The two previous owners Markus Kammermann and Peter Beeler were joined by Herbert Bosshart on January 1, 2013. The marketing and communications agency's portfolio previously ranged from sponsoring and event marketing at major national events to campaigns for regionally based or internationally active companies. With the addition of Herbert Bosshart to the management team, the two existing areas of advertising and event marketing will be supplemented by the discipline of public relations.

The three partners Jürg Sommerhalder, Roman Stih and Urs Flückiger took over the business activities of Softworks on March 1 with their newly founded company Mediamile Systems. "VM Verlags-Manager" covers the value-added areas of print and online advertising, subscription management and store for numerous small and large Swiss publishing houses as well as most local advertising agencies, and also serves as a CRM with extensive marketing and reporting functions, the company said in a press release. As a Swiss solution partner of the Munich-based software company Mueller Prange GmbH & Co. KG, Mediamile Systems is now responsible for sales, localization, further development and support of the Mueller Prange systems in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. However, the company has also secured the rights to operate across borders.
 

Stylist Julia Ritter and Olivia El Sayed, Editor-in-Chief of The Brander,
Melanie Michael.

René Allemann, CEO Branders and Thea Ferretti, Senior Brand
Consultant (Branders).

Stephanie Kriesel, Senior Brand Consultant (Branders) and Peter Ackermann,
Editorial Director Observer Nature.

Regula Looser, Senior Brand Consultant (Branders), Jan Glöckner OOS.

Thomas Hausheer, Interactive Designer, Pascal Geissbühler, Creative Director
and Palma Manco Senior Designer (Branders).

Emanuel Neubacher, Radio 24, Nathalie Geiger and Alex Rudolf.

Executive Assistant to the CEO Anina Früh, Brand Manager Manuela Tröndle,
Office Manager Gabrielä Rösli (Branders).

Photos: Tarek El Sayed
 

exclusive study examines. For this purpose, David Guggenbühl and Boris Lautenbach also spoke to three competitors of Maison Cailler and asked them four questions that were always the same.

Markus Wilda, Head of Marketing, Maestrani Swiss Chocolates

What are the important elements of a good gift?
The symbolism as well as the gesture is the most important thing, even more important than the actual gift. He has thought of me. And yet the gift must have value. Why else do private brands have a problem establishing themselves as gifts? Because they have a deeper value in the mind of the consumer. If I want to express full appreciation, then I do it with a noble brand such as Sprüngli and not with a private label. The recipient knows the approximate value of the gift and will then quickly say to himself; Ok, the value of this friendship is....

What is Maison Cailler?
Individual chocolate. Every taste is different. They promote that everyone can have their own taste. I have already done the Cailler test.

What do you think about it?
Exciting approach. It is very elaborate and very complex. It takes a lot of communication to make the concept understandable. This is always associated with a high financial outlay. The problem with the message is that it is extremely complex and requires explanation. The question is, how long does a consumer have to decode this message? What is understood are the simple messages to which we have affinity. The question is, how affine are people to the topic?

How will chocolate be given as a gift in the future?
In the future, appreciation will continue to be the central element of every gift. In this respect, it will be even more golden and high quality in the future. Packaging will become more and more elaborate.

Andreas Trümpler, Director Marketing & Development, Confiseur Läderach

What are the important elements of a good gift?
Several: if I know the recipient well, then a good gift is something I find for him. For example, if I know he likes dark chocolate, then I buy him a special dark chocolate product with a special designation of origin. And then it has to be packaged in a cool way. It has to be a little different than just zero eight fifteen. You have to see the love a little bit.

What is Maison Cailler?
The concept is exciting. You can put something together. The idea of the special compilation, the own mixture, I find this idea good.... But what is lived is too technical, i.e. functionally perfect boxes, immaculate packaging, but no emotions. Although Maison Cailler promises emotions, they deliver an "apothecary box", perfect but ice cold.

What do you think about it?
The idea is interesting and has potential. However, the origin and size of the company behind Maison Cailler is too obvious. Nestlé is strong in well thought-out technologies, i.e. the perfectly organized implementation by engineers and specialists. Unfortunately, the emotional component seems to be forgotten. The consumer wants to be surprised and feel personally addressed. I think the packaging is well designed, well thought out and functional; it is protected from throwing, it has a cool design and offers an experience when you open it, but the emotionality is still missing. In addition, the product lacks attention to detail; the contents of the packs seem very industrial, somewhat uncharitable and arbitrary. However, I believe that Maison Cailler will recognize these opportunities and continue to develop successfully. Nespresso is a good example from the same house, where the combination of a technically perfect product with the right emotions became a success.

