Description
Visual fetishism is understood as behavior in which an object, the so-called fetish (yogurt, car, sweater), is to be depicted in a schematic advertising manner in such a way that arousal occurs. If the stimulus seems impossible without the fetish, the behavior is considered to require treatment.

Forms
Characteristic is the precisely defined way in which a fetish must be photographed or filmed. In food fetishism, for example, artificial raspberries fall into cream yogurt at 360 frames per second. Automotive fetishists (paint erotica) respond to reflections and split mass. Fashion fetishists have the drape of clothing retouched until they experience visual satisfaction.

Causes
The motive is still unclear today. According to a theory of Freud, the always same presentation of the fetish symbolizes ritualized actions of one's own mother, i.e. security. Skinner, on the other hand, suspects that the fetishist is simply reacting to the pressure of conformity of his professional group, rather than to the target group's need to be able to distinguish offers.

Distribution
Visual fetishism occurs almost exclusively in triangular relationships between client, agency and production company. The consumer is left out, as the fetish has become a complete substitute for the genuine communicative act with him.

From the current Print edition the advertising week.

A lack of knowledge and overly high expectations of immediate (monetary) success are one explanation. However, digital marketing must also be seen as an investment in the future, and one lever should start with training. That is why the digital marketing industry association IAB Switzerland offers basic training in Switzerland.

Digital marketing remains on the rise and is an indispensable part of today's marketing mix. However, digital does not receive the budget it deserves given the high level of attention it receives from end users. Certainly, it is more challenging to attract attention in digital media (especially on small mobile screens) than in so-called traditional media. However, a major problem is that skepticism towards this still rather new sub-area of marketing is high and the level of knowledge among decision-makers is relatively low. Specialists are therefore desperately sought in many companies.

The industry association IAB Switzerland has therefore made basic training in digital marketing its mission and founded the IAB Academy. Thanks to the bundled expertise and the commitment of an ever-growing number of partner companies, the IAB Academy can offer special basic training in Switzerland. In a basic and an advanced course, newcomers and advanced learners can acquire and deepen basic knowledge in all sub-areas of digital marketing in a manageable period of six weeks while working. The instructors are specialists in their respective fields and impart their knowledge in practice-oriented modules. The aim is to make basic knowledge in digital marketing available as widely as possible. And this benefits the future viability of every industry in Switzerland.

The IAB Academy's course program is aimed at newcomers, advanced learners and managers with a limited time budget. Because even those who occasionally hear a lecture on a topic from the field of digital marketing would do well to keep their knowledge up to date. That's why our motto is: The future is digital! Are you ready for it? (iab)

When was the last time you explained the passive offside rule to your partner? Rejoice, it goes a little more demanding: When was the last time you explained content marketing to your customer? Football is a game with rules. Social media is a discipline in search of rules. The most recognized one, from my point of view, is that of content marketing. It regulates the quality of the content. And this is decisive. Content marketing is therefore a rule that sets new standards so that advertising and marketing messages continue to have realistic chances of being effective in the age of the social and mobile web. The following is an overview of content marketing (CM), condensed to Twitter length. These are impulses with signposts to exciting fields of action in marketing communication.

