Facebook is in no rush to generate revenue from the platform, he said. One consideration for the future is to give companies a channel to communicate with customers via Messenger and let them pay for it, Marcus said. On the other hand, Marcus dampened speculation about integrating payment features into Messenger: "We're not interested in building a payment business right now."

The 41-year-old ran the Paypal payment service in the Ebay Group until switching to Facebook last year. Marcus reiterated that the short message service Whatsapp, which also belongs to Facebook, operates largely independently. WhatsApp kept the company headquarters outside of the Facebook premises, there would be as announced no data merger, they only exchanged regularly about the strategy. "Besides, it is agreed that some new features we are testing could be integrated into Whatsapp over time," Marcus said. That will also be the case with money-making ideas, he added. "We have no plans to merge the two services."

The takeover of Whatsapp by Facebook for just under $23 billion had triggered concerns among many users that their data would be linked to the online network's holdings. Facebook and Whatsapp assured that this was not planned. "Right now, it's not about data," Marcus said. Currently, he said, both services have a goal of cracking the one billion user mark. (SDA)

The goal is to produce up to twelve films a year, said Roy Price, vice president of Amazon Studios. Production is under the artistic direction of American film producer Ted Hope, who has already won numerous awards for his independent films. In the case of its own productions, Amazon also wants to shorten the waiting time between theatrical debut and availability for TV, for example. The films are to be shown in Amazon's in-house video streaming service just four to eight weeks after their premiere in the movie theater.

Amazon already makes its own TV shows; a few days ago, the series "Transparent" won a Golden Globe. Amazon recently scored a coup by signing Woody Allen. The actor and film director will produce a TV series for Amazon's Prime service. However, neither the title nor the content have been confirmed yet.

Restricted budget

Amazon is not the only Internet company to penetrate Hollywood's traditional territory. The streaming service Netflix is also focusing on in-house productions and, among other things, is shooting four films with Adam Sandler and a sequel to the martial arts flick "Tiger & Dragon. This film is to be released in theaters and on Netflix at the same time. That's why some American movie theaters didn't want to show it. Both companies had already won in the TV series category at the Golden Globes. The budget for Amazon's new film productions should be between five and 25 million US dollars, reported the industry journal Variety. With this framework, Hollywood does not need to worry about new competition for expensive action blockbusters. However, any newcomer to the business means increased competition for movie theaters. (SDA)

Thierry Furrer will now be in charge of the entire advertising market, but will retain his function as the person responsible for national customers. Karim Mahjoub will continue to manage the reader market. The new organization of the reader and advertising market at Tamedia Publications romandes will take effect on April 1, 2015. Until then, Jean-Paul Schwindt, currently Head of Sales & Marketing, will oversee the implementation of the new organization.

Tamedia Publications romandes is aiming for significant growth in 2015, especially in digital offerings. The top priority is the digital offering for newspaper subscribers and new digital advertising formats for regional advertising customers. A first step in this direction is the launch of a paid digital offer and a new appearance of the websites and apps of the daily newspapers 24 heures and Tribune de Genève on January 22, 2015.

Effective immediately, the staging and realization of events will complement the existing offering of Goldbach Interactive, the Swiss full-service agency with digital DNA. With the latest expansion step, the agency offers a unique service in Switzerland across all areas of modern marketing communication, according to a statement.

For Frank Lang, Managing Director at Goldbach Interactive, this is a logical decision: "Brands want to be experienced - on all relevant channels. In this respect, event communication is the final piece of the puzzle that completes our range of services. We want to realize events that convey brand messages in an emotional live atmosphere, inspire the audience and thus remain in their memories." From conception to content production and scheduling to materials management, the new Bern unit offers a professional service that encompasses all facets of modern event and live communication. Thomas Schrämli, Director Campaigns at Goldbach Interactive, comments: "I'm glad that with Flavio Baggenstos and Michel de Maddalena we were able to win over two very experienced and well-connected event professionals to head the new business unit in Bern."

The existing locations and services - Zurich Wollishofen for comprehensive marketing and communications solutions, Biel for digital presences and web platforms - will remain unchanged.
 

