Finding someone who wants to report on their everyday life as an online commentator was not so easy. Despite an unmistakable need to communicate, most of them prefer to hide in the anonymous depths of the web. Dozens left the interview request unanswered, but a handful finally agreed to answer questions. The conversations with them reveal the human diversity behind the digital battle noise.

The marked man

If you skim through the comments on Tagesanzeiger.ch, you could be forgiven for thinking that there is widespread dissatisfaction among the Swiss population. Armin Arnold is one of these online commentators who rail against everything in turn. It can happen that in one post he denounces the health insurance companies' rip-offs and in the next he blames the lifestyle of the insured for the fact that premiums are constantly rising. However, there is surprisingly little of the expected negative attitude in conversation with the jovial Bernese. "I can't go on forever. I criticize because I limit myself to the essentials," he justifies himself.

Arnold's answer to the question about his motivation comes like a shot from a pistol. He wants to stand up for social justice: for the unemployed, the sick, the elderly and everyone else he sees as disadvantaged by the system. He can empathize because things have not always gone "like clockwork" for him. He is obviously personally affected by many of the topics he writes about. As a child, he suffered a brain haemorrhage due to a lack of oxygen. After working for 33 years, he lost his job and was unemployed for a long time. In 2000, he suffered a serious skiing accident and has been disabled ever since. He tells of a years-long battle until he received a pension from Suva. Today, Arnold works part-time for the Federal Administration in logistics and doesn't feel challenged in his day-to-day work. However, he vehemently refuses to allow himself to be reduced to his personal fate. There is also no reference to his life story in his posts. He prefers to speak of a "helper's instinct". With his general, politically formulated comments, he turns his personal fate into a fight for a fairer society.

Arnold describes himself as "stubborn but hearty". You could probably argue with him at length. But if you leave it alone, he is a charming conversationalist. His commitment is not limited to digital ranting either. After his skiing accident, he sold chocolate hearts for the disabled self-help organization Procap and was "the best salesman in Switzerland", Arnold tells us several times - and we believe him. The online commentator is also a dedicated letter writer. His letters fill several folders. Arnold is convinced of the effect on the opinion-forming process. However, this does not seem to be his main focus. What is more important to him is his personal commitment, the fact that he can express himself and stand up for others. He devotes about half an hour a day to this activity. Arnold doesn't think long about his posts and letters to the editor - he writes when he is moved.

The politician

Occasionally you come across the names of politicians in the Newsnet forums who are also involved in the discussion. Several respond to the interview request from Werbewoche. Ruedi Lais, Zurich SP cantonal councillor, is one of them. Politicians are even more common in the forums than you might think, he says. Some write under a pseudonym. He recognizes them, for example, by the fact that they post information from cantonal council debates in the forum. However, the political instrumentalization of comment columns has not really taken hold in Switzerland, Lais waves it off.

He has been commenting in the forum "ever since the opportunity arose". The cantonal councillor invests around an hour a week in these digital discussions with citizens and is present on the Blick, NZZ and Tages-Anzeiger news portals. He is not pursuing a specific strategy; the comments are purely reactive. As a politician, however, he consciously tries to be visible to the public. His main concern is to provide facts. He writes most of his posts spontaneously on articles relating to his main political topics, about which he already has in-depth knowledge. Lais speaks of a "nasty environment". It is extremely rare for a dialog to take place on the basis of solid facts. "My stance is a minority position in the forum. Many views are far-right in my eyes." Nevertheless, he is in favor of such outlets for angry citizens. "It's better than them setting fire to an asylum seekers' home," says Lais pragmatically. Last but not least, it allows him to get to know the political arguments of the opposing party and how they work.

His verdict is equally harsh when it comes to the quality of the media. There is no longer a well-founded political daily press in Switzerland, he says, because journalists don't have the time for it. He often finds that journalists later accept corrections from online commentators for their poorly researched articles. "What I do in the forum would actually be the job of journalists." Lais has not subscribed to the Tages-Anzeiger for some time. "When I retire from politics at some point, I will also say goodbye to the forum. My lifetime is too precious for that," Lais explains.