#DefVol1. Content marketing accurately anticipates needs and results in messages that are loved and welcomed. #Def- Vol2. Content marketing is the eagerly awaited antidote to the unwelcome bombardment by interruptor marketing. #DefVol3. CM is a content creation and distribution process with the goal of understanding, engaging and driving users to profitable actions. 2 x Aldo Gnocchi, leading Swiss CM specialist on demand: #Content Marketing was understood as helping your target groups make good decisions in the buying process. #Content Marketing is not a discipline, but a way of thinking with a focus on multi-value content for decided target groups. 2 x Michael Stelzner, Founder Social Media Examiner on demand: #SocialMedia - Great content without social media is like burying treasure in your backyard. It might be valuable but no one sees it. #SocialMedia - Great content with social media is like providing an endless supply of water to weary desert travelers. The free #GuideMichelin showed the way to motorists as early as 1900, and later to restaurants as well. Michelin, a pioneer of content marketing. #Smarter- CitiesChallenge is a CM program. IBM teams have helped 100 cities find solutions to problems for 3 weeks at a time. #MissionStatement - On creating one for content marketing, Joe Pulizzi advises. "Enable parents to spend more time with family." #Subscriber - All content marketing user paths should lead home to owned media. Mass is subscribers and their dwell time. #Influencer - Their authority is indispensable in building sustainable networks. Winning them over is the starting point in content marketing. #Budget - Open your Wallet, writes J. Pulizzi. Good content marketing increases marketing efficiency. Time to reallocate budgets. #ROI - Content marketing generates 3x more leads than traditional marketing, according to Eloqua.com, and costs 62 percent less, according to Demandmetric.com. #Journalists from Forbes are being poached by General Electric for content marketing. Talent streams that prove the change. #DirectorOf- Content - This is the title that will soon be used by rows of companies to hire specialists to build content marketing. #Cultural change - CMO.com is Adobe's content site and popular industry news source. Content marketing turns companies into publishers - with consequences. #Engagement - Consumers are keen on content. In 2010, they engaged with 5, in 2011 already with 10 contents on the way to the purchase decision. Source: Google ZMOT study. #Infotainment is high on Millennials' agenda. 80 percent of 19- to 34-year-olds expect tailored and entertaining marketing content. Source: Edelman Millennial Study. #Mrand loyalty is an important effect of CM. According to a survey, 70 percent feel more connected to corresponding brands thanks to CM. #IIwantToSeeThatNotToSee you can click on Facebook. Re-regulate your attention game. Inappropriate content threatens the red card. #Longform contributions bring better results. In content marketing, users expect topics with depth. The top articles in the Google ranking contain an average of 2000 words. #Contribution frequency - Mashable recommends 3 quality posts of 700 words each per week for content marketing. #Snackables - When in doubt, publish short posts more often than long ones rarely. With high frequency you stay in the conversation and please the SEO. 1TP4Debates - Ever thought of letting employees or customers debate topics? Hubspot uses this form as part of its content marketing. #Podcasts are suitable for content marketing, which is especially targeted at busy and mobile people. It is a rapidly growing form. #Gifs&Slideshares - The SEO Journal recommends this unequal but successful double for use in content marketing. Try it out! #umblr is a very easy-to-use blogging platform in terms of interactions, updates and display formats. Try it out! #Embedding - Integrate Slideshare presentations, Storify reports, and YouTube videos into their blogs and websites via embedding code. #Recycling - CM pioneer Pulizzi advises content recycling. For example, upload existing PPPräsis to Slideshare. Longer posts work better. Joe Pulizzi, asked about upcoming budget conflicts: #ContentPromotion - Not sure of the conflict... I think (in the future) smart companies will leverage more paid to promote their content. We close with Brian Solis and his question: #Mediumism - Marketers suffer from mediumism, caring more about the medium than the content that goes into it. What if we thought more about engagement?

Beat Hürlimann

More in-depth links and more tweets about content marketing can be found at Huerlimanncc.com

We help our customers to see exactly who is saying what about them," explains Marco Hiestand, Key Account Manager at Cognita AG. "We cover all important channels in print and online, in blogs and forums, in social media, television and radio worldwide." The media monitoring company, which is based in Zurich and Berlin, has developed a platform that can be used to monitor what is being written or said about a company on the Internet and on traditional media channels on specific topics or keywords. It all began in 2008 when the ETH spin-off was founded by Swiss physicist Denis Nordmann and German journalist Christian Beilborn. For decades, the traditional company Argus, the top dog in Swiss media monitoring for decades, dominated the field in this country. Its employees cut newspaper reports for companies and associations out of batches of newspapers, stamped them with the Argus stamp and sent them to the clients by post. Tempi passati, by the way, also for this pioneering company, which has also adapted to the digital age. There is a long tradition of companies, associations and government agencies informing themselves about the public response to their activities, but the Internet has opened up completely new echo chambers with undreamt-of possibilities and dangers.