Because, according to the press release, it is not just the network quality that speaks for itself, but every single offer from Sunrise, TBWA\Zürich developed a testimonial campaign with Roger Federer for Sunrise, which does not let him speak for himself, but the offers themselves. And thus Roger Federer has more time for other things. The new campaign will show exactly what he can do. The current Connect campaign marks the start of the Sunrise annual campaign. In addition to TV, posters, print and the microsite Sunrise.ch/RF other online, POS and CRM advertising media are also used.

Responsible at Sunrise: Timm Degenhardt (Chief Marketing Officer), Fabrice Allegro (Executive Director Marketing), Tobias Händler (Head of Marketing Communications), Minh Dang Nguyen (Senior Brand Manager), Anna Leutar, Barbara Hasenböhler, Linda, Forster, Uri Barasch, Sandra Seydel (Marcom), Dominik Krattiger, Andreas Jaeggi, Nora Angstmann, (Creative). Responsible at TBWA\Zurich: Matthias Kiess (CEO), Simon Rehsche (Strategy), Cyrill Wirz, Bruce Roberts, Tizian Walti, Bettina Klossner, Mischa Müller, Silke Erschbaumer, Wanda Michel, Stefanie Wolf (Creation), Petra Zehnder, Sharon Nehrenheim, Stefanie Rübenacker (Consulting). Film production: Chocolate Films: Marcel Langenegger (Director), Michela Trümpi (Producer), Danny Hiele (DOP). Photography: Tobias Stahel (photographer), Lorenz Wahl (image editing).

In 2014, CHF 4.89 billion was spent on advertising in the media - not including the considerable discounts granted in some cases for campaigns. Of the various sectors of the economy, the food industry clearly invested the most in advertising its products, with 508.3 million Swiss francs. This resulted in an increase of 1.6 percent for the sector. At CHF 457.7 million, 0.4 percent more was spent on vehicle advertising than in the previous year. Originators invested 354.8 million Swiss francs in initiatives and campaigns. Political campaigns accounted for CHF 67.4 million of this total. At 23.6 percent, the increase here was extremely significant - the intensive referendum campaign on the SVP immigration initiative at the beginning of the year is a sign of things to come. Retailers, the fourth most important source of advertising revenue, spent 351.5 million Swiss francs on advertising, generating growth of 5.7 percent.

Less advertising francs for shampoos

Cosmetics and personal care cut advertising spending by 6 percent to 331.2 million Swiss francs. The trend here was very mixed: 18.5 percent more advertising dollars were spent on hygiene products and 40 percent more on sun creams and the like. On the other hand, manufacturers of hair and body care products, fragrances and hairstyling products were stingy. Why brands such as Pantene, Head & Shoulders. Schwarzkopf, Syoss, Davidoff and Vichy made themselves scarce, eluded the knowledge of the advertising experts. On the other hand, brands such as Lancôme, Labello, Calvin Klein and Gliss Kur intensified their advertising activities.

The financial industry as a whole ran advertising for 303.1 million Swiss francs, an increase of 5.5 percent in times of dwindling reputation. Insurance companies were the main driving force behind the industry's advertising growth, with an increase of 25.5 percent. Of all the sectors or products, advertising for tobacco products suffered the biggest decline in 2014, down 27.3 percent. However, the volume here was also rather modest at CHF 15.5 million. At 16.2 percent, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry recorded the greatest growth. It invested 165.3 million Swiss francs in advertising.

Little movement in the advertising market

The experts at Media Focus see the advertising market in Switzerland as stable, despite varying conditions for the various sectors. The number of advertisers remained constant year on year at 20,000. At 2700, new entries remained at the previous year's level. Around 3000 new products were advertised. In December alone, advertising expenditure in Switzerland shrank by 0.4 percent compared with the same month last year. According to the data, 431.1 million Swiss francs were spent on boosting the Christmas business. (SDA/pd)

More than 100 representatives from the world of marketing and sponsorship will gather at the Olympic Museum for the third awards ceremony on January 29. Following the success of the first awards at the Rolex Forum at EPFL and the Fifa Club Sonnenberg in Zurich, the third edition will again include the ceremony as well as a roundtable discussion and presentations by top experts.