The learner

Lucerne-based jewelry designer Reinhard Gremli is not interested in the politics of the day. He seeks a professional exchange far removed from political polemics. He operates under the name Rabbi Jussuf on Hugo Stamm's sect blog, but "doesn't actually believe in anything". Nevertheless, he has been fascinated by religion as a human and social phenomenon since his youth - without ever having the opportunity to pursue this passion professionally or as part of a course of study. The 55-year-old works independently in his jewelry studio and often writes "at the expense of work". As a sporadic reader of the Hugo Stamm blog, he once stumbled across a comment that was so incredibly stupid that he had to respond to it. The spontaneous attempt to correct it with well-founded arguments turned into an ongoing hobby. "I invest quite a lot of time in my articles. That's because new questions always arise for me when I'm writing and I pursue them. That's the exciting thing about it. I also not only learn new things in terms of content, but also how to write and argue."

In the forum of the Hugo Stamm blog, sparks can sometimes fly - or something like relationships can develop over the years. The non-believing rabbi talks about other participants as if they were old acquaintances. "I only feel like discussing things if I can get an idea of the person based on what they've written." One of his most loyal discussion partners is Khadijah Raaber from Riyadh. The devout Muslim with the pseudonym um musad grew up in a Christian Swiss family and emigrated to Saudi Arabia over 20 years ago "because of a great love and a portion of curiosity", as she writes in an email. She is a trained papeterist, but now works as a housewife and mother. She also finds intellectual stimulation in the forum. She enjoys exchanging ideas with Rabbi Jussuf because he judges "from a more or less neutral point of view". The search for answers often keeps her busy all day long - when she's in the car, doing housework or often in the shower, ideas suddenly come to her. At longer intervals, someone from the forum organizes a meeting. Unfortunately, he has never met musad - but he has already met many of the community members in person, says Gremli. Sometimes he was surprised at how pleasant these people were. "You mainly get to know the so-called inner values in the forum. Because non-verbal communication is switched off, you hardly notice feelings and reduce the other person to the content. This makes you tougher and more stubborn - but also clearer in your thoughts."

Simone Isliker
 

If you couldn't watch the game on TV, for example if you were driving, you almost certainly had a radio station within earshot that told you what was going on - not as dramatically and vividly as Jean-Pierre Gerwig on Radio Beromünster in his day, but still. So who should really use the chopped-up online match reports? The very fanatical fans, perhaps, to immediately post their comments on Twitter and Whats App? That won't be enough for advertisers in the long run.

For me, live streaming means lots of trees, but not enough forest. The medium, not the demand, has created this form of delivery. Push, not pull! The speed and practically free changeability of the Internet every minute are technical possibilities that are exploited, whether they are really useful or not. It's like always at the beginning of new achievements: What is possible is done once. Later, reality, which is usually dictated by economics, mercilessly sorts out the tempting options. The economy of attention, which is based on the fact that each person only has 24 × 60 minutes a day, is probably the deciding factor here. Media use is still at the top of the list when it comes to the third of time that the average person spends on relaxation and entertainment - in addition to sleep and work. But the time slots reserved for media are no longer getting any bigger. Everyone is challenged to create stronger stimuli, to get to the point more precisely and to create more and more benefits in the same unit of time.
 
At the other end of the news perception spectrum, at the greatest possible distance from the live stream, is the demand for a summary, in-depth information and background - and not just among older people, as I suspect. Assuming I don't have the nerves and time to follow the developments in Gaza and Ukraine all day, I would at least like to receive the day's update in the evening. What is needed is the opposite of the live ticker: the digest, the condensation.
 
