Mother's Day is in a week's time. A welcome opportunity to pay a visit to mom. Or at least to write a few words. But on real paper, please. In times when we mainly associate the letterbox with bills and advertising and "handle" most communication via digital channels, a postcard or letter comes as a positive surprise. As real personal mail has become so rare, it has a high emotional value. It is hardly surprising that a greeting card manufacturer also shares this opinion. Hallmark - you will recognize the company logo from every other card you hold in your hands - provides the proof in Holland. More precisely: Lemz Amsterdam. The agency hid cameras in cards and had children write letters to their mothers. The espionage technique captured what you would otherwise never get to see: The reaction of the addressee of a letter or card. So don't forget Mother's Day! However, you can safely do without having your best wishes bugged. (hae)

According to the press release, Glaswerk will in future focus even more strongly on its strategic and conceptual expertise in order to be able to offer its customers - companies with complex strategic communications tasks - comprehensive solutions with a hand and a foot. Glaswerk is thus positioning itself even more clearly as a sparring partner that understands how to sharpen brands through close exchange with the customer and by combining industry and communications expertise. As a partner who has a crystal-clear opinion and creates orientation.

Orientation means reduction: According to this motto, glaswerk has redesigned its appearance and thus also makes the new orientation visible to the outside. Reduction is reflected in the choice of colors - black and white - as well as in the design language, a diagonal, upward line with strong symbolism. The new appearance is intended to convey in a direct way how the agency thinks and acts: straightforward, perceptive, lateral. The diagonal also suggests a triangle and thus shows that Glaswerk remains true to its roots and sticks to the basic principle that outstanding solutions are always created in the triangle of strategy, design and communication.

 

It is all about "Strong brands". For example, Marc T. Tümmers, CEO of Kägi Söhne, has his say on the subject of brand management. In addition, Kernbrand presents readers with 40 pages of interesting facts about crowdsourcing, corporate design and psychological aspects of branding, keyword: neuromarketing. According to the press release, the aim of the magazine is to provide interested company managers of SMEs and NPOs with in-depth insights into brand development, management and maintenance. And to provide them with interesting and helpful specialist know-how for their own work. Kernbrand relies on a balanced mix of specialist articles and numerous illustrative examples.

Magazine for brand management

Questions that the magazine explores in issue one include: How do social media platforms work? And how can they be used for brand management? What is sustainable corporate design based on and how can you play with it? Or what happens in the mind of the buyer when they are enthusiastic about one brand but ignore another. Finally, Kernbrand lets three brand experts have their say in an interview and asks them about what makes brands successful in the long term. Mensch Marke is not available in stores, but is sent to a selected distribution list. However, interested parties can order the magazine free of charge via the agency's website order or it there download as PDF. The core brand team headed by agency boss Christoph Ottiger is responsible for the concept, design and text of Mensch Marke.

 

Karling wins the Swiss farmers' pitch

The full service agency Karling was able to prevail over three well-known competitors in a competitive presentation by the Swiss Farmers' Union. The new campaign will be in use from 2015 and will play on numerous channels. The aim of the new appearance is to further increase the sympathy and acceptance of Swiss farmers. At the same time, the core services of farmers are to be made better known: near-natural production, maintaining animal welfare, caring for the landscape, protecting biodiversity and producing high-quality food.

Karling was launched a few weeks ago by Rolf Helfenstein and Daniel Serrano. Rolf Helfenstein was most recently head of consulting and partner at Jung von Matt/Limmat. Daniel Serrano was also at Jung von Matt as Art Director. He has already received numerous awards in 2014 - including gold at ADC and gold at Best of Swiss Web for the Pro Infirmis campaign.

 

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Panta Rhei new PR agency of Sanctuary Retreats

Effective immediately, Panta Rhei PR in Zurich and Freiburg im Breisgau will take over the PR mandate for Sanctuary Retreats in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The English provider has an exclusive range of 13 first-class safari lodges and eight luxury ships around the world. Panta Rhei PR has been supporting Sanctuary Retreats in Switzerland, Germany and Austria since April. In doing so, the communications agency now represents the interests of the London-based luxury provider for media inquiries and public relations in the three German-speaking markets as well as in French-speaking Switzerland. "We are delighted to bring the Sanctuary Retreats brand, which has so far been established primarily among connoisseurs, closer to a wider audience. We have an exclusive collection of unique products in the most exotic places on the planet - from Galapagos to Botswana and Tanzania to Myanmar and on the Yangtze River. The German-speaking markets and French-speaking Switzerland are strategically very important for us," explains Marco Rosa, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing Sanctuary Retreats.

