When the blood sugar level drops, the mood can easily tip. In such cases, the only thing that helps is a Snickers. The candy bar manufacturer has shown us this in numerous commercials.

The new poster campaign claims that there's also a connection between blood sugar levels and style levels: when you're really hungry, good taste doesn't play along. So you'd better make time for a Snickers quickly before getting dressed in the morning - and even more so before getting a tattoo on an empty stomach. (sis)

"We are very pleased that we were able to win André over," will Managing Director Marcel Durst quoted in a statement Thursday. "He is a great asset to our agency with his human and professional qualities."

The former "Advertiser of the Year" brings to Komet four clients he has been serving successfully for a long time: Swisspatat, GalloSuisse (Association of Swiss Egg Producers), Schweizer Zucker and the Berner Zeitung. "The customers complement our portfolio in an ideal way" Marcel Durst is pleased. 

Starting in May, André Benker will join Komet in Bern as Creative Director and member of the Executive Board. At the same time, consultant Claudia Shatri will also join Komet from Neue LGK.
 
 

It's best to choose an analog watch from yesteryear. Because smartwatches will be banned in the ivory tower in the future.

But from the beginning: In the past, extensive knowledge, good nerves and a carefully wound wristwatch were the most important pieces of equipment for an exam. Today, it's the nimble finger: Because smartwatches allow quick and unobtrusive access to Google and Wikipedia, they are the perfect cheat sheets. One doggone glance at the watch - and the test result is in. A "Hello there, please don't look at your watch!" from the exam invigilator apparently didn't seem appropriate to the rector of City University London. That is why it is now already forbidden at this London university to wear a wristwatch to the exam. Other universities have followed suit. The only question is: Why go to university at all if the knowledge that is taught, learned and tested there is only on a par with Google and Wikipedia? We'll make an inquiry in London. afh

Image: Keystone

The advertising industry is celebrating 50 years of TV commercials. His achievements are undisputed. Many of them are unforgettable. For Publisuisse CEO Martin Schneider, for example, the one in which a hand dips into green washing-up liquid. Palmolive! And my favorite? The Villariba versus Villabajo dishwashing duel. Fairy Ultra! That was in 1992, ten years before Italy won the World Cup title with catenaccio. This is an ultra-defensive style of football with very few offensive actions. Were the makers of this year's Superbowl TV commercials inspired by the catenaccio of the 80s? In principle, yes, if you take serious calls to action via TV commercials as a yardstick for offensive actions. 53% of all 104 (!) spots broadcast during the Superbowl game did not have a call to action. In 2014, the figure was 21 percent. Has the belief in the effectiveness of parallel use been lost? The catenaccio principle applies to TV commercials in general. That is surprising. Equipped with a snack and smartphone (61% said they watched the Super Bowl game with their smartphone in their hand), viewers are more willing than ever to gratefully accept space-opening sugar passes from commercials. Provided you take the trouble to pull out all the stops properly. A few examples.

#Hashtags - 42 percent of Super Bowl spots had a hashtag. So far so good. But the average insertion time was less than a second. Even the fastest tweenagers are unable to pick up a hashtag in this time. Firstly, a hashtag should be displayed throughout the entire commercial and secondly, it should already be known, at least in the core target group. If you want to get yourself talked about via a TV commercial in order to expand your network in social networks, there is no way around the intelligent integration of a hashtag.

#Downloads - Just 8 percent of all commercials with call-to-actions offered viewers an app to download. Anyone who invests over 4 million dollars in 30 seconds of airtime should be able to generate as many leads as possible from contacts via download.

#AugmentedReality - It sounds futuristic. But it's not. We're talking about image and sound recognition applications. Shazam, an app that recognizes pieces of music within a few seconds and displays song titles accordingly on the smartphone, is very popular. There are also numerous applications for image recognition that are currently being used in print-to-mobile. It is actually incomprehensible that not a single Superbowl commercial invited viewers to "listen in" via Shazam.