How will chocolate be given as a gift in the future?
Gifting will always be an important part of the chocolate business.... At the same time, individuality will play an increasingly important role in the future. The consumer wants to be able to order his own personal mix. And from that, also to be able to put together something individual for someone, combined with the message "I have put together something personal for you. I think you'll like this." The chocolate business of the future will become even more individual and personal. The question here is whether a corporation that is successful in large quantities will be able to manage this complexity in detail, or whether this is and will remain more the territory of the many small suppliers.

Serge Doutaz, Head of Marketing & Sales, Chocolat Frey

What are the important elements of a good gift?
A gift should not be mass-produced, but something individual, personal. The gift should show the recipient that he is important to the giver. This importance can be expressed by the value of the gift, but also by a certain originality and by the "something special". And perhaps the gift should also contain a statement about the giver himself.

What is Maison Cailler?
Maison Cailler is multi-faceted. It offers consumers the opportunity to put together a personalized gift and then have it beautifully packaged and shipped.

What do you think about it?
A very exciting and also very entrepreneurial approach. I'm impressed that Nestlé is thinking about new consumer benefits and trying to satisfy them with this new type of product. But the people at Maison Cailler will certainly find that out for themselves relatively quickly. I am convinced of that.

How will chocolate be given as a gift in the future?
Especially for the younger generation, the old, traditional gift is becoming more and more boring. To make gifts more interesting in the future, I think you have to personalize them. However, gifts will not only be sold via the Internet in the future; the traditional sales channels will hold their own. So the real challenge is to be able to offer consumers a personalized gift in the future without an overly complex manufacturing process and without relying solely on the Internet as a distribution channel.

Click here for the article from the print edition: Difficult and still great.

 

For this service, the garages offer people to have their vehicle evaluated and its energy consumption checked. Franz & René has developed a TV commercial for this purpose.

Spot German
Spot French

With a booth at the Salon, competition, e-boards and a bus from the train station to Palexpo, the presence of the Auto-Energy Check was communicated and reinforced.

Responsible at Energy Switzerland: Chantal Purro (SuisseEnergie), Philippe Walser (E'Mobile). Responsible at Franz & René: Valérie Pecalvel (Strategic Direction), Luciano Gerber (Client Service Direction), Simon Tellenbach (Campaign Manager), Sven Jungo (Graphic Design).
 

Roman Maria Koidl is an entrepreneur in the field of brand communication and new media. Koidl became known to a wider public through his first bestseller: "Scheisskerle - Warum es immer die Falschen sind" (Hoffmann & Campe Verlag, 2010). The book has been translated into numerous languages (including Russian, Korean, Slovenian, Italian), and preparations are underway for a feature film. Last year, Koidl followed up with the bestseller "Blender - Warum immer die Falschen Karriere machen" (Hoffmann & Campe Verlag, 2011), a guidebook aimed primarily at women in the workplace.

Koidl, who describes writing as his passionate hobby, started his career as a journalist with a classic traineeship with German editor-in-chief Helmut Markwort (Gong) before becoming head of service at Germany's largest private radio station Antenne Bayern at the age of 21. After working as a management consultant (including at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young), the Austrian founded the first coffee shop chain in continental Europe, World Coffee, in 1996; he later acquired the traditional German brand Most Schokolade out of insolvency and founded the online portal Schokogramm.ch in 2007, which he sold to Migros (Chocolat Frey) in 2011. In 2012, Koidl designed a digital campaign tool for the German candidate for chancellor for his federal election campaign.

"With his column, Koidl will look from the outside at Switzerland and from Switzerland at its European neighbors - and hold up a friendly, amusing mirror to both sides," says Blick editor-in-chief Andrea Bleicher. The short texts will be friendly, laconic and playful and will deal with the topics of politics, society, feuilleton and subcutaneous. The first column will be published on Saturday, March 16.

 

According to the announcement, the first implementations should be on show soon.
 

According to a press release, this supports the preservation of high-quality collections of well-known and important Swiss graphic artists. The SGDF systematically looks after the oeuvre of graphic artists and, together with the Swiss National Museum, is committed to the professional preservation and communication of their life's work.
 