The nominated companies for the best sponsorship campaigns of 2014 are : Swiss Life, Ragusa, Swisscom, H&M, Zweifel Chips, Coop, Nestlé and Migros.

The companies were nominated by a jury, which made the nominations independently. The jury for the third edition includes: Daniel Rossellat (Paléo Festival), Pierre Brunschwig (Bongenie-Grieder), Simon Hofmann (Swisscom), Mette Stannow (IBM), Thomas Junod (Uefa), Sébastien Tondeur (MCI-Group), Patrick Cotting (CCI Cotting) and Sebastian Chiappero (Cercle Suisse de Sponsoring).

During the afternoon program, speakers from Orange, Feldschlösschen, IWC Schaffhausen, Tour de Romandie, Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, Nissan, Raiffeisen, Ville de Lausanne, etc. will discuss topics related to customer loyalty through sponsorship. Topics around customer loyalty by means of sponsoring, the effectiveness measurement of sponsorships and the challenges of sponsorships on an international level will be discussed. As usual, the event will be concluded with a cocktail.

The "Swiss Sponsorship Awards" aim to recognize those sponsorships in the fields of sports, culture and social affairs that have stood out for their originality. They were launched in 2012 by the " Cercle Suisse de Sponsoring " with the aim of increasing the professionalism of sponsorships in Switzerland and motivating companies to use this increasingly important corporate communication and marketing tool. The figures prove it : more than 700 million Swiss francs are now spent annually on sponsorships in Switzerland.
 

In his professional career, the former Swiss squash champion was responsible for the UBS Kids Cup on the agency side and worked as a project manager at the Fifa World Cup and the Uefa Euro. His experience in the profession and his mentality as a top athlete qualify him for the new task, according to the statement.

The Swiss "activation agency" intensifies market presence for well-known brands and ensures that contacts turn into leads, leads into customers and customers into loyal customers. The combination of digital and traditional customer activation is unique in Switzerland in this holistic approach, writes the agency. Adcom employs more than 60 people at five Swiss locations and in Shanghai and has annual revenues of $20 million. Adcom comprises the three areas of promotion, event and digital. Its clients include major Swiss companies, associations and marketers.
 

Today, anyone looking for current, interesting information that is relevant to their own advancement is usually no longer satisfied with using just one news source. There are therefore various overviews of current news, such as Google News or other aggregators, and in some cases social media such as Twitter and Facebook also fulfill this function. However, a lot of time is often lost in the search for really good articles, or "information overload" occurs.

The new app Niuws from the Swiss start-up Newscron for iPhone and Android, aims to solve this problem: It aggregates news sorted by topic and relies on hand curation by experts. Industry specialists scan the most important news, analyses and discussion contributions, with a patented algorithm internally suggesting suitable articles to them. What the curators then deem important, they recommend in a regularly updated stream. Users of the Niuws app can subscribe to topics of interest to them and read the articles selected and commented on by the curators directly in the app. Niuws thus brings hundreds of news media, online magazines and blogs to professionals from German-speaking countries who want a simple daily overview of topics and trends that are important to them.

For today's debut, Niuws offers 15 different sections, called "boxes," from "Digital Strategy" to "FinTech" to "Business Gadgets," that users can "follow" with one click. There are plans to increase this number significantly in the coming days and weeks. Says Peter Hogenkamp, CEO and Chairman of Newscron: "Throughout my life, I've always felt that other people know better than I do about most things. With Niuws, I can sort of look over their shoulder where they get that knowledge."

Elia Palme, founder and CTO of Newscron: "I have been working on making news more easily accessible for more than five years as part of my dissertation and now in my start-up. With the new Niuws app, we have now achieved a breakthrough."

Martin Weigert, Head of Curation and curator of the box on "net economy", most recently senior editor at the tech blog Netzwertig.com, adds: "I have been curating news on a daily basis for years in my work as a blogger and I am convinced that curation will be one of the big trends of 2015. For me, Niuws is the logical evolution of what I've been doing at netzwertig.com."