#Video apps - Videos can be recorded, uploaded and shared ever more quickly and easily in one go via social media apps. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are constantly improving the corresponding functions.

#Chat apps - It has been possible to chat in groups via the Twitter app for a few days now. The leading chat apps are WhatsApp and Snapchat. Using chat apps to bring commercial content into the conversation is an exciting impact option. "For TV advertising to have a future, it has to be good," says Martin Schneider. We take the CEO of the largest TV marketer at his word and look forward to an innovation offensive that really launches the quality match between screens. It is high time for this because Facebook, with over 3 million users, is now challenging TV for the position of the strongest reach medium for advertising.

Beat Hürlimann
 

In addition to her role as Editorial Director of "Echo der Zeit", Isabelle Jacobi will also host the program in future. She will succeed Ursula Hürzeler in this role at the beginning of 2016, when she retires. Isabelle Jacobi, 45, hosted the former background program "DRS 2 aktuell" from 1999 to 2006. She later worked as a freelance correspondent in New York, including for SRF. At the end of 2008, she began working as a producer at "Echo der Zeit", where she has been head of the editorial team since fall 2012.

Samuel Wyss will join "Echo der Zeit" as a new presenter at the beginning of August 2015. He will succeed Peter Voegeli, who is moving to Berlin as SRF correspondent in spring 2015. Samuel Wyss, 35, has worked for Radio SRF 4 News since 2010 as an editor, producer and, since September 2014, as a presenter. He is completing his Bachelor's degree in German and Media and Communication Studies at the University of Fribourg this summer. Before working in radio at SRF, he worked in advertising and communications.

Isabelle Jacobi, Editorial Director of "Echo der Zeit": "Samuel Wyss is a young, innovative presenter who, as a relative newcomer to the microphone, has quickly become an incisive and critically questioning radio voice. We are looking forward to our new colleague."

Since the launch of the first model in 1983, Swatch has maintained a close relationship with art. After just one year, a "Swatch Art Special" followed with a set of unique plastic watches designed by Christian Champion. The designer's pen name was "Kiki Picasso ". The "movements" of the American artist Keith Haring also became valuable collector's items.

In the continuing happy marriage of art and timekeeping, Swatch was able to attract new filmmakers, fashion designers, photographers or concept artists every year. And thus also provide stylish "free" advertising for its collections. In November 2011, the artistic commitment took on another dimension with the opening of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. There, the former Peace Hotel has been generously restored and transformed into an art hotel in Shanghai's luxury mile. Part of the concept is to regularly bring artists to the center of one of China's most dynamic cities with actions and shows. Two floors of the hotel have been converted into 18 residential studios for artists from around the world. The remaining rooms will be used to meet and develop new ideas. A few suites are also open to the public. The "Artists in Residence" are selected by a commission. In addition to Nayla and Nick Hayek, George Clooney also sits on this commission. The artists' exhibits are also displayed in a virtual museum. This can be accessed via the hotel's website. pan

The main protagonist is the well-known Melectronics man, who gives free rein to his inventive spirit. For Valentine's Day, he wants to wish the ladies all the best in a surprising and unique way.

The agency wants to draw attention to the first episode "From The Lab" with a targeted teaser phase and clever seeding. Further surprises from the lab are already being planned, according to a press release issued on Thursday.

Responsible at Melectronics: Patrick Marti (Head of Specialty Stores), Kristina Burch (Head of Market Development a.i.). Responsible for content&form: Serge Riedener (CD), Karin Estermann (Senior AD), Fabian Zahner (Text/Concept), Simon Kümin (Social Seeding), Barbara Zingg (Consulting), Kristian Brändle (Consulting/Strategy online). Responsible at Solid & Hallerfilm: Martin Luchsinger (director), Daryl Hefti (DOP), Valentin Altdorfer (SFX), Rudi Haller, Silvana Pellegrini (production); Jingle Jungle (sound design), Federico Bettini (composition).
 

melectronics viral spots "From The Lab" from Content&Shape on Vimeo.