For other, less dramatic chains of events and developments - such as the wrangling over highway tolls in Germany - even an old news junkie like me is satisfied with the weekly update (which I've been getting from Der Spiegel almost as long as I've been able to read.) When I try to classify complex ongoing issues such as Switzerland's relationship with the EU, I appreciate the sometimes clever and sometimes annoying counter-positions of Weltwoche, tired of the boring consonance in the Tagi, NZZ and SRG media. And why have titles such as Bilanz or Beobachter been around for years, which are as topical as the "Limping Messenger" and yet maintain their positions with their background reports and analyses? In addition to news and in-depth information, the third key dimension of media consumption is entertainment, the joy of the unexpected. I notice this in myself every time I am in Berlin and "read" the NZZ and Tagi on the screen early in the morning, which, to my own amazement, takes me less than 20 minutes each. But how often have I picked up the Tagesspiegel at the newsstand (hoping for a Martenstein) and the Süddeutsche (because of the Streiflicht and page 3) and the Taz anyway, because it has the most intelligent and subtle titles. Every time I spend money in the hope of something surprising.
 
Media consumption used to be a menu. You ate whatever was on the table: the NZZ or the Freiburger Nachrichten or whatever, and you ate your way from the front to the back. Today, media consumption means a buffet for guests who have already had their fill online and in the electronic media.
 
Those who know how to fill their buffet with irresistible appetizers and decorate them attractively, or who offer the most beautiful desserts far and wide, will not have to look for their audience in the future. The only problem is that buffet guests have become quicker and moodier, more "snappy", impatient and less loyal than ever.
 
Karl Lüönd is a freelance publicist and book author.

Quality "statist" journalism is under pressure - not only from diminishing editorial resources, but also from a new kind of public sphere proliferating in comment columns and social media. An overwhelming majority of the Delphinarium expert panel believes that these new forms of communication are at least partially taking over the democratic functions of traditional journalism. However, the more the web is flooded with propaganda, disinformation, unverified news and ignorant expressions of opinion, the more irreplaceable quality journalism becomes. But this is in bad shape: In recent years, around half of the experts have noticed a decline in the quality of the Swiss media in terms of their democratic-political function, and two-thirds believe that there is a quality problem that will become even worse in the future.

Without media funding, important democratic functions are at risk

Only a small minority of experts believe that the Swiss media system can perform its democratic policy functions without state media funding. The vast majority, however, is of the opinion that without state media funding, important democratic policy functions would be jeopardized. What form this might take, however, is disputed. Both the current press subsidies and the subsidies for radio and television in Switzerland are viewed controversially.

In principle, subsidizing the press by reducing postal rates is considered reasonable by most. However, the system should be more selective. A strong minority, however, is in favor of abolishing the system, since the watering-can principle does not allow for targeted subsidies. In the area of radio and television, the principle that fee money is linked to a performance mandate meets with lively approval. A clear majority thinks it is right that the beneficiaries must fulfill certain programming tasks.

Under the term Delphinarium, Publicom, which specializes in media research and consulting, publishes the results of a survey of experts twice a year. The panel includes forty experts from leading media companies as well as representatives from advertising, media journalism, communications science and corporate communications.

Detailed report under Publicom.ch or Dolphinarium.ch.
 

Because their competitors are doing it, companies place display advertising, AdWords or Facebook ads. However, they often do so without clear objectives and meaningful test systems. The first step to a successful campaign is to define the metrics for assessing success. For example, if you are planning a performance campaign that is intended to generate additional sales, you need to make considerations such as these: What was the turnover of a comparable period? What additional sales must the campaign achieve in order to at least cover the campaign costs? How high should the CTR (click-through rate) be so that enough visitors click on your offer? What conversion rate (visitors vs. buyers) must be achieved in order to reach the sales target? What is the average order value? How much can an order cost? A plausibility check with good common sense and gut feeling quickly shows whether the targets are realistic. If there are no empirical values, a test system is essential to verify the assumptions. The goals of search engine optimization can be derived from Google Analytics. Here is an example: If the majority of visitors reach the website via the company or brand name via the search engines, the visibility under the "non-branded long tail keywords" should be increased. These have no connection to the brand name and are related to the application. Corresponding keywords can be evaluated and a few months after the search engine optimization it is clear whether the campaign is effective and attracts the right visitors.

