I don't like the clever new fox who offers clever prices for products from the Coop range. I couldn't get excited about him. But I did have to smile ironically when he offered fresh, tender chicken meat as a fox of all things. Perhaps there will be juicy goat or hare legs for Easter.

Speaking of rabbits. These are now booming. The white one in the Aldi ad is cute. But all the bunny shapes that don't come in traditional designs are these new, trendy chocolate bunnies with the big Michey Mouse eyes. Hideous creatures. Unfortunately, with exceptions, it is once again the case that everything used to be molded with more love and artistic flair. In my three years of mothballed experience of the communications world, this assertion unfortunately comes up again and again. The great success of the Lindt bunny proves that it pays to hire the best designers and product creators. My theory: The success or failure of advertising figures depends on small details. One of these details is definitely the quality, experience and sensitivity of the artist and animator of a particular advertising figure. If you look, for example, at the facial expressions and gestures of the M&Ms together with the excellent story of the hostage-taking and draw a comparison with the Thomymayosenf tube, then you will hopefully understand what I mean by quality, experience and sensitivity.

Another detail of a successful advertising character is a characteristic role allocation. The voice is also crucial to the character of such creatures. The Coop fox lacks such important details. The voice of the yellow M&M that says, "I think he's eating the Kevin," is perfectly cast. The fox's voice is too puffery. He's supposed to be a wise guy who doesn't like to give away his tips. There are still many character traits missing to land a role alongside Lion King in Hollywood. In contrast to the chocolate sticks for Ferrero product commercials, the fox at least has a chance of a bigger role with a few retouches. One thing is certain: there is a very fine line between top and flop. With all creations, it really depends on how much gut feeling there is in Kermit the frog, Pluto, the Ice Age squirrel, the new Jaguar e-type or the advertising fox and the Easter bunny. It's not possible to scientifically calculate this throw. Anyone who wants to save money and patience in the development of such difficult creatures has already lost anyway and you can wish them good night.

My view is that nature is once again running an excellent advertising campaign at the moment. The bumblebees and bees are queuing up.  

Theophil Butz, graphic designer, advertising agency owner, inspirer and since three years also
Motzer for Advertising Week readers. Please send any relevant information to [email protected]

A subspecies of pita lives in social media. They are called trolls there. However, their behavior differs fundamentally from that of the pita. The troll concentrates on provoking participants in the conversation and, above all, does not write any factual or constructive posts. What characterizes the Pita? He knows everything better, naturally has the most experience in everything and sees himself as an expert. He feels called upon to convince everyone present - who are all philistines in his eyes anyway - of his opinion. No matter how unrealistic or idiotic it is. His zeal is missionary. He wants to bring the erring sheep back onto the right path. Any means are acceptable to him. He pontificates, lectures, corrects, denounces and gets on everyone's nerves. He, on the other hand, doesn't mind in the slightest - he is persistent to the point of no return. You can't stop him, because he is completely immune to other opinions. They roll off him. Irony is not his thing either. The discussion has to be serious. Ironic counter-arguments therefore come to nothing. You can't shut him up either, because he repeats his arguments like a prayer wheel and doesn't realize that they don't get any better with the umpteenth repetition.
 
The group dynamic processes that he initiates with his behavior are predictable. Most of the participants resign themselves, turn a deaf ear and let him talk. A few try diplomatically, but unsuccessfully, to counter him, only to soon resign themselves and remain silent. Even an open exchange of blows comes to nothing, because timid verbal insults leave him cold. After all, he alone has the knowledge. He is convinced that the oak tree doesn't care if the sow rubs against it. He could probably only be stopped by insults of the worst kind - but who wants that? 

Pierre C. Meier

One remembers the emancipated tabloid, with a culture section, then it became magazine-like in format, then back to the large format and towards the Teutonic title style. Since last fall, the aim has been to become more politically relevant. Hence the election of René Lüchinger as editor-in-chief. But what was said in the gossipy industry: "He doesn't have a clue about tabloids." Far from it.

Since today at the latest, it's clear that Lüchi has shown everyone. Lüchi can do the tabloids. It's about the Dillier case. Vera Dillier, a jet-set exponent since time immemorial and therefore a safe value, has suffered a bitter blow and shares it with Blick. Here is the history with the corresponding titles and snippets: 10.4.: "Vera Dillier fears for her life partner

Felix Guyer - and learns at his hospital bedside that he is having an affair: First shocked, then betrayed." On the same day, supplemented with a poll: "Should Vera Dillier separate from Felix Guyer?" On 11.4. Felix Guyer has his say: "After 19 years with his Vera. I was curious about something new!" Also on 11.4. the result of the survey and the readers' letters on the topic: basic tenor: "She should forget the SMS." Same day on Blick online: Dog advisor and Playboy model Andrea Vetsch explains how the animals now comfort the jet-set lady: "The animals help Dillier get over the sex text message."

On 12.4. then another expert: Couples therapist Klaus Heer explains "The hormone rush is ravishing". 4/14: "He's always naked! Vera Dillier has a new guy" (it's about a Mexican naked dog). Then on 4/16 the climax: "I'd rather cry in my golden bathtub in St. Moritz than in a backyard room in Oerlikon." And "Meine geile Welt," Dillier's new column. The phrases in the first column are great cinema: "The sun is shining over the snow-covered mountains, but in my heart everything is still quite cloudy," "Felix's Gucci socks, which were still lying next to the bed, are flying high into the trash bag. There was still too much smell and memories of him on them!", "I lie in my golden bathtub and lick my wounds in the fragrant water".

The nice thing about Ringier is that there is room for real tabloids alongside serious stuff like Cicero or, in the future, Le Temps.

Pierre C. Meier, Editor in Chief
[email protected]
 

In these crazy times, the young generation needs its own print medium in which it can present its opinions, write and photograph itself." This was the conviction of Othmar Beerli, publisher of the Musenalp Express, in the 1970s. Today, this is no longer so important, one would think, as social media networks offer enough platforms for any kind of self-presentation. But conveying a well-founded opinion, adopting one's own perspective, is not only essential for political opinion-forming and cultural development, it also requires a platform. For some, social media networks seem too arbitrary, too simple, too confusing. This is how dieperspektive came into being in Zurich - a newspaper for readers who like to think one perspective step further and which functions according to the principle "from the reader for the reader. Apparently, it is also quite convenient for many - at least, theperspektive has already existed for more than three years. The respective articles are supposed to offer a perspective that is lost in the conventional media. The free newspaper Blick am Abend has also picked up on this recurring trend and started a "Young Community" section, with slogans, couples' photos and opinion controversies. At dieperspektive, all content is written by readers only. The editorial system is also structured somewhat differently. All decisions concerning the paper are made at the editorial meeting.