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Swiss Association of Master Builders builds on Supertext

The Swiss Association of Master Builders, headquartered in Zurich and with offices in Lausanne and Bellinzona, has been in existence since 1897. It is the nationwide professional, economic and employers' organization for companies in the building construction and civil engineering sectors and related branches of the main construction trade. The description just makes it clear: The SBC represents the interests of its heterogeneous member groups in numerous subject areas. The association's communication is accordingly demanding and multi-layered. SBC was looking for a text and translation agency to support it in this complex task. Patrick Suvada, Head of Marketing Communications: "In the production of our publications such as the annual report or our trilingual member newspaper, we rely on efficient work steps. With Supertext, translation and proofreading are done directly in Indesign. Layout adjustments or text shortening and the associated additional time expenditure are eliminated." In the realization of publishing projects of this kind, Supertext acts as an integrated partner together with the production company and editorial design agency. Supertext's online order and distribution system allows all parties involved to be reliably linked to the production process of the language services.

Many people dream of having their own presence on a magazine cover. Saisonküche, Migros' culinary magazine, fulfilled this wish. Trial copies of the April issue were sent out nationwide with a second, "fake" cover featuring the first name of the addressee prominently in the lettering. "Saisonküche" became "Heidisküche": total personalization! The recipients were surprised, flattered and amused when they took their highly personalized magazine out of the letterbox. Especially as they were addressed by name several times both on the cover page and throughout the rest of the four-page advertisement. The best prerequisite for generating subscription orders.

Responsible for seasonal cuisine: Carina Schmidt (Head of Reader Marketing and Subscription Service), Nadine Voss (Marketing Manager Reader Marketing). Responsible at Pinkup Dialogmarketing: Nicole Chervet (CD/text), Vitali Tcherednitchenko (AD), Jevgenia Babuskina (graphics), Martina Käppeli (consulting).
 

According to the latest postal study, 95 percent of all recipients open and read advertising letters. This incomparable advertising effectiveness was to be communicated to 30'000 representatives of Swiss SMEs in a two-stage mailing. At the same time, the SMEs were to be motivated to use advertising letters themselves. The agency at the airport sent out placemats plastered with advertising for Postmail and advised the advertising small and medium-sized companies not to let their advertising get lost in the clutter of other ads or under a plate of snippo, but to rely on effective advertising letters. The second stage of the mailing will be sent out in August.

Responsible at Post CH, Postmail, Bern: Gabriela Weibel (Head of Marketing Communications); Mark Friedrich (Head of Events). Responsible at Agentur am Flughafen, Altenrhein: René Eugstair (Creative Direction); Dominique Rutishauser (Art Direction); Valeria Hörler (Graphics), Miriam Egli (Text/Consulting).
 

The Swiss summer is moody. But no matter how it turns out this year - with Migros, you have 100 ideas at hand to make it the best summer ever. These can be found in the book of 100 summer ideas, which is available in every Migros. An inspiring cross-section of excursion tips, craft tips, recipes, games and trivia. The book also includes extras such as a scent card, seed paper or tattoos.

Four TV commercials each promote one of the 100 ideas in a tongue-in-cheek way. Posters and advertisements inspire further summer ideas. In various print and POS measures, the book and individual summer products are promoted in a targeted manner to match the 100 ideas. The campaign thus succeeds in bridging the gap between image and product levels. Also on the website 100things.ch are the summer tips. Here you can find the tip of the day, matching the weather or current occasions. Users can discover further information about the summer ideas on the platform. The specially founded Migros Summer Team tests some of the 100 tips and enriches them with videos and reports. Of course, customers can also create their own summer list.

Responsible at Migros: Hansueli Siber (Head of Marketing); Marc Engelhard (Head of Marketing Communications); Roman Reichelt (Head of Umbrella Brand); Désirée Strassmann (Project Manager Umbrella Brand); Lara Rohrer (Trainee Marketing Communications); Philipp Marquard (Head of Media); Nadine Delakowitz (Project Manager Media); Jerry Fohringer (Head of Market Development/Customer Marketing); Miriam Benz (Project Manager Market Development); Eveline Rusch (Project Manager Market Development); Isabelle Britschgi (Junior Project Manager Market Development); Dirk Worring (Head of Digital Marketing); Christian Birke (Project Manager Migros.ch). Responsible at Jung von Matt: Alexander Jaggy (Executive Creative Direction); Samuel Christ (Creative Direction); Maren Beck, Alain Eicher, Mateo Sacchetti, Torsten Maas (Text); Lukas Frischknecht, Christina Wellnhofer, Reto Oetterli, Mario Moosbrugger, Daniel Serrano (Art Direction); Aude Kohler (Graphics); Pascal Frey (Art Direction Büchlein, JvM/brand identity); Timo Lorch (Graphics Büchlein JvM/brand identity); Jürg Zentner (editorial booklet); Sarida Bossoni,; Deborah Herzig (art buying); Thomas Steiner, Marie-Hélène Thornton, Pascal Baumgartner,; Sebastian Suter, Merja Rinderli, Nicolas Renzen, Eliane Fischer (consulting); Philipp Bühler (public relations); Bart Timmer (direction), Michela Trümpi (Chocolate Films), Jingle Jungle (sound), HearDis! (music consulting), Ultra Images (post production); Tobias Stahel (photography), Lorenz Wahl, Pixelpolish (image editing); Markus Schärer (overall responsibility digital); Marco Zimmerli (art direction digital); Andrea Klainguti (screen design); Sam Sherbini, Amir Ferhatbegovic, Julia Grass (consulting digital); Nathalie Eggen (website content); YMC (programming); Joiz (videos),
 