This is due to be published on Monday, March 18, 2013. The exclusive edition with previously uncovered content will discuss the current issues of our time - economy, consumption, culture, innovation - and place them in the context of the past and the future to make the present more tangible, Le Temps said in a statement on Friday. Topics include:

Junior editors: Fifteen-year-old pupils discuss with former Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin, who was elected fifteen years ago.
The future of the media: As part of a broad-based study on the future of the news industry, renowned experts in the sector in Europe and the USA are being interviewed.
Futurology: Three major exclusive studies paint a picture of the Switzerland of the future. How will we live in fifteen years' time? BAK Basel presents previously unpublished scenarios

 

Marco Castellaneta held various management positions at Ringier for 17 years, including Head of Communications and member of the Group Executive Board. He started his professional career as a radio journalist at Radio Pilatus. Castellaneta then managed and hosted the TV shows Marktplatz and Konsum.tv on SRF2 and launched the soccer format Live Ran on the Sat.1 TV channel in Switzerland.

Most recently, Marco Castellaneta launched and built up the entertainment division for Ringier. Before that, he was Head of Communications and Group Spokesman for the media group for several years. In these functions, he shaped internal and external communications throughout the Group. He was also responsible for the first sustainability report based on UN principles and for Ringier's 175th anniversary in ten European and Asian countries. As President, he also headed the international Rose d'Or Festival television festival for three years.

As a new member of the Swiss National Museum's Directorate, Marco Castellaneta is responsible for marketing, public relations, finance, IT, human resources, legal affairs, museum education, technical services and visitor services, with a total of 100 employees working for the four museums in German- and French-speaking Switzerland.

 

This is what the SLK writes in a press release on Friday. The development is as striking as it is desirable: After the facts of "aggressive sales methods" had increased enormously in 2011 and accounted for almost two thirds of the total of 441 complaints, the SLK decided to charge a fee for this type of complaint. The measure has worked and brought welcome relief for the commission: complaints in this category have fallen from 62.1 percent to 40 percent. At the same time, the total number of complaints has dropped to 297. This is the lowest figure since 2008, according to the statement.

The percentage of media has developed accordingly: Complaints against advertising by telephone and fax have decreased from 58.7 percent to 40.0 percent. By contrast, the number of complaints against Internet advertising has risen (16.5 percent) and, for some time now, also against direct marketing (14.2 percent). Complaints against TV advertising are almost traditionally low. Since 2007 (4.4 percent), the figure has leveled off at a low 1 to 2 percent.

An upward trend can be seen in the cases of "misleading" and "sexism". There has been a relatively significant increase in the number of complaints, particularly in the case of sexism, from 3.1 percent in the previous year to 10.3 percent in 2012. This figure was only higher in 2007 (15.7 percent). It should be noted, however, that a single particularly striking campaign is enough to significantly increase the statistics in question. This was the case, for example, with an advertising campaign in Ticino for an Internet erotic portal, against which a dozen complaints were received.

 

However, the slight increase has not yet helped the advertising market to make up for the decline in the full year (-0.3 percent/-1.9 million Swiss francs). This is according to Media Focus in a statement on Friday.

Final spurt in the referendum campaign

In February, the advertising drum was once again beaten vigorously in the final spurt for the federal votes on March 3, 2013. In particular, the No to the rip-off initiative committee and both camps with regard to the revision of the Spatial Planning Act significantly intensified their advertising activities in February. The "No to the rip-off initiative" and "No to the Spatial Planning Act" campaigns even reached 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the top 10 most advertised products in February.

The No committee for the rip-off initiative doubled its advertising spending in February compared to the previous month and extended its lead over the Yes committee by a wide margin. Measured advertising activity for the Yes slogan in February was just 4 percent of the advertising pressure of the No committee.

In total, Media Focus measured gross advertising impressions of 11.8 million Swiss francs for these three federal votes in December 2012, January and February 2013.

Flu month February

According to media reports, this year's flu epidemic peaked in February. Consequently, advertising pressure for flu remedies and preparations to prevent colds and fevers was also at a high. As a result of this surge, the "Pharma" sector achieved growth of 31.6 percent in February compared with the same month last year (12.2 million Swiss francs).

The three product groups "sore throat remedies" (1.4 million Swiss francs), "cold/flu remedies" (1.4 million Swiss francs) and "combination/multivitamins" (1 million Swiss francs) achieved the highest advertising pressure.

To the Media Focus Advertising Market Trend Report 2012/03 (PDF)