The meeting is open to the public and any decisions must receive the approval of all participants. Otherwise, discussions are held until a consensus is reached. Layout and content are then again more in line with a magazine that is to be taken seriously than a chaotic, lively trend journal. With various panel discussions, literary evenings and award ceremonies, theperspektive is once again integrated into a lively platform that traces current trends in political opinion-forming and cultural development.
 
All in all, a platform for cultural and political debate, representation and enlightenment. But how does this platform function for readers as a whole - and above all: What keeps the motivation and the newspaper afloat?

 
WW: How did the idea of a reader newspaper come about in the first place?
I generally have the feeling that user-generated content is a trend, even in large media companies. Watson, for example, is doing this very well. They have their own section for reader input and include many tweets in their texts. Meanwhile, SRF also has an app with a prominent "eyewitness" button. A good example is the accident with a crane that was too high to fit under the bridge. This scene was also filmed right away. This is a special and interesting development in general. And we have tried to fill a whole issue like that. Successfully for three and a half years.

Is dieperspektive a Zurich city magazine?
The focus tends to be on the city of Zurich, but we also have subscribers from various urban German-speaking areas of Switzerland. Of our readers, those who contribute are also rather active in other ways. That means they take part in our discussions, participate online with contributions or comments. After all, we also organize panel discussions, all of which are intended to encourage readers not only to behave as consumers, but also to actively participate. For example, we hold a panel discussion for every vote in which three people who have nothing to do with politics take part. They are Philipp Meier (social media editor at Watson), Kafi Freitag (blogger) and Rino Borrini (editor at Punkt Magazin). They start the discussion, with the aim that the whole audience joins in. We make sure that the number of participants is limited to about 20 people. After 40 people, it becomes difficult to allow everyone who wants to speak to do so.

Was there an idea from the very beginning to combine a reader newspaper with events?
At the very beginning, we simply wanted to create a reader-generated print newspaper. Then, relatively quickly, we also published articles online. Especially on topics that are also time-critical. We then started to build up the events about two and a half years ago, as a third mainstay. We only published individual texts from the print edition online. But now, for example, we also have independent columns that only appear online.

Would you describe theperspective as a cultural, political current?
That is certainly the case. It's also our goal that people can engage with us through different channels. We certainly have people who take part in discussions like crazy in battles of words, but would never write a text. In which form one finally expresses oneself is irrelevant to us. The main thing is to express yourself in some form. Today, it's easy to get the impression that this is the case with all newspapers and platforms, that you can contribute. But that's only true to a limited extent. Most of the time, it's a vanishingly small percentage of readers who actually express themselves regularly in comments. In this respect, we are certainly a current. A current of people who like to develop new ideas through discourse and who are not put off by somewhat unwieldy and complicated trains of thought. We don't want to be something to consume, at dieperspektive you should participate.

What else do you think motivates dieperspektive readers to participate over an already relatively long period of time?
Good question - we haven't done any market research on that. I think many people appreciate the playfulness and directness of dieperspektive. We like to try things out (e.g. 20-minute copy, or the Zurich Capital Initiative) and sometimes cause a stir. Perfection is not our top priority. We all just do it on the side. As a reader or writer, you probably notice that. I assume that this relaxed manner of ours goes down quite well and is refreshing in the sometimes somewhat uptight media landscape, but still has depth. This balancing act between playfulness and profundity is what makes it work.

Is that already enough motivation for your readers? What about recognition?
Recognition is important. For most participants, the motivation is to see their text in a printed newspaper. That's something quite different from seeing your own sentences on the screen. In print, they lose their ephemerality and take on something so definitive. Of course, we also try to create other incentives. All contributors receive a subscription to perspektive and can attend our events free of charge. Of course, we would love to pay a salary to all our writers! But just for this statement our budget manager looks at me again punishingly. Unfortunately, we can't afford that (yet).

And what motivates you?
I've been studying journalism and communications for seven semesters now. The course is so dry that it's easy to get the impression that the media world consists of a handful of abstract theories. At dieperspektive, I can try something out. Even though we are a very small magazine, we still have to cover every area of an editorial office and a publishing house. That's extremely exciting and sometimes quite challenging. We actually learned everything according to the simple principle: Let's try it out!

Does dieperspektive also have censorship? Or does the editorial team record everything without comment?
There are relatively rare texts that are extremely meaningless, very sexist or glorify violence. Of course, we do not publish such contributions. Otherwise, however, we do not decide on publication as an editorial team. Instead, we have a public editorial meeting. This means that anyone who is interested can take part and join in the discussion. The goal in each case is to find a common consensus on which text should be published. This means that everyone must agree. Otherwise, we discuss until we all agree. Everyone involved must be able to stand behind it. After all, we all do this newspaper voluntarily, no one earns money from it. That's why it's all the more important that everyone is satisfied with the end product. At the editorial meetings, we also decide on the theme of the issue. The goal, however, would be to increase the number of free contributions that are sent in, regardless of the topic. Such input would also serve us well as a mirror from our environment, to find out what is burning under the nails of the readers.

This claim is delicately reminiscent of the Musenalp Express. In any case, the publisher of this newspaper was convinced that in the "crazy times of the time, the young generation needed a strong print medium in which they could present themselves, write themselves, and take photographs. And yet, in 1990, it was not really successful, the magazine became a trend magazine and the name Musenalp-Express disappeared. Will dieperspektive also become a trend magazine when the time comes?
We try by all means to weight the reader's opinion as the highest. Of course, a trend magazine would sell better, also in terms of advertisers. But that is not our claim. It is no longer possible for us to intervene; the newspaper has already taken on such a life of its own that we could not simply change its direction. Our readers don't suddenly start writing about the latest cashmere sweater from Globus. Our readers are not interested in that either - we can already read about that in Friday. Apart from that, that wouldn't fit into our concept of an independent reader newspaper at all.

In terms of layout, Dieperspektive appears rather calm and serious when I compare it with Kult magazine, for example, which seems much more colorful and lively. Is there a reason for this?
Originally, this was done with the idea of influencing the text as little as possible with the layout. The pure opinion should stand for itself. We don't want to interfere with the content through the form. But we also try to adapt the layout to the topic to a certain extent. However, the intention is to have a calm layout. The newspaper has the claim that it is not only about consumption, with as many pictures and light bars as possible. The texts are long and want to be read with the appropriate care. We convey depth even if they are "only" reader opinions. But these opinions should be paid attention to. Precisely because these people do not write by profession, new ideas come up. Our authors often have a different approach than a journalist who is already versed and entrenched in the respective topic.