Sometimes there are these special encounters. Such as the meeting of a passionate and avant-garde watchmaker and an exceptional artist who share their unique vision of life, their rich history and their vision of the future," reads Jaquet Droz's statement on its sponsorship commitment. In December 2013, the Manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds took on the role of exclusive Presenting Partner of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne under the direction of Gil Roman. In addition to the traditional sponsorship, the meeting of the watch manufacturer and the ballet ensemble, which is now carrying on the legacy of Maurice Béjart, also creates an artistic symbiosis. "It is a creative encounter and the merging of personalities who share the same passion for movement and the inestimable value of these rare and fleeting moments in which beauty finds its perfection."

Pierre Jaquet-Droz was born in the Swiss Jura in 1721 and established himself as one of the most talented watchmakers during the Age of Enlightenment. In addition to his excellent technique, he was also regarded as a true artist. His musical automata delighted all European royalty at the time.

Born in Marseille in 1927, Béjart remained one of the legends of dance until his death in 2007. In 1987, he founded the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, anchoring his revolutionary approach to the performing arts in Switzerland. In the process, Béjart repeatedly demonstrated - on his tours in Africa, Asia and also in the USA - his striving for the highest perfection. An objective that today applies equally to the makers of Jaquet Droz's high-quality works of art in the watch industry. pan

Thomas Röthlisberger and Christoph Camenisch have decided to exploit the unlimited possibilities of the digital world as entrepreneurs. In addition to building up their own company, they are joining 55 weeks, the digital agency branch that, together with In Flagranti Communication and In Flagranti Design, now forms the In Flagranti Group, as of March 1, 2015.

From manager to entrepreneur

Thomas Röthlisberger and Christoph Camenisch have spent the last few years working for the e-business service provider Unic. Now the two want to move from being managers to entrepreneurs and will manifest their passion for digital transformation in their own company in the spring. With this in mind, they explored a wide range of cooperation options on the market and came across In Flagranti. They quickly realized that Lorenz Schmid and Michael Hählen had recognized the need to reinvent themselves in the marketing environment and wanted to explore creative avenues. After initial discussions, it quickly became clear that the interpersonal level between the four entrepreneurs was in harmony, and a joint approach was decided upon.

Christoph Camenisch and Thomas Röthlisberger will in future provide the foundations for the digital success of the In Flagranti Group. Christoph Camenisch is the father of three children. Since early childhood, Chris-toph has been fascinated by everything digital. Whether as a gamer or as a young programmer during his school years. He found his first IT job at Swisscom, where he was responsible for various web applications. He then worked for Deutsche Telekom in a web team for the customer SBB. At his third station, T-Systems, Christoph Camenisch was able to perform a wide variety of management functions in Switzerland and then internationally. After eight years, however, he wanted to "get back to the front," as he puts it, "closer to the projects and technical solutions." So five years ago he made the move to Unic.

In fact, Thomas Röthlisberger's curriculum vitae also follows a straight line, following his digital interest. From an early age, he was interested in technology and its possibilities. After his first programming attempts in his teens, he decided to train as an engineer at the University of Applied Sciences in Biel. His first job took him to the e-business service provider Unic. During his time at Unic, he gained valuable experience in the areas of technology, development and architecture, all the way to managing a business unit. In the process, he implemented online communication solutions for well-known companies in Switzerland and abroad.

Change in customer contact

The digital world is changing rapidly and the changes affect all industries. This is where Camenisch and Röthlisberger want to contribute their experience and support companies in these processes. The collaboration with In Flagrantibiete the opportunity to combine their digital knowledge with the marketing know-how of a communications agency, the two think. "Dealing with digital changes has to become a core competence of many companies," states Röthlisberger. This applies in particular, of course, to the marketing industry itself. A constant and, in particular, consistent relationship between company and customer is central to success in the age of the customer, they say. "There is nothing worse than inconsistent communication," Röthlisberger recounts from his own experience.