Freedom of the press is a foundation of Swiss direct democracy, yet it is violated by the authorities. Even media companies themselves are increasingly interfering with editorial freedom - justified by economic constraints. According to Impressum, the media can only protect themselves from this with new sources of funding - for example, through media subsidies. Imprint writes:

"In the Rocchi case, the protection of sources was undermined by a criminal investigation by the Neuchâtel public prosecutor's office, without any of the preconditions that allow an exception in Article 28a (2) of the Criminal Code. And with the house search, the authority immediately chose the harshest means in question. In addition to the hard blow against a journalist and the freedom of the media, the ease with which the Attorney General Aubert finds "(...) If you violate your official secrecy in favor of a journalist, this can bring you problems (...)", provided that "(...) a criminal complaint has a minimum of credibility (...)" is outrageous. With this, the state representative openly questions the meaning of editorial secrecy, which is guaranteed in the Federal Constitution (excerpt from interview, TSR, 18.8.2013, free translation from French).

In addition to the state threat, there is also the economic threat to media freedom. More and more frequently, journalists testify that it is not possible for them to publish certain reports in the media because this could endanger the economic foundations of the media company - for example, by upsetting an advertising customer. This erosion of editorial independence is insidious, subtle and difficult to prove - and therefore at least as dangerous as state intervention. The University of Fribourg, together with impressum, is preparing a study that should shed more light on these interrelationships; initial results should be available before the end of 2014.

The reason for this development is that the economic conditions of private media companies are deteriorating rapidly, and there is no end in sight. Further cuts in editorial independence can only be prevented if the economic basis of media companies is strengthened. Media freedom is a need of the state and society - which is why it must be openly discussed whether the state and society would have to finance it more, for example, through press subsidies.

At the conference on press freedom in Lausanne on September 24, 2014, organized by impressum in partnership with Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), Amnesty International (AI), Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the University of Fribourg, the development of press freedom will be reviewed, and various knowledgeable and prominent personalities will speak and present proposals on how to stop the negative spiral."

The two editorial offices in Zurich and Geneva will remain. SDA has held a stake in Sportinformation AG since its founding years. Since 1986, this has been a 100 percent subsidiary of the national news agency. Developments in the media market have led to significant revenue shortfalls at Si. This was compounded by a sensitive drop in revenues from Sport164's various services with the advent of smartphones. With no reversal of the trend in sight, the Board of Directors has opted for full integration. This measure will enable significant synergies to be exploited, particularly in the administrative area. Details of the integration process will be worked out in working groups and implemented step by step. For the time being, nothing will change for Sportinformation's customers. The Board of Directors is convinced that, with the integration into SDA, it will be able to guarantee the Swiss media high-quality sports reporting at a reasonable price in the longer term as well.

Chris Chatchpole from the Vietnamese agency Phibious, based in Ho Chi Minh City, is responsible for the "Summer together" theme.

When a soft drink manufacturer advertises with slim women, it can be provocative. After just a few hours, a parody of the image appeared online. It shows what a real Coca-Cola summer model would look like. (sis)

The channel is the next logical step in the expansion of the channel family, Dominik Kaiser is quoted as saying. Kaiser is the founder and Managing Director of the 3 Plus Group. 5+ primarily stands for modern, excellently produced series that do not serve the mainstream and for emotional documentaries. The program also takes viewers' wishes into account. The positioning of 3+ and 4+ remains unchanged. 3+ focuses on Swiss in-house productions such as "Bauer, ledig, sucht ..." and "Der Bachelor". The program is supplemented with hit crime series. 4+ is the movie channel with blockbusters. 5+ will be launched in August 2014 and will be available on upc Cablecom, Swisscom TV and other cable networks, according to a press release. (SDA)

However, CHF 12.4 million of this was attributable to the sale of Calendaria, the company announced on Thursday with the invitation to the Annual General Meeting. Income from the advertising market and printing continued to decline. The reason for this is the intensifying structural change from print to digital, the company added. Operating profit amounted to CHF 10.6 million, CHF 1.9 million below the previous year's figure. Consolidated profit fell by 18.5 percent to CHF 9.3 million. The balance sheet total amounted to 135.2 million francs. Operating expenses decreased significantly - by 15.3 million francs. Group-wide cost-cutting measures and restructuring measures were implemented, according to the report. Expenses amounted to 130 million francs. This corresponds to
a decrease of 10.6 percent.

The Board of Directors is proposing a dividend of CHF 80 (previous year: CHF 90) per share to the Annual General Meeting. The LZ Group expects 2014 to be a "challenging year". It intends to press ahead with the expansion of its digital offerings. At the end of 2013, the company employed 462 (524) people, who shared 397 jobs. LZ Medien Holding is the publisher of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung and its regional editions. The company also owns the subsidiary Radio Pilatus and the local television station Tele 1 (SDA).