Isn't it still difficult to find advertisers at all with such a concept?
Yes, it is - difficult and time-consuming. We also do the acquisition ourselves, without an agency behind us. So far, it has always been enough to cover the printing costs. But we don't need more than that.

Prefer to remain independent?
Publi-Reportagen have never happened with us in any case so far. And they never will. That's a no-go, of course. It has also happened that a company has sent us a text. But these are rejected at the public editorial meeting. Unless the idea is so interesting and relevant. But you know yourself how most media releases come across. We in the editorial team already have the journalistic claim not to do that. Although we don't monitor our readers in this respect either, of course.

Does that mean that dieperspektive has a clear ideology after all?
Depending on the issue, we have 30-50 different ideologies behind it. In our editorial team, everyone also has their own ideology. Some of us might want more politics, or art, but so far no specific ideology has ever predominated. But that changes constantly with the people who are there.

Do you also do data analysis online?
Google Analytics and a Word Press program. We use these, but relatively dilettantishly. We only look at what has been clicked on the most, but don't exploit the information further. We do it more out of interest about what is best received. And interestingly enough, we have a large readership online that is interested in the squatter scene. With these texts we have by far the most reach. For whatever reason. And sex sells. It's no different with us. Of course, titles are extremely important online. I'm a little reluctant to make a lurid title just to sell the text. But that is my personal opinion. In my opinion, a title should be representative for the text, Google Analytics or not.

Do you also advertise online for dieperspektive?
No, not at all. Our website would not have the reach for that.
 
dieperspektive is also present on Facebook?
Yes, but we're not really dependent on Facebook. Of course, a large proportion of online readers come via Facebook, which is becoming more and more the case in general - gaining customers via social media. But it's not our biggest discussion platform. We prefer it when people come to our events and discuss the respective topic in person on a smaller scale.

Do you already have plans for the future? Do you want to expand the concept?
We are now working on making the print newspaper thicker. Recently, dieperspektive is still published every two months, but with 40 pages of content. This also gives us the opportunity to design the magazine in a qualitatively good way. What we certainly want to do is a new homepage. Or rather, a contemporary online presence with responsive design. We also want to enable readers to post texts directly online. In addition, we currently have a literary event going on, "Treppentexte". It works on the same principle: anyone can come, doesn't have to register in advance, and there are no selection criteria. The only difference is that whistles from the audience should be taken as a sign to be quiet. We already have 30-40 people coming to this event. We are organizing this event in cooperation with the magazine Delirium, among others. Other collaborations are also already being planned. For example, an alternative World Cup program is planned with the "Let it out" board of trustees. And in August we will move to the Karl der Grosse Center. There will certainly be further collaborations. Such collaborations are extremely valuable, especially for us, in order to take advantage of synergies. I myself am very curious to see how it all turns out. We are moving in the direction of a community-based platform, but in contrast to the countless other platforms, we are mainly offline.

Ursina mason

Large organizations, especially publicly funded ones, develop a life of their own and a momentum of their own - even when they are "actually" no longer needed. Cyril Northcote Parkinson was the first to put this in a nutshell using the example of the British Navy: After the First World War, the United Kingdom's fleet shrank, while at the same time the force of dock workers who supplied the ships and the Admiralty's water head grew - the latter even disproportionately. Other bureaucracies are also threatened by Parkinson's "law" and, on top of that, by a shift in objectives - especially if, like the public broadcasters in Europe, they essentially control themselves. The supervisory bodies are often staffed by parliamentarians who, for their part, are dependent on television reporting positively about them. They regard broadcasting as their favorite toy and not so much as a sprawling apparatus that needs to be put in its place. In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court has just set a small example and ensured that there are a few fewer politicians on the ZDF broadcasting council.

At the same time, we organized a series of seminars in Lugano to mark the 10th anniversary of the European Journalism Observatory in order to discuss the future prospects of public television and radio with international experts. The Ticino Journa listenverband and Corsi, the cooperative that supports public broadcasting in Italian-speaking Switzerland, were also involved.

The conclusion and highlight of the series of events was a debate between SRG Director General Roger de Weck and financier Tito Tettamanti, who has also been involved in the newspaper business for years. Tettamanti first amazed his audience with a very simple trick: he pulled the previous day's Swiss television program out of his jacket pocket, read it out - and then asked the not entirely unjustified question as to what really constituted a "public service"... De Weck countered by pointing in particular to the wide range of cultural services that would not be provided without SRG.

Otherwise, three insights have crystallized in the course of the cycle that I think are worth sharing: Firstly, all the cogent reasons that once led to the decision in Europe to organize broadcasting on a public rather than a private basis have been rendered obsolete by digitalization and the Internet. We need to rethink from scratch what role public broadcasting, which will inevitably become more and more of a public Internet provider, should play.

Secondly, it is important to take a close look - and Roger de Weck was able to score points here: Where there is a corresponding culture of public service, of "public service" in the literal sense of serving, it remains an important cultural carrier, an instrument of national integration and also of minority protection. Such a culture exists in Switzerland and probably also in the UK (despite the various crises through which the BBC has staggered). In other countries, for example in Italy, the tendency of politicians and program makers to regard RAI as a self-service store is much more pronounced. The fact that even in Germany and the UK, broadcasting directors earn more than the British Prime Minister or the German Chancellor is probably a further indication of the mentality of service - as we all know, the fish stinks from the head down.

Thirdly, SRG is a giant in Switzerland, but a small sprat in the shark tank of global competition. It is possible that public broadcasters - even giants such as the BBC, ARD and ZDF - are far too small to face up to the real challenges of the digital age: It would be necessary to prevent giants such as Google and Facebook from increasingly becoming monopolists in their markets, spying on all of our private lives and, on top of that, increasingly acting as gatekeepers who use their algorithms to remotely control what each and every one of us learns about the world.

On the other hand, the BBC, ARD and ZDF, as well as the SRG with all their billions in license fees, are too big for smaller competitors from the publishing industry, which have to finance themselves privately, to be able to hold their own against them on the Internet with their own multimedia offerings. For Switzerland, this means that apart from SRG, only Tamedia and perhaps Ringier have a chance of surviving in the fierce online competition. I see an opportunity for the NZZ if it succeeds in cooperating closely with foreign titles such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Presse in Vienna. Media diversity is under threat like never before. The Schaffhauser Nachrichten, La Regione and Le Temps probably don't stand a chance against the big players in the industry, including the SRG and its offshoots in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.