An AdWords campaign is only efficient if it is based on clear conversion goals. A click on an ad is one thing. What happens after the click is another! If, for example, the visitor leaves immediately after the click without interacting, they will only stay on the website for a short time; if they do not interact, the money has been badly invested. For this reason, you should also determine in advance for the AdWords campaign how much an interaction (order, minimum visit time, quote request) may cost. This is the only way to assess whether you are investing your money correctly.

The most popular metrics for a Facebook campaign are likes, shares and fans. These can be gained quickly and easily with appropriate approaches and incentives. Before the campaign is launched, it must be clear why shares, likes and fans are being gained and how their quality is to be assessed. For example, should they spread your brand or its features? If so, what measures and budget should be used to achieve this? What distribution rate should be achieved?

The definition of objectives and clear metrics and descriptions are the be-all and end-all of online marketing measures. More clicks, likes or fans are false successes. What counts is the direct and indirect interaction after the click.

Imre Sinka
 

An assignment with a happy ending. For eight years, the agency Numéro 10 has regularly designed new image campaigns for the family business Aligro. The surprising thing about this job: even eight years after the premiere, the advertising subjects still work according to the same principle. A popular movie poster serves as the basis for the design. Not only the graphic style, but even the title, is taken from the ads for these blockbusters. Naturally in a font that is almost indistinguishable from the original. The headlines "Buffalo Bill", "Titanic" and "Pulp Fiction" no longer advertise a movie, but are intended to evoke associations with products on sale at Aligro. Such bestsellers as fresh vegetables, juicy steaks, cool drinks, but also toilet paper or cleaning products are then integrated into the cinema posters by the illustrator as eye-catchers instead of the usual movie stars. Other typical elements from film posters such as the competition palms, credits, quotes from reviews and, of course, "Aligro présente" are also included.

The customer obviously enjoys this concept: "We have never talked about changing the idea. Everyone is eagerly waiting to see which films will be selected and edited by our creative team for each new edition," says Numéro 10's Head of Strategy Gilles Aeby. There have never been any problems with such a "synchronized version" of well-known posters. After all, the tongue-in-cheek "pirated version" is also a small homage to great films.

Now run by the third generation of the Demaurex family, brothers Dominique and Etienne Demaurex, the company operates under the Aligro brand and is considered the largest food wholesaler in French-speaking Switzerland. The company primarily supplies food and beverages to restaurants and retailers. To this end, Aligro operates four pick-up wholesale markets in Chavannes, Geneva, Sion and Matran. A fifth store was also opened in Schlieren in German-speaking Switzerland at the end of 2012. The Aligro assortment comprises more than 20,000 items and ranges from fresh fish to baked goods from the company's own bakery and non-food products. Everything is available in XXL format to suit customers from the catering sector.

Andreas Panzeri

This was decided by the Gruner + Jahr Executive Board, the magazine publisher announced in Hamburg on Thursday. The magazine publisher and former Stern editor-in-chief Andreas Petzold will temporarily take over as editor-in-chief. The company is in separation talks with Wichmann.

Wichmann, who had made a name for himself as the editor-in-chief of the Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine, joined Stern in 2011, initially as deputy to the long-standing editor-in-chief duo Thomas Osterkorn and Andreas Petzold. After the generational change in May 2013, Wichmann reorganized the editorial structures with the aim of integrating print and online content more closely.

"Wichmann has strengthened the journalistic profile of Stern with great enthusiasm and energy, modernized its face and given it a new freshness," said Gruner + Jahr CEO Julia Jäkel. He has provided many important impulses. There was speculation in the industry media that Wichmann's management style was the reason for his replacement. A spokesperson for the publishing house declined to comment on this.

The future editor-in-chief Krug has previously worked for Stern - as a political correspondent and department head as well as for the culture and entertainment sections.

Dramatic decline in readership

Like other print media in Germany, the magazine founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen (1913-1996) has felt the effects of changing reading habits and the advance of digital offerings on the internet and mobile devices. While the magazine still sold 1.12 million copies per issue in 1999, this figure was 756,659 in the second quarter of 2014.