Start without legacy issues

Cognita had the advantage of being able to start with innovative founders and well-trained employees who had grown up in the digital age, without any legacy issues. Marco Hiestand, 34, studied media and communication sciences at the University of Zurich, worked in research for several years and produced media analyses for large corporations and universities. After a stint at a PR agency, he joined Cognita in 2013. He was fascinated by the idea of searching the sea of data on the internet for the fish you want in a targeted and efficient way. Anyone searching with standard search engines can come up with thousands of "hits" for a keyword, an often hard-to-digest jumble of information of any quality. The BlueReport search engine developed by Cognita, on the other hand, focuses and sorts exactly according to the customer's wishes. It all started with a prototype, which was quickly developed further in dialog with the first customers. The company boasts impressive expertise in the areas of news aggregation and intelligent search technologies. The targeted network searches are essentially based on a media database that today comprises tens of thousands of selected websites and online media, blogs, forums and social media channels. This includes content from all major print media, TV and radio stations that are accessible in digital form, as well as websites of companies, associations, etc. "We are constantly modifying and expanding this database," explains Hiestand. "For example, a client is planning a branch in Albania, so we are looking at media there and adding them to our database." Cognita monitors editorial content worldwide, including letters to the editor, and compiles it for hundreds of customers, including clients as diverse as airlines and international aid organizations.

New "crawler" technology

At the Zurich headquarters at Schifflände 6 near Bellevue, a developer is currently adapting the search engine to current requirements with new tools. The highly efficient crawlers developed by the company itself, as the fine-meshed nets in the sea of data are called, fish out the relevant information in a targeted manner and register the publications relevant to the client in real time. Hiestand: "With this innovative, continuously developed crawler technology, BlueReport guarantees unprecedented data quality." Finely tuned electronic filters automatically sort out unwanted reports if, for example, the customer only wants publications on a specific development, a product or a particular problem affecting the company. These filters can also be set for individual countries or regions of the world. "For example, a customer can instruct us to monitor the ten most important media titles in the USA, China and the Arab world," explains Hiestand. "Once these specifications have been set electronically, everything runs automatically and the customer can call up the results in real time in their personalized web app."

Tailored offers

Cognita services are based on package solutions at fixed prices, which can be supplemented with customized additional editorial services. The cheapest is the simple reporting with a media review as a PDF with all links to the print articles. In the more expensive reputation analysis, the current status of the company's reputation in the media echo chamber is determined by linking terms and topics to the client. A loss of image is immediately apparent in the media review and countermeasures can be taken immediately by the management. With just a few clicks, the client can also call up detailed evaluations in graphical form. The market analysis shows how the client's products and services are positioned on the market. In general, Blue Report works up to date and saves the results for the future; however, in the case of market analyses, it is also possible to carry out backward-looking research in the past. In response analyses, the search engine records the response and reach of marketing campaigns, for example, and identifies target groups and opinion leaders, whereby social media such as Twitter and Facebook are specifically analyzed and evaluated in a differentiated manner. Customers can access all the results on their computer, smartphone or tablet; all data is stored by Cognita in an encrypted cloud and can be accessed by customers at any time. Media market monitoring has become a differentiated tool for important departments of a company, such as product managers, marketing and management, who are provided with strategically important information and opinions. The desired reports are automatically sent to the right people. Companies often share some of the generated content with their employees and customers; these individual contributions are automatically placed by BlueReport on the relevant websites or intranet. This individualized collection and processing is no longer referred to as media monitoring, but as media intelligence.