Stephan Russ-Mohl directs the European Journalism Observatory at the University of Lugano.
 

The challenges at Goldbach are exactly as he sees them. Because of his history, Klaus Nadler, as a proven "digital guy," is expected to be "heavily involved in the digital areas" and play a strategic role there, in addition to his classic duties as Chief Marketing Officer and Group Product Management. "Goldbach is very well known. But it is difficult to differentiate the business areas. We are very strongly perceived as a TV marketer. But the fact that we are also a leader in the online segment is only very vaguely noticed. The same is true in other business areas. For me, the task is therefore obvious: a clear positioning of the business areas, a clear statement of what we actually do, and establishing the whole topic more strongly on the market." This is Klaus Nadler's initial analysis after just under four weeks in his new job. He finds it most difficult to clearly position Goldbach Interactive's business areas.

"As a former outsider, I was late to notice that the creative digital agency is also part of the group. This is despite the fact that it is an agency with 71 people that is also doing well in the BSW ranking at number 8. Unfortunately, this is still too little known, just like their remarkable customer base. We also have a branch in Germany, and from the former Suchtreffer we have developed Goldbach Interactive Deutschland there." The new CMO now wants to position all of this and then communicate it accordingly "loudly." Klaus Nadler is supported by an 11-person marketing department, including public relations and investor relations. From July 2014, an expert for product management will also be active. The data management area, which is important for marketing, also already has a high-caliber staff.

A forward strategy has always driven the manager. "It's important to me to be able to make an essential contribution. In doing so, I can admit without bad feelings: I actually like working a lot. And yet I manage to maintain a balance between private and professional life." Klaus Nadler is proud of his 15-year-old daughter, who lives with his ex-wife in Hamburg, contacts him almost every evening by text message "and wants to come to Zurich every chance she gets." He lives here, or rather in Kilchberg, with his new partner and their 15-month-old daughter. "Everything has settled down perfectly in the meantime. "

Klaus Nadler started his career by studying business administration with a focus on marketing in Giessen. While still at university, he worked part-time for Alcatel and was then offered a job after graduating. He was also interested in advertising from an early age. Already very close to his current specialty was a second job. At T-Online, at that time still a spin-off of Telecom, Klaus Nadler was there from the beginning - "as employee number 23". He was part of a team that was considered to be "pioneers of the Internet in Germany. Nadler was allowed to help build up e-commerce. "These first shopping portals were also the first business area to achieve a high level of importance alongside the access business to the Net."

These successes in Darmstadt eventually led Nadler to specialize even more in the di gital area. "That was the topic with the most potential for me. I also liked that dynamic, back in the pioneering days of the World Wide Web." The belief in the future even encouraged self-employment. As part of an agency network, Klaus Nadler designed and programmed websites for SMEs.

During the vacation season, it is usually the Bild newspaper that proclaims Mallorca the 17th German state. Anyone landing on the Mediterranean island now has more the impression of the 27th Swiss canton. Because thousands of cyclists are circling under the palm trees - almost all with a Swiss logo on their jersey, almost all customers of Bicycle Holidays Max Hürzeler.

The former Swiss track cycling world champion is the bike king of Mallorca. With Max as a testimonial, the brand has become Europe's largest bicycle tour operator. In 2013, it had almost 35,000 customers - bicycle marketing perfection, all Swiss-made. The success story of the native of Dübendorf is the dream of every former professional athlete: the career after the career. It is the story of the gardener's son who became a multi-millionaire. Hürzeler founded his own travel company in 1989 as a former European and world champion steeplechaser. He says, "Because of my training, I knew my way around Mallorca, so I simply took my friends and acquaintances with me. " The group training sessions turned into an insider tip. After five years, Max Hürzeler already offers rental bikes on the island. "The transport costs for the bikes on the plane were simply too high. So I bought eight bikes for my station on the island," recalls the now 60-year-old. What's more, the bicycle travel provider appeared for the first time with its now famous logo. It shows a stylized racing bike with a red saddle, red handlebars and the Swiss cross as pedals.

Hürzeler's bicycle, which is oriented to the right, does not come from the studio of a design agency. The former world champion had no money for that. The logo is the gift of an art student who was allowed to ride her bike on Mallorca at a discount. In general, there is no room for advertising agencies in Max Hürzeler's new world of experience. He prefers to concentrate fully on his guests, reveals the best nutrition tips, provides training plans and hires masseurs for his hobby cyclists. Marketing is storytelling. And in Hürzeler's case, it's the guests who do the telling. They rave about the island after their cycling vacation and bring their friends along the following year. The first articles appear in trade journals. In addition, there is the luck of the brave: Road cycling has become a trend. In the 1990s, the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, the Vuelta and the Tour de Suisse are TV ratings hits in German-speaking countries. Suddenly it's chic to cruise on a racing bike. True to the motto "a touch of Tour de France on Mallorca", more and more tourists are booking with Bicycle Holidays Max Hürzeler. In ever more hotels in Playa de Muro it occupies bed contingents. The north of the popular vacation island becomes the Dorado for cyclists. And Max, the tour operator, even takes care of road construction. "Some of the roads here were catastrophic," he says, "what good is the best catering if you fall on your nose because of the potholes." So the police chief is put in charge, and just a few weeks later the damage is repaired. Today, Mallorca's wide main roads have a bike lane, and the smaller connecting roads are perfectly asphalted - thanks in part to Max Hürzeler.
 
The Majorcan tourism association honors the agile Swiss with an honorary award for his services. More and more come from the mainland to explore the island on a bike rented by Hürzeler. An idea becomes a bestseller. His marketing philosophy does not change: Hürzeler relies on word-of-mouth, referral marketing, the regular guest policy. The former world champion says: "Our marketing is and remains the delivery of quality." There was and is no money for big advertising campaigns. At the turn of the millennium, there are already over 10,000 paying and sweating guests. Max Hürzeler becomes an island celebrity, continues to look after his guests, the hotel contingents, the bicycles. But he and his organization are overloaded. That's where Walter Güntensperger comes in. The tourism professional and former CEO of the Migros subsidiary Hotelplan buys the Max Hürzeler company in 2005 and positions it as an international brand. Max Hürzeler remains with the company as a friend and advisor.