To this end, the brand was strengthened with extra issues, editions and Stern spin-offs such as Neon, Nido and View. The digital offering was also advanced under Wichmann. (SDA)

Or at least because of an advertisement: the Bundeswehr has once again advertised in the youth magazine published by Bauer-Verlag, although such an appearance already met with massive criticism in 2012 - especially from the children's rights organization "Das Deutsche Bündnis Kindersoldaten". The target group of the current military advertising campaign is, as Wuv.de writestwelve to 17-year-olds. The focus of military advertising for minors is on so-called "adventure camps". These are advertised with terms such as "adventure", "cool", "action", "team challenge" and "sports on the beach".

A rather questionable campaign. Can the makers still sleep peacefully? And will the parents of teenagers be able to sleep peacefully? Even if they forbid their children to watch Bravo. After all, it's not the campaign itself that's a little borderline, but rather the thing being advertised.

Terre des hommes Germany has placed a video on YouTube as a counterpoint:

In this context, a radical ban on advertising would make sense. Or would it not? Should advertising to young people that endangers their mental and physical health be restricted? To protect children, to protect minors who are perhaps not yet critical enough to protect themselves.

Cigarette advertising, alcohol advertising, small loan advertising - anything that endangers the future of young people is not normally accessible to them. So shouldn't the question instead be whether the recruitment of minors is permissible? Getting to the root of the problem - it is clear that an advertising subject does not represent the negative aspects of the Bundeswehr.

And yet the Bundeswehr's advertisement leaves a bland aftertaste. (uma)

Fredy Hämmerli is a journalist, but also a book author. He was editor-in-chief and program director, but also managing director, owner and reorganizer. Today, he is Chairman of the Board of Swisscontent AG, but also the company's Publishing Director. And he still likes to take the keyboard under his own fingers. "Journalism is my home, but I also like to steer business and set the entrepreneurial course. I need both," he says of himself. Writing and managing go hand in hand for Hämmerli. Fredy Hämmerli was born in Zurich 62 years ago. After studying and attending the Ringier School of Journalism, he started his career at Roger Schawinski's "Tat." "In every paper review, Schawi clearly expressed his opinion," Hämmerli recalls. "He was very demanding. But Urs P. Gasche, the head of the consumer department at the time, also kept a tight rein on me. That was a tough school of journalism that taught me a lot." This was followed by positions at Bilanz, Berner Zeitung, Cash, Bund, Tele Bärn, K-Tipp and Xproductions, mostly in management positions. At the age of 32, Hämmerli was already appointed Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Berner Zeitung. "It wasn't easy, I was still wearing journalistic diapers, so to speak, and I was supposed to help run one of the biggest Swiss daily newspapers, " says Hämmerli. "Intuitively, I probably did a lot of things right, but I also did some things wrong. I learned an unspeakable amount during that time."

Pioneer times up close

In 1997, Hämmerli set up the editorial department of the Federal Parliament for Cash, followed by the news department for the Swiss Confederation. After that, the print man took a detour into television: He helps set up the first Swiss private station Tele Bärn and becomes its program director, he takes over as editorial director of K-Tipp and helps set up a television production company for the private station TV3. "At Tele Bärn, it was a matter of installing the first Swiss private station; at TV3, I took over a consumer show and a daily talk," Hämmerli recounts. "At that time there was no private television in Switzerland, we were looking to Germany and trying to make television with the most primitive means, with no experience and no budget. That was a tough time, but with a little courage it was above all a great challenge. Because nobody had done that before." He never had to apply for any position, Hämmerli says. "I was always asked by someone who knew me and my work if I would like to take the job. They obviously thought I could do it, and it didn't turn out too badly. "Fredy Hämmerli: a doer.