A little self-experiment

With the help of his interlocutor Marco Hiestand, the author put the system to the test. As he was working on a report on "Tourism in Tunisia" after a press trip, we entered these two keywords into the system; the simplest, most general form of query, billed to customers as part of the cheapest flat rate. After a short time, 20 hits came up with a wide range of information from various sources that we would not have been able to find using Google. The sources filtered out ranged from "Yahoo! Actualités France" to "Travel weekly" and "Punch on the Web" (Nigeria), including a report in the St. Galler Tagblatt newspaper on the subject of negative interest rates in Switzerland entitled "Savers can sleep soundly".... Obviously, even the most sophisticated fishing technology in the sea of data cannot completely prevent such bycatch.

Continuous further development

Customers purchase the BlueReport software as a service, and further developments are downloaded automatically and free of charge. The search contracts are tailor-made, the customer selects search terms, functionality and individual differentiation and pays a fixed monthly price for the entire package with 24-hour access seven days a week. Depending on complexity and data volume, prices range from CHF 298 to CHF 1798 per month, while more complex special solutions can be more expensive. BlueReport makes it possible, for example, to analyze the data with the help of Excel or to send newsletters directly from the tool. Cognita has done pioneering work with the BlueReport platform. Other competitors have since developed similar tools, but the company is determined to maintain its lead through ever more sophisticated applications and innovations. The company, which was launched by the two pioneers as an ETH spin-off, now employs 25 people in Zurich and Berlin - technicians, customer advisors and monitoring consultants working in the back office in Berlin - and it continues to grow. "Today, people no longer have to trawl through newspapers and cut out reports for customers," explains Marco Hiestand. "Automatic monitoring has changed media monitoring dramatically. The new tools offer many new possibilities, yet the service has become cheaper thanks to automation."

Werner Catrina

Marco Hiestand, Key Account Manager, Cognita AG.

Longtime journalist Silvia Aeschbach blogs about health, beauty, nutrition and wellness. News, self-tests and trends are discussed - as well as the question of a good or sensible diet. 

The well-known lifestyle journalist can draw on a wealth of experience: Professionally, she has been dedicated to these topics for years. She has written for Annabelle, Meyer's and the Sonntagszeitung, among others. In addition to the blog "Von Kopf bis Fuss," Aeschbach is editor-in-chief of the German-language edition of the lifestyle supplement Encore.

Silvia Aeschbach is looking forward to her new task. Among other things, she wants to scratch the surface of beauty and wellness with her postings. "I'm all about people themselves: their wishes, ideas, needs and fears. That's why the psychological aspect of beauty also plays a role in my blog," says Aeschbach.

In the first post, Silvia Aeschbach explores the question of whether being slim makes you happy. The blog "From Head to Toe" appears every Sunday and Wednesday and later also on Fridays on all German-language Newsnet pages.     

Silvia Aeschbach

But Germany's top rabbit breeder took this decidedly too far. Erwin Leowsky, President of the Central Association of German Purebred Rabbit Breeders, was outraged that all rabbits should not be assumed to have increased sexual behavior. The sexual excesses only apply to animals living in the wild. Breeding rabbits, on the other hand, reproduce in an orderly fashion. Ha! Too bad Loriot doesn't realize that anymore. Sometimes life is like one of his sketches. But now, of course, the dispute also raises serious questions: If only free-living rabbits indulge in sexual debauchery, what about free-living Catholics? To put it another way: if farmed rabbits are in order ... well, you know, how do chaste Catholics do it? And what exactly is "heightened sexual behavior"? Does the Pope eat rabbits from time to time? Dear God, you have a sense of humor! And we don't even realize it. (afh)

The man on the other end of the line understands that the caller cannot speak openly in her home. During the short conversation, the camera pans through the destruction caused in the house and the framed picture of a woman torn from the wall. The clip - sponsored by the NLF and produced by the New York agency Grey - ends with the sentence "When it's hard to talk, it's up to us to listen." It captures an image of violence without showing it. (sis)
 