Today's customers expect companies to remember every contact they make. He doesn't want to re-explain his concern several times just because he has switched between the digital and analog channels. After conducting research on a wide variety of available channels, customers often have a knowledge advantage over sales staff, which must and can be compensated for through the targeted use of digital solutions. Since every customer expects to be addressed individually, only an efficient and flexible IT solution leads to customer satisfaction. The guarantor of sustainable success for companies is the courage to adapt to the customer - to each individual. "Let's take the example of a food manufacturer that has been successful in stationary retail to date. Its brands are well-known, but the company itself does not appear on the market. Let's further imagine that this company launches an online store for its various products and brands. Now these online store customers encounter well-known brands of a company they do not know. For the customers who make a difference between the digital and the real world, such branding is incomprehensible and not conducive to trust. That's where we want to offer solutions," Röthlisberger adds.

Christoph Camenisch agrees: "Modern products cleverly integrate digital and classic elements. We are convinced that in the near future, only companies that understand how to create such products will be able to survive on the market." A key characteristic here must be simplicity and comprehensibility for the customer. A simple statement, but in consequence this requirement needs the understanding of the whole range of competences - from basic technology to product design. "We see the opportunity to build such products, solutions and services for our customers in the cooperation with the In-Flagranti Group" summarizes Camenisch.

Röthlisberger is convinced that this is precisely where service providers and entrepreneurs need to start: "The digital transformation is where the challenges lie. Customers no longer wait for a company, companies have to adapt to the maturity of customers."

Ursina mason

In Flagranti becomes an agency group

What is the demarcation between In Flagranti Communication and 55 weeks?
Roughly speaking, you can say that In Flagranti Communication stands for integrated communication, brand management, corporate and marketing communication. 55 weeks is the provider of efficient, technology-based solutions. Of course, 55 weeks cooperates with In Flagranti Communication and In Flagranti Design. But 55 weeks aims to be as independent as possible on the market and to offer its services not only to companies but also to interested advertising or branding agencies. We have already noticed a great deal of interest and have received concrete inquiries. System-wise, we offer an independent and neutral platform. Our customers can seek access to the specialists themselves and determine their contact persons, whether they want one of the owners of In Flagranti to be their contact person or whether they want to work directly with 55 weeks. uma
 

The Swiss Music Awards are considered Switzerland's most important music prize. The competition aims to promote the national music scene and at the same time present its cultural diversity. The Swiss Music Award is supported by Migros as Presenting Partner, Credit Suisse as Main Sponsor and the media partners SRF, Joiz, Wilmaa and Rouge TV. The event is organized by the Press Play association, supported by its members IFPI Switzerland, SUISA, Swissperform and SMPA - and thus by the entire Swiss music industry. Part of the concept is that, on the one hand, newcomers are offered a platform to make their music accessible to a broad public. At the same time, the work of the most successful musicians is duly honored. The 8th edition of the award will take place on February 27 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich.

New this year, the Walker advertising agency was commissioned with overall communication. Pius Walker and the band of his young creatives have designed the concept "so that it can be carried over several years". The award is the figurative center, a somewhat idiosyncratic, but thus also striking concrete block. Walker brings this block to life with various experiments. "Music to Life" has thus become the new claim. In the creative's sound lab, the block is blown up or even flooded for various films. In addition to amazing clips, the subjects for posters and materials for 1000 exclusive invitation cards were created as "waste products" of these musical experiments. For Migros, a shopping bag was designed with the same elements. The films were and are shown in different waves on SRF, Joiz and Wilmaa.

Andreas Panzeri

Swissmusicawards.ch

Respect is always good and should be one of the basic features of our life together, not only in the communications industry. Where respect for one another is lacking, everything collapses.