Sense for fabrics

As a journalist, Hämmerli repeatedly attracts attention through investigative research: In 1979, he finds out that there are hundreds of wealth millionaires living in Switzerland who do not pay income taxes. The ensuing media hype leads to the tightening of cantonal tax laws. In 1981, he reveals that National Councilor Christoph Blocher has unnoticedly bought up the shares of Oswald-Holding, which controls the majority of the plastics group Ems-Chemie. And in 2009, he reveals that UBS is forced to liquidate its flagship real estate fund with business properties worth $10 billion. More than 100,000 wealthy UBS private clients are affected. "Of course, it also takes luck to find out something like this ", says the journalist. "Nevertheless, it is no coincidence that I stumbled upon it. I researched with tenacity and bite. And asked questions where others didn't." Hämmerli is an old-school journalist: clean research as well as fair and credible reporting are a high priority for him: "The greatest compliment was once paid to me by an entrepreneur who said he would have been happy if the article I had written about his company had never appeared. But at least it was super researched and fairly written. I try to live up to that standard with my work." Even as a boy, Hämmerli wanted to become a journalist, and he has never seriously questioned this choice: "It's my profession, my calling. I don't have to be exclusively a journalist, but I want to be a journalist. Something else would be out of the question for me - except perhaps in my next life: I'd like to be an astronomer then."

Entrepreneurship in the blood

Since 2001, Hämmerli's name has been closely associated with the content service provider Swisscontent. "When TV3 was discontinued, Bendicht Luginbühl, the then managing director of Swisscontent, asked me if I would like to take over as editor-in-chief of Swisscontent," Hämmerli recounts. At that time, Swisscontent was Switzerland's first Internet agency, with 80 employees producing texts, videos and audios for online. A great idea - but one that comes too soon: because of the users' lack of technical equipment, they can at best watch jerky images in the style of Blair Witch Project. Others would have declined with thanks, but Hämmerli jumped at the chance. After a year, he takes over the management of Swisscontent in addition to being editor-in-chief, and in 2003 he buys the entire company. "For someone as entrepreneurial as I am, it took a surprisingly long time before I finally had my own company," Hämmerli himself marvels. "But before that, I guess I lacked the courage and especially the financial means to start a company myself. " Now the opportunity is there. "The takeover was certainly very risky, because Swisscontent was deep in the red. It was clear that a new business model was needed: back to print, expansion to corporate publishing, staff reductions." Within a few months, Hämmerli turned Swisscontent around.

He's laying off half the staff and cleaning out the topic belly store: Instead of continuing to offer a content potpourri, he's focusing the topics on business, finance, real estate and health - the areas in which he knows himself. "I think that's what saved us. Many other agencies that started out with the same business model as us have long since ceased to exist." Today, Swisscontent employs 40 journalists, layouters, translators, project managers, consultants as well as multimedia and app specialists who regularly supply media such as 20 Minuten, NZZ am Sonntag, SonntagsZeitung or K-Geld with journalistic content; various corporate publishing products from illustrious clients such as UBS, Zurich, Galenica/ Amavita, Franke, C-Level Media or Medela are also fed with Swisscontent articles. Some media were even completely developed by Swisscontent. Hämmerli counts taking over the content service provider and leading it into the black as his greatest professional success.

Content is King

Since 2007, Daniel Kaczynski has gradually taken a stake in Swisscontent as a partner and assumed more and more operational management responsibilities. In 2013, after ten years as owner, Hämmerli hands over his last shares to Daniel Kaczynski, who has since taken over the management. He himself remains Chairman of the Board of Directors and Publishing Director of the content provider. "This is a great combination of activities," Hämmerli emphasizes. "On the one hand, as Chairman of the Board of Directors, I can work strategically, have responsibility for finances and personnel, and can thus help steer Swisscontent's medium- and long-term development. On the other hand, as Head of Publishing, I can continue to do about a quarter of the editorial work. It is important for me to write myself, because I allow myself to criticize texts, and I therefore also want to expose myself to the criticism of others. I can only do that with my own articles. Our customers should also see: He can do that. I want to pass on my journalistic values - clean research, credibility, fairness - to our employees. And I try to convey to them that it takes courage and a dose of self-confidence to be a good journalist. You have to represent your cause."