For some time now, Marketagent.com has been testing selected posters and ads once a month for *Werbewoche*. Now, we also want to have TV commercials analyzed by the opinion researchers on an alternating basis. The editorial team has selected five commercials that have been frequently shown on TV in recent weeks. The commercials were shown to 502 internet users from German-speaking Switzerland between the ages of 14 and 65. During the net interviews, questions were asked and statements were elicited such as «I like it,» «It stands out from other TV commercials,» «It’s credible,» «It fits my image of this advertiser,» and «It speaks to me personally.».

Migros' movies continue to be well-received

In the joint commercial by UBS and Switzerland Tourism featuring Sebi and Paul, it was noted that aided recall for UBS reached 54.9 percent, while Switzerland Tourism’s remained at 29 percent. However, the commercial featuring the ski lift was the most popular, with 17.2 percent. The ad for Migros scored highest in aided recall, with 81.6 percent for Sélection. 20.2 percent of respondents believe that this ad stands out from other TV commercials. Sélection also leads in the «entertaining» category with 19.7 percent. The ad fits well with the brand and «speaks personally» to the most people. Swisslos, on the other hand, is the easiest to understand, with 17.5 percent. Members of the Marketagent.com Online Access Panel—comprising approximately 628,000 people—were interviewed via computer-assisted web interviews (CAWI). The fieldwork period lasted 7 days. The online survey method ensures anonymity and objectivity and is consistent with the survey topic. (pan)

IP Suisse / Wapico

Awareness 10.9 %
Uniqueness 12.9 %
Brand Fit 9.3 %
Likeability 7.0 %

Swisslos / Erdmannpeisker

Awareness 12.2 %
Uniqueness 8.6 %
Brand Fit 11.3 %
Likeability 7.0 %

Migros Sélection / Advico Young & Rubicam

Awareness 15.9 %
Uniqueness 20.2 %
Brand Fit 15.4 %
Likeability 10.0 %

St. Moritz/Engadin / Scholz & Friends Zurich

Awareness 9.3 %
Uniqueness 8.6 %
Brand Fit 7.0 %
Likeability 6.8 %

Switzerland Tourism/UBS /Leo Burnett Switzerland

Awareness 17.2 %
Uniqueness 11.6 %
Brand Fit 11.8 %
Likeability 9.5 %

It is already safe to predict a very bright future for television on the Internet. Web TV has developed into a media form in its own right. Video blogs, for example, can be realized by imaginative authors with simple means, even without the backing of large publishing houses. The industry is booming in the USA and on our continent in Germany. In Switzerland, the company WebComTV in Winterthur is one of the most important pioneers. The company's own Sport Szene fernsehen (SSf) broadcasts "VLOG" twice a month. At first glance, this video blog could also be seen as a continuation of TV programs such as "Neu im Kino" in the world of YouTube. The magazine opens with a "best-of" of the YouTube films currently receiving the highest number of views on the global web. This is followed by contributions from independent Swiss video producers. "That's a bit true, but it's not the basic idea. We want to be more than just a collection point for gems from YouTube's gigantic offering," says Julian Kirchner. The Head of Production and Direction at WebComTV sees the blog he has launched primarily as a platform for Swiss YouTubers who want to get to grips with the new medium professionally. The initial idea was to compile videos from ambitious bloggers and freelance producers into a 24-minute program. This is broadcast every 14 days on Thursday evenings at 7.35pm and 8.35pm on the SSf TV channel or can of course also be watched online at www.vlogspot.ch at a different time. In just over a year, the idea has grown into its own community. There are now already 31 programs in the archive. VLOG is moderated by Adrian von Sparr, who also works as an editor and animation specialist at the magazine. The concept of the contributions is simple and efficient: every video blogger - or vlogger for short - is free to choose their own topics and can express themselves in their own personal narrative style. You can see short video portraits, interviews, sketches or funny pranks, but also experience reports, self-experiments with the camera, moving image collages or music videos. With the VLOG, WebComTV has also realized a format that Julian Kirchner himself was missing during his training as a film director. "When I started out, it wasn't easy to get a foot in the door in the film business. It was slammed in my face at the film academy. I had to find my own way. But it still worked out somehow."