Güntensperger expands sales, acquires the German Rewe, Neckermann and TUI as partners. Likewise, 16 hotels become partners. Today, the bike brand operates ten service and rental stations on Mallorca, offering 8,000 rental bikes, from carbon racers to city bikes and electric bikes. Walter Güntensperger: "We have doubled the number of guests and tripled the number of rental bikes. Our USP is the positive amazement factor." With almost 35,000 guests in 2013, Bicycle Holidays Max Hürzeler is now considered Europe's largest bicycle tour operator. The brand's most important advertising figure is still Max Hürzeler. He is the bicycle king of Mallorca. He is the testimonial of a success story. In terms of marketing strategy, hardly anything has changed. What used to be the flyer is now the Internet presence. 90 percent of bookings are now received online. Media partnerships with the Roadbike and Tour trade magazines and trips for journalists have also been added.

Who is on Mallorca, however, can not escape the brand. From Muro to Llucmajor, from Andratx to Cala Millor - in every place of Mallorca flutter the banners of Bicycle Holidays Max Hürzeler. At intersections of various bicycle tours, such as in Petra, hundreds of cyclists take a break every day - many of them in Hürzeler jerseys. Also very often in the picture: dresses of the Swiss luxury brand Assos. Assos cooperates, how could it be otherwise, with Hürzeler. "I'm responsible for our bike collections," says Max Hürzeler, "and I'm proud that people are satisfied." The merchandising business of the "Velo-King" has also become a bestseller. Those who haven't booked a full-service package (including jersey and shorts) shop at one of the ten Hürzeler boutiques. According to a survey, each Velo guest invests another 60 euros for additional equipment. Today, the Hürzeler brand is also a sought-after business partner. For example, with the island's hotels. Walter Güntensperger: "Every year, 30 hotels apply to us. We can choose from the best offers." And bike manufacturers are also lining up at Hürzeler. No wonder: the travel provider buys 1000 to 1500 new bikes for its clientele every year. Currently, the German brands Cube and Centurion are supplying.

Hürzeler has two seasons in Mallorca. Once from the end of January to the end of May and then from November to January. In winter, the professional teams arrive to prepare for the season. Then the hobby cyclists storm the island. According to Walter Güntensperger, around 25 percent of the guests come from Switzerland, 65 percent from Germany. The range is now to be systematically expanded in the coming years. Güntensperger: "We see great potential in Great Britain. Due to the medals at the Olympics and the successes of the British team Sky, the topic of cycling vacations is very big there." The market leader also sees new potential in Scandinavia.

And Max Hürzeler, the inventor of modern bicycle marketing, is still involved in his former company. Now he has more time for his extra tours, which take him to Thailand, Las Vegas and Australia. On the side, he has revived the Zurich 6-Day Race. With money and commitment. Everything Swiss made. And always with the same philosophy: "For me, marketing is about delivering quality.

Peter Ehm

The bicycle market in Switzerland

Lack of parking spaces, fuel prices and the new desire for health - these are all reasons why the bicycle has also become the new status symbol in Switzerland. "Sales figures have been at a high level for years," says Roland Fuchs of Velosuisse, the association of Swiss bicycle suppliers. Satisfied faces both in the Swiss specialized trade and in the specialized markets. According to the sales statistics just published by Velosuisse, 330,313 new bicycles were sold in Switzerland in 2013. Six years earlier, the figure was 325 963. The bestseller in 2013 was the mountain bike (MTB) 26' with 98 889 units. 16 121 new road bikes are on the Swiss roads (2008: 13 895). Often ridiculed in the past, now a box-office hit: the electric bicycle. "I have to honestly admit that I was against the e-bike," says bike travel guru Max Hürzeler, "but the thing has caught on in the market. We offer it in Mallorca, and the booking numbers are very good." In Switzerland, 49,362 e-bikes found new buyers last year. In 2012, the figure was as high as 52,941. Velosuisse expects the bike boom to continue. Following the motto "carbon instead of horsepower," retailers and manufacturers can continue to expect good business. 
 

With its legendary Beauty Sketches campaign from 2013, Dove redefined the image of women in advertising. The video went around the world, won the Titanium Grand Prix in Cannes, generated over 163 million views and thus became one of the most viewed advertising campaigns of all time on YouTube. Now, the skincare brand from Unilever is unveiling the official follow-up campaign: Various short films show how women find new self-confidence thanks to the revolutionary Dove Beauty Patch. The surprise ending of these stories is intended to encourage women in their self-confidence and show that true beauty begins in the mind. "Beauty is a state of mind."

The music for it comes from Switzerland. In close collaboration with the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, São Paulo (Agency of the Year - Cannes Lions 2013), the Zurich-based sibling trio Great Garbo composed the music for the beauty campaign. The intimate and atmospheric music underlines the emotional journey of the protagonists on their way to more self-confidence and radiance. "We are very pleased that we were allowed to compose the music for these moving films after the great success of the previous campaign. This shows the agencies' trust in our work. The collaboration with the top-class creative teams in LA, São Paulo and New York were intense and enriching. The result is a very inspiring campaign." So Diego, Nora and Lionel Vincent Baldenweg of Great Garbo on the new Dove campaign.

Since 2004, the award-winning team of Swiss-Australian siblings Diego Baldenweg, Nora and Lionel Vincent has been producing music in Zurich for various domestic and foreign advertising agencies, directors and film productions. Renowned brands such as Canon, Braun, Orange, Mastercard and Sony rely on the innovative and authentic music of Great Garbo. pan  

Lionel Baldenweg from Great Garbo about the job for Dove

WW: How do you get the job from Zurich for a global campaign for Dove?
Lionel Baldenweg: You'd actually have to ask our customers that. Our past work and our special team structure aroused the interest of the producer of Ogilvy & Mather Brasi- lien in São Paulo. The director in charge and the creative directors shared this interest and it was decided to work with us from the beginning.
 
How did the collaboration with the agencies work out in concrete terms?
We composed a few music samples. Some of them were worked out in detail and finally one version won the race. In this case, the conference calls were special, taking place at all possible times over a period of three to four months, as the main people were based in São Paulo, LA, New York, Paris and Zurich.
 
What was the basic idea for your music?
The music should accompany the actresses as well as the viewer in a sensitive way on this emotional journey. The cinematic guitar track should leave room for the various characters to be themselves without alienating them, accompanying them in an almost documentary way. In addition, the intimate track should build steadily to the end with a lot of warmth and personality, remaining atmospheric and epic at the same time.
 
What feedback has the result brought so far?
The feedback on this campaign has been enormous. In the first six days, the film has already been viewed around 35 million times on YouTube on various continents. What's more, the international coverage of this new campaign, or rather this experiment, has been phenomenal.
 
Are more international "appearances" of Great Garbo on the cards?
We are constantly working on new projects ...
 