Retreat in installments

With the handover of ownership to Daniel Kaczynski, Hämmerli is gradually preparing his retirement from Swisscontent. Since the beginning of the year, he has been working only 60 percent and using his free time for traveling, hiking, skiing, golfing and reading. "I really enjoy having more space for private things," Hämmerli admits. "Nevertheless, I work for Swisscontent every day." Someone like Hämmerli is always 100 percent involved - at least with his heart. That's why he doesn't want to hear anything about retirement. "We have left open how long the 60 percent rule will apply. I can't imagine simply dropping the pen at 65. I simply enjoy my work too much," emphasizes Hämmerli. He'd rather think about further projects, perhaps the eighth book, perhaps a consulting mandate for a company in crisis. But he wouldn't be satisfied with just consulting; he'd rather be involved in getting the company back on track. Fredy Hämmerli: a doer.

Anne-Friederike Heinrich

Held annually by Publisuisse SA and Goldbach Media (Switzerland), Screen-up is the only Swiss industry event for audiovisual, electronic media and offers a look into the future of the Swiss television market. This year, SRG SSR, Mediengruppe RTL, SevenOne Media and 3 Plus Group will again present their new formats and station strategies.

The screen-up begins at 2 p.m. with a welcome from the organizers before the spectacular station screenings start punctually at 2:15 p.m. and show which formats and station faces will trigger emotions, arouse enthusiasm and provide plenty to talk about in the coming year. After so much audiovisual entertainment, there will be a joint aperitif and stand-up dinner, before the TV Day enters its hot phase at 9 p.m. with the already legendary MTV screen-up party.

Registration for the Screen-up on September 18, 2014 at Kaufleuten in Zurich
 

Wholesalers and advertisers of pork belly ads know why. The industry refers to sales-oriented print advertising with specific prices as pork belly ads. They are the classic example of sales-oriented advertising. No room for l'art pour l'art. Here it's all about sales. Such ads may not win ADC cubes or beauty prizes, but they do arouse above-average desire among customers. According to a BAV study by the Bavarian Academy for Advertising and Communication, 68% of respondents consider an ad with price information to be credible, and 45% confirm that advertising with price information influences their purchase decision. In contrast to product and image campaigns, pork belly ads do not take a summer break. They appear for 52 weeks. Of course, there are double-page panorama ads with image objectives. And multi-page ad lines with the aim of increasing awareness from 0 to 100. That also works. But the core competence of the advertising hierarchy of the press lies elsewhere: in sales and updating. Whenever sales-oriented advertising is required to quickly trigger campaigns, the print media show their most effective side. Media specialists often refer to this as the so-called recency strategy. The aim of this strategy is to address consumers precisely when they are about to make a purchase. The effectiveness of the printed press, the regular use and the credibility of the medium make print media the preferred influencer for the shopping list.

As part of WEMF's ad hoc study "Media type decision" for the Media Research Day 2012, 179 advertising clients and advertising and media agencies were surveyed on the media type decision. In addition to recording the numerous factors that influence the media type decision, the respondents also provided information on which media types are particularly suitable for which advertising objectives. This showed that the individual media types offer differentiated conditions for achieving very specific advertising objectives (see table). For advertising objectives involving sales, 62% of respondents primarily rely on the daily and weekly press, followed by online media. While television tends to be prioritized for image and awareness, the strengths of print media lie in advertising objectives such as sales, updating, information and knowledge transfer. In the case of magazines, this also applies to image objectives. The study also shows that respondents position online media in the middle of traditional media. The complete results of the "Media type decision" study were summarized in a dossier compiled by the Swiss Media Association and the WEMF and are available from the publishers.

Otto Meier

18th Swiss Media Research Day Wednesday, September 24, 2014

What makes media users tick at the moment and how will they change? Users with a profile - escaped or under control? WEMF AG für Werbemedienforschung is hosting an event on this topic at the Kursaal in Bern as part of the Swiss Media Research Day 2014. You can find more information and register free of charge at www.wemf.ch

The sad comedian Robin Williams is dead. That's enough to make you cry. And clears the way for other media stars - those with no training and no brains, but with an almost unnatural tendency to overestimate themselves and stage themselves. Those who don't make us laugh, but who make themselves look ridiculous, so ridiculous that they're almost cool again; where you can't figure out whether they don't realize how stupid and embarrassing they are, or whether they deliberately act stupid and embarrassing in order to market themselves better. Selling yourself well is everything. But to what end? And to whom?

