to decorations at the POS or at events, the company also regularly works for major events such as the SIHH watch fair in Geneva. One of the high-profile projects there three years ago was the gigantic aircraft carrier for luxury brand IWC. Six semitrailer trucks of material were "used up" in this operation. After five days, the whole illusion was over again.

Synergies with the partner

Such commissions from their partner always generate synergies for Gogo Gärtner as well. Nolina supplied many of the graphic works for the aircraft carrier in Geneva. The two companies also regularly pull together at the WEF in Davos and the watch fair in Basel. Nevertheless, the two life partners do not want to merge their life's work. "It's much more exciting when both have their own responsibilities. But I think joint projects are really strong," Gogo Gärtner reveals. And she mentions, as if in passing, that her workload at her job can usually fill 70 to 90 hours a week. "That suits me and gives me joy and energy." The eleven other employees at Nolina are all advertising technicians. Four of them are apprentices. "We're a bit of a catch-all for stranded apprentices. We've already taken on five and it's turned out well for all of them," the boss says happily. "I like training people. That was already the case with my detour into cosmetics, where I also specialized in adult education. I want to pass on what I've learned."
 
Andreas Panzeri