Respect for the other person is also a fundamental condition for fairness. And fairness requires empathy, the willingness to put oneself in the place of one's fellow human being, to feel with him, to think from his perspective, and also: to suffer with him. Then you can let everyone have their say with the best argument, without losing your distance from the subject matter.

But what exactly is fair, decent, just behavior on the part of a journalist? When he prints everything that is said, does not shorten, does not reformulate? When he seeks a counter-position to every statement? If he checks the facts until the competition has published? And how does a PR person provide fair information? By also talking about the competitors' products?

Do the media and PR really profit when they act fairly? On the contrary. The higher profit beckons when you communicate unfairly: First place a scandalous report, then check the facts and, if necessary, set the record straight with a counterstatement. This does not undo the damage that has been done, but it does generate attention once again. No wonder trust in the media is declining. And you'll laugh: Canadian scientists have found that stressed people feel less compassion. That fits the image that journalists and PR people present today.

In our ego-centered society, it has become almost tricky to behave fairly - because if you also look at other people, you can all too quickly fall behind. Those who have their own opinion are attacked anyway, because someone always feels unfairly treated. How courageous, then, of the Zurich PR Society to make the debate about fairness the focus of the Communication Summit. And how important, especially today. But how bland the results!

One would have wished for insight, suggestions for thinking, for action. Instead, a lot of old and unfair things were brought to the table: the accusation that Claudio Zuccolini is not funny (from 2013). The agitation against Jörg Kachelmann in the course of the rape trial in Germany (from 2010/11) and the assumption that he feels pleasure in suing German and Swiss media houses one after the other. Res Strehle's police photos, which were already 30 years old two years ago, and his decision to charge court and procedural costs to the "responsible" Tagi departments - a little "motivation to work in a technically correct manner ". What, pray tell, is fair about that?

Consequently, no central insights were tweeted, but above all the corny jokes of the all-time clown Zuccolini. The greater the time and cost pressure in our industry, the less its representatives dare to take a stand. After all, you want to be fair and not step on anyone's toes. Least of all oneself.

Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
 

World record: largest free hanging poster. 4067 square meters in size, printed on wind-permeable PVC mesh vinyl. The poster weighed 1.8 tons and was raised by helicopter.

Coming from screen printing, from advertising technology, the era of digital printing began at Christinger exactly 20 years ago. The Schlierem-based company thus took on the pioneering role in large-format digital printing in Switzerland. Karlheinz Kaiser, Managing Director at Christinger AG, reflects, "Today, strictly speaking, we have two divisions: Print & Cut and Advertising Technology." Print & Cut is always based on a request for quotation, which has to be implemented on a daily basis. The situation is different in the advertising technology area, where larger projects are involved, such as CI implementations in the lettering area, for banks, kiosks and other clients. Last year, for example, over 700 bank branches were newly labeled by Christinger for one client.

Market and technology leadership

With around 60 to 70 employees - the figures vary - Christinger is considered the Swiss market leader. Founder Emil Christinger handed over the company to Toni Fricker and Karlheinz Kaiser in December 1994 as part of a succession plan. At that time, the company had 19 employees. This period also saw the start of digital printing: one month before Mr. Fricker and Mr. Kaiser took over the business, the first large-format digital printing press in Switzerland was installed. These machines were originally developed for architects to print blueprints, says Kaiser. It was only later that the first software solutions were added that made it possible to print images. Why the gradual move away from proven screen printing? "For runs of less than 50 posters, screen printing was no longer cost-effective. As a result, we really industrialized the poster and lettering sector with large-format digital printing technology. Screen printing, which was predominant twenty years ago, is now practically non-existent; it is only used in special cases." Christinger was thus one of the first companies to follow a maxim that digital printing pioneer Beny Landa formulated as early as the late 1990s: "Everything that can be digital, will be digital.