"Generation Internship": what next?

After a "detour" at university to study German and art history and later media technology, Kirchner, as a member of the internship generation, "learned a lot but earned nothing" at companies such as RTL, NDR and various advertising film productions. Finally, a job for "Bauer, ledig, sucht ..." brought him to Switzerland via 3+. These contacts ultimately led him to Web-ComTV, where he is now a member of the management team. But even in this position, Kirchner has not forgotten that a newcomer to the film business first needs a chance to put his skills in front of an audience. And this is precisely why he founded his VLOG. Julian Kirchner has identified a lot of untapped talent in Switzerland, particularly in the field of music. "Music videos with a very high standard are created here with the simplest of means." Some of the vloggers have already been able to recommend themselves for jobs in the advertising film sector with their work. On the other hand, the "VLOG" program also offers commercial filmmakers an opportunity to test their productions directly with a broad audience. Exact figures are no longer measured at SSf. However, Managing Director Jean-Claude Bruhin can confirm: "The customers of our sales programs integrated into the daily schedule would have bailed long ago if we had too few viewers. "

The boom years have only just begun

"The YouTube community is growing enormously and people are realizing what potential it has," says Bruhin. Prosumers are discovering the platform so that they can upload their own films. The new medium is also being used more and more by advertisers on a professional level. In the field of marketing, YouTube films - also in combination with social media - have become a buzzword. Among the web TV channels in Germany, which were already estimated to number at least 1,500 in 2012, there is a rapidly growing number of bloggers covering every conceivable topic from fashion and food to satire and animals. Worldwide, there are around 45,000 channels that stream video blogs with advertising for cosmetic products alone. With a good 750,000 subscribers, Sami Slimani, for example, is one of the most successful beauty bloggers in Germany, whose recommendations and reviews carry a lot of weight with customers. In Switzerland, the vlogger scene is still manageable. In addition to WebComTV, they find their audience via their own blogs or on video platforms such as Vimeo.

Versatile conglomerate

WebComTV has been around since 2009 and is one of three companies under the umbrella of "Die Marketing-Manufaktur AG" - DMMAG in Winterthur, which was founded by Tom Mörker. Among various clients, WebComTV has also managed content for Swiss Sports Television (SSF). When this broadcaster had to go through "a few painful experiences", it merged with its service provider in 2013. SSf program director Jean-Claude Bruhin was originally employed to market all activities of the three companies eins1, Fair Meetings andWebComTV under the umbrella of DMMAG. Since the takeover of SSF, he has now been responsible as Managing Director of WebComTV for two years. The competence center for digital media employs fifteen people, three of them in video and film production, four in web and IT, three still work mainly for the broadcaster SSf and the rest are employed in the back office. Jean-Claude Bruhin sees a quality in the composition of a crew in the fact that all specialists in the marketing agency conglomerate "can be deployed across teams for all tasks and customers". In addition to the video blog VLOG, WebComTV's portfolio also includes the satire program "Bild mit Ton" by Lara Stoll. Two years ago, the actress and author was asked by Marketing-Manufaktur whether she would "like to do such a show". Since then, Lara Stoll has "carteblanche" and has just presented the second season of her quirky satirical show to much positive media coverage. This can be seen on SSf as well as on the Internet. Jean-Claude Bruhin sees "growing demand and a lot of creative potential" in the "webazine" genre. The name is WebComTV's own creation. In the field of corporate publishing, the format can be described as a "digital customer magazine with moving images". Current examples are a webazine for the ZAG (Center for Education in Healthcare Canton Zurich) or Nano Frazor for Swiss Litho AG.

