Group sales also fell by 10.8 percent to 386.2 million Swiss francs, as the company announced on Wednesday evening. Despite the third-biggest theatrical success since German reunification with "Fack ju Göhte", theatrical distribution sales were at the lower end of planning. The home entertainment and license trading business areas also lagged behind the previous year. In the Sports- and Event-Marketing segment, sales fell by over CHF 20 million compared to the previous year to CHF 48.9 million due to the new relationship with the Uefa soccer association. As in the previous year, a dividend of CHF 0.17 is planned.

For 2014, Highlight expects consolidated sales of 380 to 410 million Swiss francs and a profit of nine to eleven million Swiss francs. The company is also planning the production of promising companies and a second episode of "Fack ju Göhte". This should provide impetus for the 2015 financial year. Highlight is controlled by the German media group Constantin. (SDA)

The 2013 annual report is available at this link can be downloaded.

This was reported by the Handelszeitung in its latest edition on the basis of the as yet unpublished state accounts. With CHF 14.3 million, the Department of Home Affairs spent the most, followed by the Department of Defense with CHF 13.8 million and the Department of Finance with CHF 10.7 million. Last year, expenditure on public relations increased by 10.7 percent at the FDHA and by 2.8 percent at the DDPS. A total of 295 people are currently entrusted with communication in the seven departments and the Federal Chancellery. Not only has internal expenditure increased, but also expenditure on external consultants (expert opinions, expert reports, political consulting, communication). These costs reached a peak of CHF 235 million in 2013. (SDA)

Image: Keystone

The communication volume of the Swiss advertising industry will grow by CHF 125 million this year to a total of 5.9 billion. This is predicted by the Media Research Group's advertising market study of March 2014. 80 percent of this growth is attributable to online and mobile advertising. This catapults new media into third place behind TV and newspapers, as Adello writes in a statement. Within new media, mobile is the big growth driver. Mobile ad spendings have increased fivefold in Switzerland since 2008. No other media genre can keep up with this growth.

The fact that mobile advertising is increasingly becoming a rising star in the Swiss advertising market is not surprising in view of its widespread use. Currently, 69 percent of the Swiss population owns a smartphone and 39 percent a tablet (source: representative survey by the internet comparison service Comparis.ch in February 2014). In this country, 8.8 million Internet-enabled mobile devices are in use, whose owners can be targeted by means of advertising on smartphones and tablets.

In parallel with usage, the technologies behind mobile advertising campaigns are also evolving at an ever faster pace. Today, proprietary real-time systems allow socio-demographic targeting, including temporal context, with the highest granularity and precision. Algorithms are used that evaluate over 50,000 variables 10,000 times per second. These incorporate historical knowledge from petabytes of data and can identify current trends and behavior. In addition to socio-demographic targeting, this also allows holistic frequency capping or retargeting.

Such models increase the conversion rates of mobile advertising many times over and run in the background. Immediately visible on the touchscreen, on the other hand, are the achievements in advertising creation. Mobile advertising has not only become intelligent, but also interactive, multimedia, responsive and animated. More and more often, it is also linked to the sensor technology of the devices.

However, the success of the mobile touchpoint would be unthinkable in the advertising industry if advertising brands had to engage with this complexity. In contrast to the technological possibilities, the requirements for the visible manifestations of mobile advertising are becoming smaller and smaller. Whereas two years ago a medium-sized campaign still required around 30 different advertising media and formats, this creative effort has since been reduced by 90 percent. This has to do with the commissioning of dedicated mobile ad servers and the overarching standardization programs of the publishing houses to reduce heterogeneity within advertising placements.

Adello identified the most frequently used formats from more than 1,000 campaigns of the past year and used them to produce a clear infographic for daily use in the Swiss advertising market.

Standard (Banner, Rectangle)

Prestitial, Intersitial

Adello Classiness (Swipe Cube, Videostitial)

Graphic: Adello Group

 

According to the press release, the poster campaign will run for around four weeks, and one of the images will be shown in cinemas located in the catchment areas of Swiss Casinos. A second wave is planned for the fall.