Interview: Andreas Panzeri

Ringier and Tamedia announced last fall that they intended to sell their majority stake of 92.5 percent (of which 50% each Tamedia Publications romandes and Ringier) in the French-speaking Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps, which was founded in 1998. Minority shareholders are the Geneva banker Claude Demole (3%), the Société des Rédacteurs du Personnel du Monde (2.4%) and the Société éditrice du Monde (2.1%).
 
Even then, the two Zurich publishing houses left the door open: if no convincing offer was received, each would consider buying the other's stake. The announcement of the sale caused quite a stir. Impressum, the largest journalists' association in Switzerland, was concerned about the future of the newspaper and in particular about its quality, editorial independence, the diversity of the media in French-speaking Switzerland and jobs. The governments of the cantons of Vaud and Geneva also expressed concerns. Geneva asked the publishers for a meeting and Vaud announced that it would be following the dossier with particular attention. Pascal Broulis, Vaud State Councillor, indicated that he was critical of the method of selling to the highest bidder.
 
There was no shortage of interested parties. One of the first was the media company Agefi. Watch manufacturer Jean-Claude Biver, who is not from the industry, was also interested in the quality title. The 64-year-old said that he was not looking to make a fortune in the industry, but that it was a desire of the heart. His commitment is private and he is doing it out of love for French-speaking Switzerland. However, he did not want to lose too much money. However, he soon withdrew. The previous management also wanted to take over the newspaper, but Ringier and Tamedia said that a management buy-out was not realistic due to the lack of financing, as this would only be possible with additional financial investors. However, neither publisher wanted this. They announced that only interested parties who wanted to finance a takeover of Le Temps with their own funds would be admitted to the sales process. Individuals or companies who were obviously interested in taking over Le Temps on behalf of third party investors in the background would not be considered. Other known interested parties were Christoph Blocher and Tito Tettamanti with their Medien Vielfalt Holding and the NZZ Group. A "Cercle des Amis du Temps" made up of more than 700 personalities from French-speaking Switzerland also formed to submit a bid. But there were even more interested parties. According to reports, a total of twelve bids were submitted. However, as Ringier CEO Marc Walder announced at his annual media orientation, in the end only one candidate remained, the "Cercle des Amis du Temps".
 
Just one day later, Ringier and Tamedia announced that Ringier would take over Tamedia's shareholding and thus become the sole majority shareholder. Walder said in the press release: "Le Temps is a matter close to Ringier's heart! Ringier has always regarded itself as a French-language publisher with deep ties to French-speaking Switzerland. In addition, this acquisition underlines the fact that Ringier - despite consistent diversification and transformation - remains a media company that believes in journalism and its relevance for society." The Competition Commission still has to give its approval for the purchase, but the parties involved are optimistic.
 
Pierre C. Meier

For years, media companies had hoped to be able to finance their online presences with advertising alone. Initially, this was not quite as naive as it must seem today. When the Internet took off in the mid-1990s, the search engine and advertising giant Google was still unborn, and e-commerce (for subscriptions, for example), as it is taken for granted today, was more cumbersome (and unreliable) back then. Today, Steven Neubauer, Head of Marketing & Products at NZZ, for example, states: "Like the entire industry, we expect even stronger competition from other providers in the advertising market in the future. This is not a question of reach, but a technology-driven development that we have to live with." Customers are migrating more and more to mobile devices, where they remain difficult to reach for advertising. To do so, they are not only leaving behind publishers' websites, where prices for traditional display advertising are under pressure, but their revenue-generating print products are also increasingly losing readers. It is therefore obvious that media companies are looking for ways to attract not only advertisers but also users to finance their journalistic activities. Paywalls are therefore not just a product, but the word also stands for the process of finding out how to raise money from readers. That's why paywalls vary from publisher to publisher, from title to title, from year to year, and if you analyze the various examples from Germany and abroad, you'll find a lively variety of solutions and approaches (see "Many Ways").

Unwilling readers

What's more, users have long since become accustomed to the free culture on the web, and an entire generation has grown up for whom such things are a matter of course. "Empirical studies show that only a small part of the Internet population is currently willing to spend money on digital content on the Web," says Klaus Miller, Business Development & Strategic Analysis at Ringier's Blick Group. After all, news of the day is the same for everyone, and in a British survey of Internet users last August, for example, 80 percent said that paywalls at newspapers were bad and that they would not pay for online news content, or that they were pointless because the same news was available for free elsewhere. At Ringier, this is no reason for resignation: "But we still see the potential to generate additional revenue with selected, innovative content that meets readers' needs." The formula is simple: If you want to be successful with paid content, you have to offer more.
 
Simply putting a price tag on existing web content is simplistic to that end. The New York Times, which is often used as a model by publishers, has also noticed this. After a three-year period of success with its metered paywall ($160 million per year), growth is leveling off, and new recipes are being sought. For example, a new mobile app, a low-price subscription for opinion pieces only combined with the restaurant and recipe pages, or a more expensive subscription with additional services. According to Steven Neubauer, the NZZ Media Group also wants to move in this direction: "We are convinced that there is a market for quality journalism in online and mobile. However, our customers expect offers tailored to their needs. They are also willing to pay for that." That's why the company wants to better address the specific needs of customer groups in the future and "instead of the classic 'newspaper' bundle, put together new bundles that meet their interests ". And according to company spokeswoman Ursulina Stecher, the AZ Media Group also wants to pay "even more attention to measuring user behavior" in the future. Because: "Only those who know their users know where and when they are willing to pay for content." It's not just marketing that has to come up with new product bundles, but also the editorial teams in creating new content. Whether this is economically feasible in the small Swiss market is judged differently: It is "not only feasible, but absolutely necessary," thinks Ursulina Stecher. And NZZ-Neubauer concludes: "Basically, the Swiss market is big enough for additional offerings." Meanwhile, Klaus Miller of Ringier cautions, "Producing innovative and exclusive content is time-consuming and cost-intensive. Remonetizing these costs is certainly easier in large markets such as the United States or Germany than in Switzerland." And BaZ CEO Rolf Bollmann says: "Such novel content still has to be invented first. In any case, it can't be news content."

