In a management buyout, 49-year-old Alfredo Trasatti has now acquired a majority stake in Infel Corporate Media and will also become Chairman of the Board of Infel AG. According to a press release, under his leadership the agency will shift its focus from its traditional print activities to all areas of corporate media and will also become one of the leading corporate publishing agencies in the digital sector.

"As a result of the digitalization of the media, companies today are facing major challenges in communications. As Switzerland's oldest corporate publishing agency, Infel must therefore also adapt its structures and offerings to this rapid change," explains Alfredo Trasatti. With the takeover of the majority of shares from the previous 150 shareholders, the prerequisites for the agency's future innovative strength and flexibility have been created.

"For the energy industry, we want to continue to be the leading corporate publishing agency in Switzerland," explains CEO Trasatti. Infel's biggest clients in the energy industry include Axpo, EKZ, CKW (Central-Swiss Power Plants), ESI (Elettricità Svizzera Italiana), VSEI (Association of Swiss Electrical Installation Companies), EBL (Elektra Baselland), EBS (Electricity Works of the District of Schwyz), etc. Infel also serves renowned customers from other industries such as SBB, Die Post, Axa Winterthur, Postfinance, Valiant, Swissmem, Maxon Motor, etc.

Branded Content

Since Red Bull at the latest, branded content has been a household name. The focus is not on the company and its products, but on stories and content. Companies create relevant content themselves and create topics around their own brand. For this environment, Infel wants to position itself as the contact for journalistic content for companies. "Regardless of the distribution channel, our most important core competence is to create content and tell compelling stories," Trasatti emphasizes.

New offers

Infel will open an academy this year, where in-depth knowledge transfer in the areas of corporate publishing and corporate media will take place. A new type of corporate publishing offer is also being developed specifically for SMEs, which is intended to meet the communication needs of small to medium-sized companies.

 

Avanade, a global provider of Microsoft technology solutions and managed services, has released the results of its global survey of business and IT leaders on the topic of B2B. The survey responses show that business customers, too, are increasingly exhibiting purchasing behavior similar to that of consumers.

The study confirms findings from Avanade’s “Work Redesigned” approach: Leading companies are changing their business processes to reflect the evolving work environment shaped by mobile devices, collaboration tools, and social networks. A key finding: “The Consumerization of Sales”—the consumer-like behavior of business customers, shaped by the use of mobile devices and technologies as well as the viral effects of social networks—is already having a significant impact on the design of sales structures at many companies. Furthermore, business decision-makers report being willing to spend up to 30 percent more if they can expect an above-average customer experience—that is, an excellent overall experience—in return. Already, more than half of the study participants (56 percent) confirm that they have consciously spent more on a product in the last six months because it promised a better overall experience than the lower-priced alternatives. Another finding: Seven out of ten executives believe that cutting-edge technology will replace human interaction with customers within the next decade.

The key findings of the study:

1. Business customers are adopting the purchasing behavior of individual consumers
2. Companies are responding to technology-driven changes by adapting their sales structures and increasing their investments in technology
3. Price is no longer the main factor in deciding whether to purchase a product or service—instead, companies can turn the customer experience into hard cash
4. Companies that embrace this change stand out clearly from their competitors
5. Sales-customer relationships are no longer viewed as a mere series of business transactions, but are developed into a positive overall experience

«The consumerization of IT—that is, customer behavior influenced by mobile technologies, devices, and online stores—is driving dramatic changes in traditional sales channels. Already today, corporate decision-makers shop in much the same way as private consumers. They expect user interfaces and tools that are just as simple as those they are accustomed to in their personal lives,« says Robert Gögele, General Manager at Avanade in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, summarizing the trends revealed in the study.
«Companies are struggling to manage their sales processes, as B2B and B2C models are merging into a »B2Everyone' model. Those companies that understand this trend and respond to it with agility will be able to build and maintain stable and lucrative customer relationships over the long term."

The Global Study in Detail

Avanade's global study was conducted in October 2013 by Wakefield Research in 19 countries (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, and the United States). More than 1,000 C-level executives, division heads, and IT managers from 12 industries answered questions about their companies‘ purchasing behavior.

1. Business customers are adopting the purchasing behavior of individual consumers

Today, buyer-seller relationships in the B2B sector extend far beyond the sphere of influence of sales teams—and are increasingly slipping out of their control. Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of the business decision-makers surveyed state that, before making a purchase decision, researching information on third-party websites and receiving feedback from business partners, industry peers, or social media is more important to them than speaking with the seller’s sales representatives. Viral effects cannot be controlled by the company’s sales department.