"CMYK-art"

The metaphor of the cobbler with the crooked heels does not apply to Christinger. The company from Schlieren advertises itself, how could it be otherwise, with a sensational poster campaign; with a campaign that could also be seen in Zurich's main train station due to its strikingly colorful subjects. Of course, Christinger produced its posters in-house, but they were designed by the very young Karling agency. The campaign was launched under the name "CMYK-art" (the acronym CMYK stands for the three color components cyan, magenta, yellow and the black component key as color depth = four-color printing). Kaiser wants to continue the concept in the coming years: "We want to use it to offer young designers a platform within the framework of an annually recurring competition - that's the idea behind it." A commendable idea, serving to promote talent, especially since it has triggered a great response, according to Kaiser. "There have been requests for posters of this kind. Now, posters, that's one of our core competencies. With this campaign, we want to illustrate that big-picture communication, the poster, is one of our core competencies - and a passion."

Solutions for demanding people

"We don't just make good posters for ourselves, of course," Kaiser says with a laugh. A good example is the poster for the Ford Transit, designed by the Ogilvy Matter agency, with the idea of the recessed cargo area on that car. "We love creative ideas that we get to implement - we love the challenge of making them happen. Because our objective is not the 'ordinary' poster, but solutions for demanding clients. " It is therefore obvious: advertising agencies are important customers for Christinger. Their share of orders hovers around the 50 percent mark.

Kaiser: "Since we have been producing posters in digital printing since 1994, we are certainly the ones who have the longest experience with this technology. It started with simple poster printing presses. In the medium term, larger formats for megaposters came into use, followed by the first machines that print white. This was very important for us - coming from screen printing and confronted with many transparent films. Another milestone came in 2004 with the use of the first flatbed digital presses, even then with white ink, with which we print rigid and semi-rigid materials, i.e. cardboard, Dibond, rigid PVC, Plexiglas and other print substrates." The widest machine at Christinger measures a whopping five meters. When the subject of "formats" comes up, the large-format printers know no holds barred: "The large posters you see in the airport, for example, measure 28 meters × 14 meters. "How do you imagine they are produced? Kaiser: "The subject is divided into strips on the computer and then printed in strips. At the end, the individual parts are joined together by the supplier to form a single piece and fitted with restraining loops for safety."

When the north face of the Eiger became a billboard

As a special reference project, Kaiser mentions the poster that literally flew high: "At the time, we converted the Eiger North Wall into a billboard on behalf of Procter & Gamble! That was the biggest poster ever produced. It was printed by us ten years ago and covered an area of 4067 square meters."

The campaign was planned and realized by Procter & Gamble Switzerland together with the promotion agency fm/Projects GmbH, and the poster was produced and assembled by Christinger Partner AG in collaboration with Spühler Blachen and the Nüssli Group. The project was realized with the support of Jungfrau Railways and the Jungfrau Tourism Organization. To get the poster into the air, a special helicopter with a load capacity of 4200 kg was needed. Heliswiss pilots and many volunteers at the Interlaken airfield and on Kleine Scheidegg were involved in the operation. Incidentally, the megaposter served a good purpose after its appearance, which received worldwide attention: bags were made from the material of the poster, which were sold for the benefit of SOS Children's Villages. For Christinger, however, the poster is not the only medium when it comes to advertising his own company. "On the one hand, it is certainly an advantage to be broadly supported with a range of services," says Kaiser, "but on the other hand, it becomes complex in terms of marketing and communication if you have to manage different and very different target markets. That's why we also publish our customer magazine 'Tatort-Journal'. Then, of course, the Internet is also very important for us. We constantly keep our site up to date. This allows us to present projects in a timely manner, for example, the Zurich streetcars at the moment, which have been fully lettered by us."