A great experiment

It becomes clear that paywalls are a great experiment. It's not just about finding out how to make money from users, but also about driving out page views that are not relevant to the advertising market. Tamedia is aware of this, as company spokesman Christoph Zimmer explains: "The decisive advantage of the metered model, in which readers can read a certain number of articles free of charge, is precisely that the reach should not decline significantly. We have analyzed various examples internationally, which show that the decline in reach over a longer period of time is not significant." Rolf Bollman, CEO of Basler Zeitung (and founder of 20 Minuten at the time), is less optimistic: "The same development will take place as with print media. Free equals high reach, equals higher advertising revenues. Since 20min.ch will always offer online content for free as well, they will be the big winners in terms of advertising revenue there, too - and the paid newspapers or the news portals with pay barriers will be the big losers. Content revenue can't even compensate for a fraction of what's lost in the advertising market because of lower reach, since paywall." He estimates the additional revenue with a paywall to be "in the order of ten percent maximum of the subscription revenue of the printed newspaper." And Andrea Masüger, CEO of Somedia AG, assesses the chances of additional revenue from the reader market as "uncertain": "If we succeed in making up for the loss of subscription revenue from print, that's already a huge success." After all, the introduction of a metered paywall also opens up new opportunities in the advertising market: If additional freely accessible content is offered exclusively to registered users, profile data can be gained or existing data can be improved. In addition, registered or paying customers can be sold as a special inventory group for display advertising at a better price, since they can be assigned to a higher purchasing power group (business people) overall. However, it is hardly possible to catch up with the heavyweights in the online advertising market in this way.

Piano Media shows the way

Because in order to be able to stand up to the high-tech attackers, media companies are advantageously taking joint action, as is the case in France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, for example. But whether in the advertising or reader market, the path to such national industry solutions is not easy, because publishers are confronted with the prisoner's dilemma (which often arises in sociological and economic issues: Two spatially separated prisoners face the choice to deny or confess. For the individual, it is safest to confess, but bilateral denial promises the best overall outcome): If everyone retreats behind a paywall, everyone is fine. If no one does it, everyone suffers. If everyone does it and one of them backs out, he profits handsomely, while the others suffer.

Examples in Slovakia and Poland show that joint action by publishers is also possible in the reader market. Under the umbrella of Piano Media, national paywalls have been established here, which currently comprise 25 media with a total of 80 websites, including those of the most important publishers. Anyone who has registered can download content from all participating media in exchange for money. The revenues are divided between the operators of Piano Media and the publishers according to a certain key.  
 
Christop J. Walther

Paywalls in Switzerland

The hard
Norbert Neininger, publisher and editor-in-chief of Schaffhauser Nachrichten, is known for his pronounced views on the Swiss media industry. So it's not surprising that he has been releasing his content on the web for over three years now only in exchange for good money. He has been able to win 300 customers for this, while print subscribers can access the online offering at no extra charge. The front page and all non-editorial content is free, and there are premium offers such as news alerts and PDFs in the archive that cost extra. Philipp Honegger, Managing Director of Sobag Schaffhausen Online Betriebs AG, recalls: "The outcry was great and there were many bad words. User numbers plummeted by about 30 to 40 percent. " But for him it is clear: "Since SN was not really able to generate advertising revenue on shn.ch before, this factor could be faded out. So the consistent implementation of selling good editorial content can only be called a success." But Neininger was not the first to charge for content in Switzerland. As early as 2009, publisher president Hanspeter Lebrument's Südostschweiz-Medienverbund made its online content chargeable. According to Lukas Joos, Head of Online, this only applies to "a few selected online articles or multimedia contributions". In contrast, the content of the paid daily newspapers is only freely accessible to subscribers of the respective title. Those who want to read individual articles can register and benefit from a start-up credit of ten francs. Since the beginning of 2013, the exclusive content of the Fribourg News has also been available for a fee and only to subscribers.

The points
The best-known example to date in German-speaking Switzerland of a paywall is the NZZ, which launched a digital subscription on NZZ.ch at the beginning of October 2012, relying on the metered paywall model. At the end of March 2014, the Tages-Anzeiger was the first title in the Newsnetz network to introduce a holey paywall. In the coming months, this system will also be introduced at the other Tamedia regional newspapers.

The undecideds
As a member of the Newsnet association, the Basler Zeitung will, according to CEO Rolf Bollmann, "in the foreseeable future", analogous to the Berner Zeitung, Der Bund and the other members of Newsnet, "also examine and introduce a payment model". As recently as the end of 2012, Christian Dorer, Editor-in-Chief of the Aargauer Zeitung, announced an online payment barrier for 2013 in his newspaper's "Weekly Commentary." Nothing came of it, and in 2014 Ursulina Stecher, Head of Corporate Communications at AZ Medien AG, doesn't like to get specific: "Like many other publishers and media houses, we believe that our content is also valuable in the digital world. Accordingly, we are looking for ways to bring this value to bear. The so-called paywall is one of them." Ringier had also announced a paywall for Blick in the fall of 2013, but revised those plans last spring. In a recent radio interview, Ringier CEO Marc Walder said on the subject, "We don't expect people to pay for it on the digital platforms at the moment. In other words, Ringier is one of the few media houses that have not installed a so-called paywall at the moment. Because at the moment we are doing very well by generating free access for users on our platforms, which means we have very high numbers on these platforms and finance this primarily via the advertising market."

The profiteers
Free titles like 20 Minuten and start-ups like Watson are happy about every paywall that flushes unwilling surfers in their direction. The SRG's free news sites should also gain more attention in this way, even though they are not currently allowed to exploit them commercially (due to licensing requirements). Which titles that are currently on hold should be listed in this category is beyond the research (but not the imagination) of the author (and possibly the reader).  

Many ways

There are various methods to collect money from consumers for journalistic content. Here is an overview of the most important ones:
 
Hard paywall: All content is only available for a fee. The best-known example is The Times and Sunday Times in London, which has over 150,000 digital subscribers and generates annual revenues of around CHF 55 million.
 
Soft payment barrier: often described as a metered paywall or a paywall with holes. The first few articles are free, then the hard paywall kicks in. This is the case with The New York Times and Financial Times. However, this paywall can easily be circumvented by deleting the relevant cookies in the web browser, for which there are various browser extensions. Further circumvention possibilities arise if access via search engines or social media is still permitted in order to enable the sharing of content.

Freemium: Some of the content is freely accessible, while other content is behind the paywall. For example, the Wall Street Journal. Time pass: Access to all content, including the archive, for one day, one week or one month. Unit sales: Articles are sold individually, often offset against a prepaid credit. Bulk sales: call-off quotas are sold to companies. Apps: Content is available only through paid apps on smartphones or tablets. In some ways, ePaper editions from the early Internet days are precursors to this variant. Combi: Regardless of whether print or digital: A subscription is sold for the content regardless of the distribution platform.

Donations: Readers are asked to voluntarily transfer an amount per article. The Berlin TAZ has raised over 200,000 euros in this way since April 2011.
 
Time: Instead of paying with money, users fill out questionnaires about their consumer behavior, for example. The profile data obtained in this way can be used for more targeted and better paid targeting of advertising.
 