Responsible at Swiss Casinos: Peter Meier (overall responsibility), Martin Vogel (Head of Marketing & Communication), Jonas Scheidegger (project management). Responsible for content&form: Serge Riedener (CD), Karin Estermann (AD), Fabian Zahner (text/concept), Nicolas Stark (3D, graphics), Simon Wick (3D), Claudio Zier, Kristian Brändle (consulting), Linus Schneider, Pixelprinz (image editing, animation), Jingle-Jungle (sound and sound design).

 

Local and regional advertising sales, which rose to record levels, contributed to the good figures. By contrast, revenues from national advertising brokers were down. Radio Zürisee also regularly sold programming services to other stations. The operating result (EBITDA) fell by 14 percent year-on-year to CHF 662,000. The station explained this with higher costs due to the expansion of digital program distribution to DAB+.

Radio Zürisee Werbe AG, which acquires the station's advertising revenues as a sister company, generated sales of around CHF 8 million. This is roughly the same as the previous year's figure.
According to its own data, Radio Zürisee is one of the five strongest private stations in Switzerland. According to Publica Data, a good 220,000 people listened to the station every day in 2013, 7,000 more than in the previous year. Radio Zürisee celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2013. (SDA)

Patrick Salamin, former member of the Executive Board of Swiss Post, becomes Chairman of the Board of Directors. Daniel Borter, former director of the Lenkerhof alpine resort and current managing director at the Schild fashion house, completes the new Hofer Board of Directors together with the two owners Daniel Scheuzger and Reto Steiner. "Brilliant advertising with a down-to-earth approach" is the credo of the new management quartet.

Daniel Borter, Daniel Scheuzger, Patrick Salamin, Reto Steiner

The two owners Reto Steiner and Daniel Scheuzger are thus deliberately focusing on courageous and innovative entrepreneurship, according to a statement. The fact that two such high-profile leaders are involved in the board of directors of an agency shows the importance of advertising and agencies in Switzerland.

Patrick Salamin becomes the new Chairman of the Board of Directors. The former Head of the Post Offices and Sales Division of Swiss Post and a graduate of the University of St. Gallen is entering new territory with this mandate: "Hofer's clear profile and long tradition have convinced me. As the new Chairman, I am looking forward to leading this company into the future. With around ten employees, the agency is agile and powerful. This is an advantage in the competitive advertising market. I am convinced that we can achieve a lot with Hofer," says Patrick Salamin.

Daniel Borter, Managing Director at Schild, is also a new member of the Board of Directors. The well-connected Berner has known the Hofer Kommunikation agency for years: "The values that the agency embodies appeal to me. To develop creative and brilliant advertising strategies while not losing sight of the ground of reality, I find a promising mixture. I am looking forward to the task of taking off to new heights with the young and motivated team," says the former manager of the 5-star Hotel Lenkerhof.

With the new board of directors, the two owners Reto Steiner and Daniel Scheuzger are consistently pursuing the path they embarked on when they took over the agency four years ago: with a small but fine team, they want to make the Hofer agency the address that ideally combines design and strategy expertise. "Brilliant advertising with a down-to-earth approach" is how the owners sum up their credo.

Reto Steiner and Daniel Scheuzger remain the sole owners of Hofer Kommunikation even after the change in the Board of Directors. The former owner and previous Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ute Kopplin, is stepping down to enjoy a well-deserved retirement. In the announcement, the entire Bernese advertising industry thanks Ute Kopplin for her great services.
 

In her new role, she will be responsible for marketing the magazines in German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino. She reports to Christoph Marty, Director Sales Switzerland. Evi Bossard holds an MAS in Business Psychology from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and a degree in Business Administration from Juventus KLZ. Before joining NZZ Media (a branch of Publicitas), she was Head of Crossmedia at AZ Medien from 2007 to 2012 and Regional Sales Manager at regional television station Tele M1.

Christoph Marty, Sales Director Switzerland: "I am delighted that we have been able to recruit Evi Bossard for the role of Head of Sales Magazines. She has many years of management experience in sales and also has excellent knowledge of various media genres."