The monetization of Niuws takes place via private boxes for corporate customers. Initial exploratory talks for a pilot project have been successful, according to the statement. Niuws can now be downloaded free of charge from the website niu.ws in the iOS App Store (direct link) and the Google Play Store (direct link).

The list of theme-specific "boxes" with their curators at launch:

Fintech, André M. Bajorat, blogger and internet entrepreneur

Customer Experience, Vera Brannen, Managing Director Usable Brands AG

Personal Branding, Marcus Fischer, Recruiting/Employer Branding Baloise Group

Entrepreneurship, Kathleen Fritzsche, Co-Founder Accelerate Stuttgart

Business in Zurich, Peter Hogenkamp, CEO Newscron

Work of the Future, Barbara Josef, Head of Communications and Community Engagement Microsoft Switzerland

Digital Strategy, Stefan Leuthold, CEO Stimmt AG

Aviation, Roger Lüchinger, mobile expert, hobby pilot, Newscron contributor

Media Change, Nick Lüthi, Journalist, Editor Medienwoche

Digital Law, Martin Steiger, Attorney at Law, Steiger Legal

Search Marketing, Lukas Stuber, Partner yourposition ag

Business Gadgets, Jan Tissler, Journalist, Publisher UPLOAD Magazine

Smart Marketing, Andreas Von Gunten, Managing Director buch & netz, Chairman of the Board PARX

Network Economy, Martin Weigert, Blogger, Head of Curation Newscron
 

In addition to the two owners and Managing Partners Barbara Trachsel, CEO, and Chris Morgan, Executive Creative Director, four new members have joined the team: Marge Fellerer, Tom Wyss, Aysun Sentürk and Daniela Zehr. The creative team has also been strengthened with Andreas Szenkuti and Kerstin Berk.

In the land of inspiration, ideas have the power to move people and take brands forward. In order to increase its market presence in the future and better meet the needs of its customers, Republica is expanding its management team by four people:

Aysun Sentürk, Senior Consultant, is a marketing communications planner and began her professional career as a junior consultant at Republica. She gained further professional experience as a consultant at Maxomedia and as an online consultant at Goldbach Interactive in Biel and Zurich. Aysun Sentürk has been back at Republica as a senior consultant since 2012 and is responsible for brand advertising.

Daniela Zehr, Senior Consultant at Republica since July 2013, gained professional experience in the field of Corporate Sales and as a Diplomatic Sales Manager at BMW (Switzerland) both during and after completing her studies in Media and Communication Sciences. She also has experience as Head of PR at Bern Tourism and as Head of Press, Events and Sponsoring at Peugeot (Suisse). Daniela Zehr is now responsible for brand management.

Tom Wyss, Digital Concepter, joined Republica in December 2014 and is the new head of the consulting group. During his time at Publicitas, he successfully completed his training as a marketing planner with a federal certificate. He later also obtained a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Social Media Management. Tom Wyss gained further professional experience as a consultant at Maxomedia and as a senior consultant at Goldbach Interactive Switzer-land. Most recently, he took a deliberate detour into the strategic, creative field at Publicis Communications Switzerland.

Marge FellererAfter studying communication design in Berlin, she gained professional experience and inspiration as a designer at Die Gestalten Berlin, as an art director at Bread&Butter Berlin and as a project manager and art director at Kong GmbH. Mar-ge Fellerer has been with Republica since 2013 and is the new Head of Creation.

In addition to Mike Krüll, Creative Director with Andreas SzenkutiSenior copywriter/concept developer, and Kerstin Berkart director. The well-coordinated team has received numerous awards. "We are convinced that with the new management team and our team of around 30 people, we are ideally positioned for the future and look forward to continuing to inspire our customers with original ideas and convincing concepts in 2015," says Barbara Trachsel, CEO, about the change.
 

Anita Kummer started her KSP career in 2006 as a junior art director and over the years has made a name for herself mainly with the clients Coop City, Coop Naturaline, Coop verde, Hirslanden, Bucherer, Formula Fiorina, Helsana, UBS, Lindt and Swisscom. In addition to classic campaigns, she mainly developed work in the design and editorial area and thus made a significant contribution to KSP's high output in this area.