On the subject of SSf in WebComTV's portfolio, Jean-Claude Bruhin says: "We operate a private channel that covers its costs. Of course we are proud of that. But the project calls for expansion. That's why we are looking for partners. But we have no need." Bruhin can announce the broadcast of the "Superbowl" on February 2 as an upcoming highlight. SSf has bought the rights to the American TV hit from SRG. "However, we don't get any of the advertising revenue from the legendary spots around the final game," jokes the managing director of WebComTV.

Andreas Panzeri

Three under one roof
The three companies eins1, Fair Meetings and WebComTV are organized under the umbrella of Marketing-Manufaktur. The success story began twelve years ago with the marketing agency eins1, founded by Tom Mörker. The "somewhat different" advertising agency works according to the claim of being able to "cover 360° marketing". This start-up later evolved into the event and trade fair organizer Fair Meetings. The company develops ideas and projects in the event and trade fair sector. For example, the "tun" project in Basel, Bern, Zurich and St. Gallen. In this "trade fair within a trade fair", children and young people can be introduced to job profiles in a playful way. Another prestigious event from the Fair Meetings portfolio is the multicultural festival "Afro-Pfingsten", which attracts over 70,000 visitors to Winterthur every year. Founded in 1990, the world music festival is being organized by Fair Meetings for the third time in 2015. Using the same infrastructure, the "Legends on Stage" festival will be added a week later. This will bring stars such as Barclay James Harvest, Boney M. and The Supremes to Winterthur in May 2015 with "Music for a large audience". The third initiative under the umbrella of Marketing-Manufaktur has been WebComTV since 2011. This online production company creates websites, designs and produces commissioned films for a wide range of industrial clients, designs branded entertainment content and produces content for the "Webazine" format: accessible, digital (customer) magazines. WebComTV originally produced content for Swiss sports television. Following the takeover in 2012, the channel was merged with WebComTV and now continues to operate as SSf "Sport Szene fernsehen". The managing director of WebComTV is Jean-Claude Bruhin.

The station's archive already contains31 "VLOG" magazines. These can be accessed via www.vlogspot.ch. The topics of the programs range from music videos and artist portraits to fashion, lifestyle and events. The films are produced by a permanent team of YouTubers. They work completely independently. The editorial team is open to further talent. However, the offerings already exceed the magazine's broadcasting times, which naturally raises the quality of the selection.

The annual profit of 2.94 billion dollars is based on a 58% increase in turnover. And the figures for the final quarter are also impressive: A 49 percent increase in turnover, a 13 percent increase in user numbers and a 53 percent increase in advertising revenue.

Nevertheless, the share price fell by almost three percent after the presentation of the balance sheet. Since the end of October, the drop has amounted to almost eight percent. According to analysts, expectations are huge and expenditure has recently increased more than expected.

High costs

In fact, costs are now rising faster than turnover. They increased by 87 percent in the past quarter. Expenditure on research and development alone reached more than one billion dollars.

As a result of hiring and acquisitions, Facebook employed around 9,200 people at the end of 2014, 45 percent more than in the previous year. At the same time, revenue only increased by 49 percent in the fourth quarter. This is the weakest growth since the beginning of 2013.

However, there are fears on the stock market that cost growth could soon come at the expense of profits. Investors at Amazon have also been skeptical for some time as to whether the online retailer is investing too much money too quickly in new business areas.

Facebook must find ways to make acquired companies such as 3D glasses specialist Oculus VR or Whatsapp profitable. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg compared the expensively purchased chat application with Facebook in 2007, when the online network was still largely ad-free.

Nevertheless, Zuckerberg wants to continue investing in order to hold his own against the competition. Investments this year are likely to total between 2.7 and 3.2 billion dollars, the world's largest Facebook announced on Wednesday evening. In 2014, it was only 1.83 billion dollars.