As of April 6, the Sunday newspaper will appear in a new design: clearer, more structured and with a new color scheme. In terms of content, the Sonntagszeitung is also showing a new side, and the federal concept has been completely revised. Topics are no longer considered on their own merits, but in the context of others. This enables readers to discover all facets of a topic and better understand an increasingly interconnected world. The subjects featuring Vitali Klitschko, Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates fit in with the existing Babushka campaign, which has been running for the Sunday newspaper for over six years. The new ads can be discovered in various newspapers and magazines.

Responsible at the Sunday newspaper: Diego Quintarelli (Publishing Director), Thomas Frei (Advertising Director). Responsible at Advico Y&R (Member of Y&R Group Switzerland): Martin Stulz, Dominik Oberwiler (CD), Lukas Wietlisbach (AD), Natasa Maricic, Fabian Küchler (text), Annik Weber, Jeremy Küng (graphics), Christoph Schwarz, Renée Weber, Selina Egger (consulting), Scheffold.Vizner/Fluxif (photography/composing).

Ford Service is the Ford department that takes care of everything related to their customers' vehicles. From maintenance and repairs to car care and an extensive selection of accessories.

The centerpiece of the campaign is Ogilvy & Mather's key visual, according to the release. The "form-giving" idea was implemented as the main advertising medium on a flyer presenting the special spring offers from Ford Service. In a print run of 150,000, the flyer was used on the one hand as sales support at the dealers and on the other hand as an insert in other Ford communication media. The flyer was also supported by posters, rotairs and banners at the POS, as well as dealer advertisements and Internet banners.

Subject large

Responsible at Ford Motor Company Switzerland: Jördis Kutscher (FCSD Marketing Supervisor), Lucien Krebs (FCSD Marketing Coordinator). Responsible at Ogilvy & Mather: Jonathan Schipper (overall responsibility), Priska Meyer (AD), Marc Schwitter (text), Marcel Kohler, Sascha Isenschmid (production), Max Brunner (consulting).
 

On April 9 and 10, 2014, the 6th edition of the Swiss Online Markteing trade fair for digital marketing & e-business will take place in Hall 1 and 2 of Messe Zürich. Werbewoche will give you your entry free of charge - if you are one of the first 200 to sign up on the list.

Werbewoche.ch/gratis-an-swiss-online-marketing-2014

The trade fair offers you a top-class program with numerous specialist presentations, panel discussions and best-practice examples in three practical forums, at the MeetingPoint and at the SOM CampusTalk. Swiss Online Marketing keeps pace with the high speed of innovations and the technical complexity around the new advertising opportunities:

Over the course of two days, the trade fair for digital marketing & e-business provides a comprehensive market overview of the digital value chain, presents numerous practical examples and offers many opportunities for professional exchange with experts.

Due to the ever-increasing technology load in digital marketing, the trade fair is also expressly aimed at IT managers in companies who would like to find out about the possibilities of digital marketing together with their marketing colleagues.

- Find out about the latest trends and opportunities
- Dare to look into the future and let us present you the novelties of the market
- Learn first-hand what digital marketing and e-business has to offer you in our keynote, best practice and exhibitor presentations
- Network with existing service providers and customers

In 2011, Zürcher Oberland Medien and the Zurich regional newspapers had jointly founded Glattaler AG, and Zürcher Oberland Medien had taken a 20 percent stake in the new publisher of the Glattaler as a first step. The Glattaler is the official publication of the city of Dübendorf and the municipalities of Fällanden, Schwerzenbach and Volketswil and reaches 31,000 readers every week with a circulation of 26'794 copies.

Zürcher Oberland Medien is rounding out its portfolio with the Glattaler. In addition to the daily newspapers Zürcher Oberländer and Anzeiger von Uster, they also offer local newspapers in their entire distribution area with Regio.ch and the new Glattaler. Zürcher Oberland Medien will continue to employ all nine staff members unchanged. The parties have agreed not to disclose details of the transfer.