Did you know that 73 percent of young people have already considered unsubscribing from Facebook - but that the portal is still the most visited by them, closely followed by Google and YouTube? Or that Hotmail is still the fifth most popular email provider? If you are familiar with these facts, you would have belonged to the minority of experts from the marketing and advertising environment at Boost who are well versed in the media behavior of young target groups. A quiz app put youth marketing knowledge to the test live. The evaluation showed that the majority of these questions were answered incorrectly. However, Fabio Emch, co-founder of Boost and managing partner of Jim & Jim, an agency specializing in youth and student marketing, has noticed a steadily growing need for specialist knowledge about young target groups. Boost meets this need - with a successful mix of statistics and practical insights.

Traditional advertising is perceived most positively by young people, according to a recent youth study conducted by Jim & Jim in collaboration with Demoscope and presented at Boost. This year's Marketing Forum, on the other hand, was all about online media. For Fabio Emch, it is clear that there is a lot of potential for improvement in this area. Looking back, he considers the main message of the event to be that young users want to be even more active online. This trend carries the risk of a loss of control for companies, but it will be impossible to avoid it in the long term, predicts Emch. The presentations provided a wide range of input on how to benefit from the power of the masses in social networks.

Content placed in the hands of the users

Since 2005, Reddit.com has offered its users almost unlimited opportunities for co-creation. They can write their own content on the platform and create so-called subreddits for new topics at will. General Manager Erik Martin presented this social news aggregator, which, with visitor numbers of over 100 million per month, proves the resounding success of the concept. Martin himself sometimes doesn't understand what makes his communities attractive: bizarre subreddits such as "Pictures of Ian sleeping" - where a student regularly publishes photos of his sleeping flatmate Ian - or a subreddit with before and after pictures of high-pressure façade cleaning. Users invent what interests them and the content spreads automatically if it appeals to others.

Torsten Rehder's presentation showed that this trend is also finding its way into the storytelling of brands - in a "post-digital" world, it is increasingly being placed in the hands of the user. "Interactive, contextual and transmedial" is the advertising of the future, according to the Trend Supervisor from Trendone. Stefan Häckel, CEO of German-language Vice, presented a successful example of such a campaign. In 2013, the media company, which focuses on global youth culture, supported the production of videos in which travelers and crew members talk about their personal travel experiences for a youth-focused Lufthansa campaign. Vice has also long taken into account for its own online magazine that 30 percent of young people do not find text-only articles appealing.

A silly jogging suit conquers Facebook

Thomas M. Adams, CEO and co-founder of Onepiece, spoke at the Boost about "incredible results when you use a platform creatively in its infancy". The Norwegian company Onepiece produces one-piece hooded jogging suits that look a little silly and are deliberately designed to be too baggy to exercise in. The product caused a huge hype in Adam's home country: Within 24 months, Onepiece gained 2 percent of all Norwegians as consumers. Adams attributes this astonishing success to the fact that the three-person founding team experimented with campaigns on the then still young Facebook platform in 2009 that were able to mobilize their circle of friends. For example, the countless profile photos in which fans showed themselves with their one-piece hoods pulled up in front of their faces were effective. In a next step, the collaboration with young ambassadors made a decisive contribution to digital distribution. According to the company, Onepiece has never paid not only its own friends but also stars such as Justin Bieber or Mario Balotelli to advertise the Onepiece. The product simply suits the lifestyle of young stars, explains Adams. It creates a pleasant balance to the prevailing fashion circus. Onepiece still cultivates an open and relaxed approach to young social networks today. For example, the company's offices have their own Snapchat room. The app can be used to make images available for a set period of 5 to 60 seconds. Onepiece employees experiment with this to their heart's content.

Will Facebook, the top website for young people, soon be replaced by other networks? A large proportion of young people are at least considering turning away from the platform, according to the results of the youth study by Jim & Jim mentioned at the beginning. Young people think Facebook is out, as the street surveys that were shown between the presentations on the Boost stage make clear. In fact, however, Facebook continues to record high user numbers. And according to Boost co-founder Emch, the social network will not disappear from the scene any time soon.

Simone Isliker

We start with Chris Sapiain Wetter and Raymi Mendoza, the winners of the Film category. We talked to them about successful provocations and crossing borders in advertising.

WW: Your film is about Hassan, who can no longer operate his game console properly or undo his girlfriend's bra because of an unsavory, amputated finger. The film ends with the request "better luegsch ". Do you make fun of foreigners and disabled people?
Chris: In a way, we make fun of ourselves. We communicate emotionally and uncensored, so that young people can relate to the subject matter. They see themselves in Hassan, precisely because of this humor. We analyzed the target group in advance and asked our colleagues from the construction industry. One of them is called Hassan - in gratitude for giving us an insight into his world, we gave the protagonist his name. This humor doesn't work for everyone, but it goes down very well with the campaign's target audience. Hassan thinks the film is funny.
Raymi: We don't want to act like parents who say, you shouldn't do this and that, or pay attention. That goes in one ear and out the other.
Chris: Exactly. The message of our film is: You have to know it yourself, but "luegsch better".

WW: But aren't you making fun of a serious subject?
Raymi: I think not. You do think about it in hindsight that an accident at work would not be funny. The serious message remains recognizable. We show using everyday situations like smoking, drinking or gaming: It could be really troublesome to have to do all these things without fingers.
Chris: Young people our age are pretty numb to stark facts. It's not so easy to shock us. That's why we didn't show any warning accident pictures, but thought about the consequences in a funny way.

WW: Do you think that advertising in general is too well-behaved?
Raymi: We find commercials in Switzerland mostly boring and unambitious. Insurance commercials in particular often repeat the same loveless story. It explains how safe you are with a provider and that you have nothing to worry about. Many companies don't like to go out on a limb and prefer to continue what has worked until now. Chris: It also has a lot to do with culture. We both come from South America. There, people like to look at advertising. It's more daring and that's why it entertains. People sit in front of the TV with their families and discuss it. Messages like that then also get through.

WW: Where do you see the boundaries that a provocative commercial must adhere to, what would definitely go too far for you?
Chris: Racism. We find the SVP posters tasteless. You can play with clichés, but then you should make fun of everyone. I think a humorous perspective is okay, but not against a certain group. Our film walks the tightrope, because what happened to Hassan could happen to any young person.
Raymi: But maybe we find it simple because we can't identify with the SVP message. If you share their attitude, you probably also find the provocation successful.
Chris: That's the problem. If you want to appeal to everyone, it becomes gray. That's why our film has its own opinion and attitude - direct, unadulterated and funny.

Interview: Simone Isliker