2. Companies are responding to technology-driven changes by adapting their sales structures and increasing their investments in technology

Forty percent of the decision-makers surveyed believe that IT makes a significant contribution to their company’s strategic direction. Nearly half (45 percent) of those surveyed also state that IT plays a much greater role in the overall customer experience than it did in the past.
More than 80 percent of respondents have changed at least one business process in the past three years in order to better interact with customers. In doing so, they have invested—and continue to invest—primarily in

Customer Sales and Supporting Technology (44 percent),
the number of employees who have contact with customers (40 percent),
the automation of sales processes (32 percent).

3. Price is no longer the main factor in deciding whether to purchase a product or service—instead, companies can turn the customer experience into hard cash

Even today, the decision-makers surveyed are willing to accept additional costs of up to 30 percent if they can expect an above-average customer experience—that is, an excellent overall experience—in return. More than half of the study participants (56 percent) also confirm that they have deliberately spent more on a product in the last six months because it promised a better overall experience than the lower-priced alternatives.

4. Companies that embrace this change stand out clearly from their competitors

As an appropriate response to this change, customer service, call centers, and the IT and marketing departments now play a much more significant role in the customer experience than they did three years ago. Decision-makers whose companies have already responded to this shift and implemented new, technology-enabled business processes for interacting with customers report the following:

increased customer loyalty (61 percent),
increased revenue (60 percent) as well as
growing customer base (60 percent).

5. Sales-customer relationships are no longer viewed as a mere series of business transactions, but are developed into a positive overall experience

Balmer and Durisch replace the two founding partners of Dynamics Group, Franz Egle (Chairman of the Board of Directors) and Edwin van der Geest (Managing Partner). In future, Egle and van der Geest will concentrate on managing their mandates.

Thomas Balmer, partner since 2007, is a member of Dynamics Group's capital markets team and leads national and international mandates in corporate and capital markets communications. Andreas Durisch joined Dynamics Group as Senior Partner in 2010 after many years of management experience in the media industry. He advises clients in particular at the interface between society, politics and business.

Andreas Durisch: "Over the past eight years, the Dynamics Group has established itself as a first-class address for communications consulting. We have been able to attract the best minds in the industry and can now support over 150 national and international clients. The Dynamics Group is continuing to build on this strong position. I look forward to driving this process forward together with my colleagues."

Franz Egle: "The Dynamics Group's concept and partner model are designed for the long term. This is encouraged when the founding partners step back into the second tier early on with a view to sustainable company development - just as the most successful law firms in Switzerland do."

The partners of the Dynamics Group:

Thomas Balmer
Philippe Blangey
François E. Clerc
Andreas Durisch
Franz Egle
Christophe Lamps
Kaspar Loeb
Alexandre Müller
Bettina Mutter
Stephan Post
Edwin van der Geest
 

To draw attention to the Activia motto "Well-being comes from within," the world's largest yogurt brand enlisted former DSDS contestant Zazou Mall as a dancer. Together with a promotion crew of several people, she transformed various Swiss squares into an outdoor dance studio and managed to get even some reserved Swiss to dance along courageously. Wearing a belly-free outfit and supported by a multi-headed promoter team, the gifted dancer showed her well-known hip swing to Shakira's summer hit "Dare (La la la)". The Colombian world star can be seen and heard with this single in the current Activia TV commercial.

Responsible at Danone Activia: Carine Labatut (overall management), Martina Winterhalter (project coordination), Marco Zangger (freelance photographer). Responsible at Jim & Jim: Cyrill Steiner (Head of Promotion), Corina Rainer (Project Assistance).

Sanitas Troesch is the leading house for kitchen and bathroom in Switzerland. In numerous exhibitions you can find a wide range of models for every taste and budget. So it's actually clear from the start which brand future homeowners in Switzerland are counting on. Ruf Lanz has been advertising Sanitas Troesch since 2009 - on the one hand in the Sunday and popular press, and on the other in selected home and architecture magazines. The eye-catching double-page spreads show building plots in dream locations. But between the staked-out survey stakes, perfectly assembled kitchens and bathrooms from Sanitas Troesch are already in place. After all, they are already clear even before the groundbreaking ceremony. Now the creative agency has added three more subjects to the image campaign. The future has also been taken into account: the "Moon" theme anticipates visionary new building zones on other celestial bodies.

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Responsible at Sanitas Troesch: Bernhard Rinderli, Edith Dossenbach (Marketing). Responsible at Ruf Lanz: Danielle Lanz, Markus Ruf (Creative Direction), Marcel Schläfle (Art Direction), Colette Magnin (Consulting). Photography: Valentin Jeck. Image processing: Süsstrunk & Jericke, Aschmann Klauser.

 

Austrian-born Thomas Hörmann has many years of experience in the automotive industry in various functions in the areas of marketing, sales, operations and finance. After completing his Master's degree in Business Administration, he joined the Ford Group in 1998 and held various positions as Sales Director, Operations Director and Manager European Risk Management in Austria, Germany and the UK. Most recently, Thomas Hörmann was Marketing Director. At the same time, Hörmann completed a doctorate in economics with a focus on company valuation in mergers and acquisitions.