Stagnation among frequent users

Analysts see the number of frequent users as another fly in the ointment. These daily active users are particularly valuable to Facebook due to their high level of engagement. However, their number remained constant over the entire final quarter. This is the first time since the IPO two years ago that no increase has been recorded here.

However, the potential for advertising revenue, particularly from the mobile sector, remains high. In the last quarter, ads on mobile devices such as smartphones already accounted for 69 percent of total advertising revenue. Analysts expect that revenue from video advertising could give Facebook its next business boost. They have been bookable by customers since last year. CFO Dave Wehner said that there is great interest from marketers Facebook wants to invest heavily in research and development in order to maintain its market position. The group must find solutions to make subsidiaries such as 3D glasses specialist Oculus VR or Whatsapp profitable. (SDA)

Facebook earned 2.94 billion dollars in 2014 as a whole. Revenue increased by 58 percent to 12.47 billion dollars compared to the previous year. 

Dissertations are dull because they almost always lack practical relevance or socio-political explosiveness. An exception to this rule is the doctoral thesis "Wipe out WEF - or not?", which a certain Franz Egle wrote in 2009 under the Zurich journalism professor Kurt Imhof (of all people!). In it, the ex-head of communications of the Swiss Foreign Ministry and long-time top advisor to WEF founder Klaus Schwab describes with scientific precision how he took his client and his Davos do-gooder association out of the line of fire at the height of the anti-globalization protests: "by opening the Davos annual meeting to media representatives." Until the WEF in New York in 2002, only a few hand-picked editors-in-chief from the Anglo-Saxon world business press had access. The fact that today Krethi and Plethi can report from the Davos Congress Center is therefore thanks to the communications strategy skills of the nimble Franz.

Those who are allowed to join this global six-star elite naturally ask fewer fundamental and uncomfortable questions than the people in the media, who do not "cultivate the exchange of ideas on economic policy" (Zeit editor Josef Joffe), but have to fill three hard days with special broadcasts and special pages. But even among the panelists, the lulling effect cleverly anticipated by Egle, which constitutes the actual "Spirit of Davos," has long since spread. In and around the congress center, the density of celebrities and cameras is so enormous that the meaningful short messages of the dutifully polled top shots neutralize each other. Journalistic curiosity looks different. Almost only the reporters without badges, such as Deirde ("just call me D") from CNBC, offer entertaining dissidence and original perspectives on banal events.

At her first WEF, she was determined to portray the last protesters and followed me and my Public Eye colleagues with her iPhone camera to collect "as authentic footage as possible. At the same time, she was sneering at the "amortization of our personnel and material costs" through as much non-controversial broadcasting time as possible, as her narrow-minded bosses had urged. Anyone observing the strong presence and weak programming of Swiss radio and television at the WEF is reminded of this motto. Instead of the ordinary media center, the 15- to 20-member SRF crew sits on the roof of the convention center, where CNN, BBC or CNBC also have their tent studios. Up here, Eco presenter Reto Lipp interviews business and political leaders live on the conveyor belt for the special WEF format - as cordially as harmlessly. 33 hours of cultivated chitchat that does no harm to anyone, but certainly benefits someone: Klaus Schwab's chatterbox, which has recently been granted special status by the Swiss government, thus receives the additional seal of relevance from the Swiss state media.

Disclaimer: The Public Eye was a prominent part of this year's SRF coverage from Davos. Ironically, this was also thanks to Klaus Schwab's request to his harshest critics to participate in the WEF's publicly accessible "Open Forum" in the future after all. However, the postscript to the generous offer was revealing: "...although of course it will not tolerate more critical questions there". Paradoxical, but true: Since the opening of the WEF, this restriction also applies to the journalism that takes place in and about it.

Oliver Classen is media spokesman for the Berne Declaration, a development policy organization, and Public Eye spokesman. Previously, he worked as a media journalist.