We people of today, overloaded with important news, like nothing better than to be amused by the unimportant. We can't run away from all the hard information we are bombarded with from every side. That's why we consciously look elsewhere. Where it's colorful, flashy and funny instead of dusty, bloody and bombed. "Bauer ledig sucht" instead of "Tagesthemen".

Bubbling par excellence

Three stars of these days are therefore - hello again - our very own Vujo Gavric, ex-bachelor, sunset poet and lover of women, who, because things have inexplicably gone a bit quiet around him, rips off all his clothes and posts a nude photo of himself, a lady and his best (?) piece. And suddenly he's back in the media, even in Advertising Week. As the stupidest and best self-promoter in the world. Congratulations! The second media star is a federal parliament secretary, who I won't mention in detail because everyone already knows her anyway. The third star is short, fat, red-haired and already a great talker at the age of five. Pumuckl? No, his name is Noah Ritter and since last Monday he has been a sensation for American TV audiences. And soon probably for us too. The little fellow grabbed the microphone and spontaneously took over the direction when a news reporter from WNEP-TV, a TV station from Pennsylvania, wanted to interview him at a fair (http://bit.ly/1qQIOIH). He blathers on about something even less interesting than the weather, delighting the audience. As of Wednesday, the YouTube video has already been viewed over 12.5 million times. That's two and a half times the Swiss population! Which says less about the babbling brat than about the miserable adults who find it entertaining. To top it all off: Noah's favorite word is "apparently." He uses it in every sentence - and thus "apparently" hits the nerve of the times. Because today everything is "apparently", nothing is certain. Except blah blah blah.

To become famous today, you no longer need talent, ideas, a sharp mind or a good sense of humor. All you need is a cell phone, snap a selfie and you're already filling the summer slump. The only danger is if you step too far backwards while taking a selfie on the cliff, run in front of a streetcar or fall down a manhole. But the main thing is that friends and followers have seen it. Friends? Robin Williams would have needed some, people who look at him, talk about him and with him. But we zapped past the real news in favor of skin and silly talk. It's much more fun. But whether I think that's a good thing, I'm not sure.
 

On page 10, there was a quarter-page article with the rather juicy title for the NZZ: "Nude selfies from the Federal Palace". To take the edge off the disreputable title, the subtitle promised a serious discussion of the topic: "Open questions about the code of conduct of employees. I was still thinking to myself, what is this topic doing in the NZZ, when the first tweet already appeared, which I can unfortunately only quote in spirit: Today, a lot of research time is lost in many media houses. The twitterer was right.

What happened next was to be expected. Blick and 20 Minuten immediately picked up on the topic. Surely deeply affected inside that they missed the topic - or did not have the lady on the radar. The problem was that there were no pictures at all until now. Or else the NZZ journi wisely kept them under lock and key, deeply shocked about his own courage to have written such an article and to have triggered such an echo. The twittering - by now with the hashtag Selfiegate - became louder and louder. The well-known journi-Twitterers were joined by turned places and many people who seem to have an infinite amount of time on their hands. The hunt for the pictures was then also successful in a short time. Swarm horniness is what you call it. Or mathematics, after all, according to investigative NZZ research, the permissive Federal Palace employee had more than 11,000 users who followed her, so the probability that someone from one's own Twitter circle knows the lady is pretty high.

The individual articles were constantly updated, photo series were created and the first experts and politicians were interviewed about the matter. Many took it lightly and did not like to swing the moral club, some even made jokes about it. Others were outraged and saw the dignity of the Federal Palace in danger. Still others were concerned with the legal consequences. There were a lot of comments in the online comment columns, but the outrage was rather limited. And so it went on for the following days. People reported on the release of the lady, the indignation was thus alimented anew and the same pictures were clicked on again. Sandro Brotz said: "One would only too gladly read, what @sarsarsar means to the Sommertheäterchen around #Selfiegate. Unfortunately or fortunately for him, sarsar was just on vacation." A contribution to the quality discussion.

Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief

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