In his new position at Fiat Group Automobiles Switzerland, Thomas Hörmann takes over the management of the marketing department and is thus responsible for product marketing, marketing communications, market intelligence and customer relationship management.
"We are delighted that we have been able to bring a very competent and proven expert on board in Thomas Hörmann. His contribution will be a great asset to our company," comments Alessandro Paolucci, Managing Director Fiat Group Automobiles Switzerland.

The marketing expertise and media portfolio of News & Sport Factory will significantly expand the range of services in the marketing of advertising space on screens within Publicitas. The expansion of the TV department at Publicitas with the know-how and media portfolio of News & Sport Factory, meets the need of the advertising market for national solutions consisting of quality media brands, according to the statement. Publicitas will develop synergies between the different media - TV, mobile, online, tablet, cinema - as well as further develop its TV marketing portfolio.

In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, premium media offerings such as the new Swiss TV S1, the Swiss advertising window Eurosport, Golf Channel or BFMTV, as well as websites and apps such as Euronews, Le Point, L'Express, Sportal HD or Ron Orp, allow advertisers to convince their consumers of the quality of their offerings in an effective way. The News & Sport Factory team will reinforce the TV team at Publicitas from the first of August 2014, developing its expertise in major thematic areas such as sports, information, culture and entertainment. The TV department at Publicitas will be led by Patrick Zanello, now CEO News & Sport Factory and future Head of TV at Publicitas....

On July 16, Smart will unveil its new Fortwo and Forfour models in Berlin. A little public attention never hurts in such endeavors. To mark the occasion, the agency BBDO Berlin produced a viral video that generated over a quarter of a million views on YouTube in just a few days.

The preview of the new models looks promising: Vice President of Development Andrew Murray promises nothing less than to build the largest city car of all time—after having built the smallest. They’ve found that it’s much more efficient to ignore reality than to adapt to it.

And the advantages of the Monster Smart are obvious: It’s so big that you’ll never have to look for where you parked it again. The car is so tall that it doesn’t need air conditioning—the warm air collects in the upper part of the car, while the rest of the interior stays cool. And thanks to its sheer size, the new Smart creates a slipstream that helps other drivers save fuel—a concept known in Smart lingo as «Eco-Empathy.» Large cars are often accused of overcrowding cities, according to Murray. «But do whales overcrowd the oceans?» A well-argued point is half the battle.

This humorous yet biting dig at the competition—whose ever-more-powerful and spacious SUVs are shaping the urban landscape in many places—hits the mark. And it has definitely piqued interest, even just a little, in what Smart will unveil on Wednesday. (hae)

Coinage weighs a lot. Especially when you compare the weight with a credit card, which weighs just five grams. Not to mention the time advantage of getting by without any change at all. But what kind of weight comes together when we add up the many kilos of all the coins we carry around with us in the course of our lives? Tony Card, protagonist of the initiative of the Swiss Card Providers Interest Group, explores this question in his current Quiz after. Saatchi & Saatchi sent him out on the street to weigh the coinage of 100 people. The result is a weight that lies between a full-grown gorilla male, a camel or a rhinoceros including horn.

Those who have an idea of the burden with the coinage can look at Cashless.ch submit your tip. The prize is a visit to the zoo worth 500 francs. The invitation mailing for the online quiz is aimed at the millions of credit card holders in Switzerland and is enclosed with their bills.

Responsible at Interessengemeinschaft Schweizer Kartenanbieter: Matthias Meihofer, UBS (Project Manager). Responsible at Saatchi & Saatchi: Pascal Schaub (Managing & Strategy Director), Felix Freese, Frédéric Nogier (Creative Direction), Léonie Kelly, Soraya Shademan (Consulting), Stella Feurer (Graphics).

 

Naturally, the focus is on the low price. The brand credo is that all Prix Garantie products are always at least as inexpensive as the low-price lines of the competition. The posters and advertisements are now in use throughout Switzerland. POS materials were also created in the same style for all Coop stores.

Responsible at Coop: Thomas Schwetje (Head of Marketing/Services); Sacha Zuberbühler (Head of Advertising); Catherine Gritti (Project Manager Advertising); Karin Heliopoulos (Head of Media); Judith Imhof (Head of Packaging Design); Kelly Hupfer (Project Manager Packaging Design). Responsible at KSP: Uwe Schlupp (creative direction); Sebastian Krayer (art direction); Lea Baldinger (graphics); Christian Stüdi (text/concept); Flavia Meyer (consulting management); Eveline Mathis (consulting); Manuela Julier (DTP). Responsible at TW Media: Stephan Küng (Media Relations). Responsible for packaging design at Glanzmann Schöne Design: Cornelia Glanzmann + Markus Schöne (creation).