The point of sale - a broad field

In addition to the poster, Christinger also considers the point of sale (POS) to be a good, lively business, and furthermore the business with shop-in-shop concepts. "Shop-in-shop concepts are mostly used for international brands that are offered here in Switzerland in a retail store. For example, when collections change from summer to winter. The POS is a broad field. It starts, for example, with a rack for wholesalers, and goes on to floor adhesives, displays, trays, and even large-screen communication." But it's not just the retail trade that places large orders. Service companies such as banks and insurance companies, where corporate identity and corporate decorating are important, also place orders with Christinger.

3-D in focus

Christinger is increasingly thinking in terms of the third dimension: "With our flatbed press, with our cutter capacities and with our design station, we can design, develop, print and deliver 3-D jobs. 3-D is a segment we are developing. However, the complexity in this is great, we first had to find experts who develop POS concepts with corrugated board and cardboard. There's a lot of know-how behind this, and it's important to have the right interface with customers. Today, we also produce large displays. We can produce one, ten or a hundred of them, and we can also cut them all, all in one piece. In the past, the minimum quantity was ten to fifteen thousand units when talking about displays. Today, the quantities are far below that. Thanks to our digital printing capacities, we can deliver a prototype to the customer for inspection within a very short time, say within two days. The subjects often vary in the different regions or stores. We can easily meet this requirement with our system-related flexibility," says Kaiser.

Finally, he does make one reservation, namely with regard to the question of how things stand with regard to the aforementioned long runs that are produced using traditional printing processes. "We are certainly the right partner for the development of prototypes and test series, as well as for jobs with short to medium runs. If, on the other hand, it's a matter of very long runs, the job goes to another supplier for offset or flexo printing. Our customers know that." Christinger does not take on design jobs such as those carried out by advertising agencies. On the other hand, designing and lettering demonstration cars is one of Christinger's core competencies. "That's a niche you have to master; every car has doors and handles, a gas cap and other idiosyncrasies that have to be taken into account. That's where our expertise comes in."

"Calibrated" quality - PSO certified

Technology leadership is now almost a matter of course at Christinger. "But always on the premise that you can produce quality with it," says Kaiser. "What we were also the first in this country to implement, back in 2006, is the alignment of digital printing with offset printing. What does that mean? Customers know what offset printing is, they know how to prepare data in offset printing, and they know what to expect from offset printing. We quickly realized that we could apply the production standard of the offset process (PSO) to digital printing as well. On many substrates, we can map the PSO. However, there are also those where this is not possible." What does this mean for the customer? He gets the assurance that the different printing processes match - digital printing looks like offset and vice versa. Kaiser: "Often, a poster campaign is produced in parallel in offset and digital printing; the German version in the higher print run, for example, in offset, and the French or Italian version in digital printing. The third important reason is that digital printing is always designed for printing on demand - you only print what you need. And when a reprint is due, it has to look like the previous print. We achieve this with PSO standardization. This is recertified by Ugra every second year. Our machines are also certified: the Turbojet, the Durst system, our HP flatbed machine and a fourth machine, an HP latex printer. We are the only wide-format digital printer that is PSO certified."

"Seerestaurant" Christinger ...

Christinger's philosophy has always been to be able to handle peaks in single-shift operation with a highly developed, industrial production capacity; because working multiple shifts is not particularly popular in Switzerland. "I always compare it to a lakeside restaurant - if the weather is nice, you have to be ready; if it rains, you don't even have to provide the chairs. With our machines, we're able to do that on a single-shift basis to cushion the fluctuations in workload, all the way through to assembly." Kaiser continues, "We try to maintain balance. With flatbed and white printing, we were able to replace conventional screen printing. Digital printing is the name of the future for us. At the same time, we are asking ourselves: What new market segments can we open up with this? The strategy is clear: we want to achieve in the display area, in the POS area, what we have achieved in poster printing." Does a company that is as well positioned as Christinger need to have a vision at all, has the end of the road been reached? Kaiser concludes: "The end of the line has by no means been reached. The keyword here is single pass printing. But we're still a few years away from that. But it can definitely happen relatively quickly, and we're preparing for that. Challenges are there to be met ..."

Claude Bürki