Much has been written in response to Google's announcement of the so-called "enhanced campaigns" for the Adwords advertising program at the beginning of February (Werbewoche.ch reported). While business magazines focused primarily on the strategic component and the associated increased mobile value creation by Google, advertisers and agencies feared a loss of control due to the "simplification" of campaign management and the consolidation of data for the various end devices. Common to all contributions was the increased importance of mobile Internet use and correspondingly optimized websites as a result of this step.

The latter may have caught one or the other customer cold, although every website should now have a double-digit percentage of mobile visitors. Google's system change is therefore not much more than an adjustment to reality. Since this will become the standard setting in Adwords in just a few months, we show here how the Enhanced Campaigns can be implemented in practice.

Implementation in practice

In principle, those campaigns that are already targeted at all devices (whether in a single campaign or - with advantage - with separate campaigns per end device) can be most easily migrated to the new system. In this case, instead of having at least three campaigns (desktop, tablet and smartphone) as before, you only have one. This fact can actually be seen as a simplification and trigger the question of what exactly is "enhanced" about it.

The expanded possibilities of the new campaign form are in the location-, time- and device-related adjustments that can be defined at campaign level and multiplied in combination with each other. Google calls this "vector-based bidding", which means that the context of the search queries is given a massively higher priority than it has done so far. (Mind you, the almost same effects could also be achieved with the previous setup, but with massively higher implementation and analysis effort).

When, where, and on which device someone searches now decisively influences the bid for a particular search query, based on the performance data for the respective context. This process is already being used successfully on e-commerce websites and users see different prices or at least different website content depending on their context (access source, existing demographic data, etc.). This practice is now also increasingly being used at the advertising material level.

Fine tuning necessary

In practice, it can be seen for the moment that although the extended bidding options can be applied, the - all-important - conversion data unfortunately does not quite keep pace here yet. These cannot yet be read out at the level of the individual adjustments. In addition, the time period is still too short to be able to draw before-and-after comparisons at the level of the entire accounts.

It can be assumed that until the current campaign control is discontinued at the end of June 2013, one or the other fine-tuning of the Enhanced Campaigns will still happen (for example, that the possibility of controlling tablets separately will be integrated again), but nothing stands in the way of moving the existing campaigns. However, it is then advantageous to take full advantage of the expanded options offered by the new system.

A quick switch to the new system makes sense alone if you want to benefit from new features such as the already available "Offer Enhancement" (promotional codes and offers directly in the text ad). Here Google is putting more or less gentle pressure, in that such features are and will only be available within Enhanced Campaigns. A note on ongoing beta tests at Adwords: Individual betas are not yet completely compatible with the Enhanced Campaigns, here it helps with larger accounts to briefly consult with Google beforehand.

Extended campaigns: Our interim conclusion

Customers and website operators who do not yet have a mobile-optimized website may therefore feel a bit blindsided by this change. In such a case, it is still possible to exclude ad placement on smartphones. However, this is only the second-best solution. Strategically, it would make more sense to put a mobile-optimized website online as soon as possible. This is not primarily to follow Google's step, but to pick up the users and potential customers where they actually are and will be much more often in the future.

Webrepublic is a Swiss search engine marketing agency.
 

The claim "Everything for life" sums it up: Sihlcity offers a huge selection of items. Anyone who finds the same one twice now wins: from now on, hundreds of posters will be hanging in the city of Zurich with different things on them that are available for purchase in Sihlcity. Anyone who finds two posters with the same item and takes a photo of them will receive a gift card worth up to 500 francs at the Sihlcity Info Point.

Responsible at Sihlcity: Jörg Engeler (Center Manager), Mara Bonorand (Marketing and Communications). Responsible at Leo Burnett Switzerland: Pablo Schencke, Johannes Raggio, Wanda Michel, Anna Leudolph (Creation), Johannes Raggio (ECD), Isabelle Meier, Albina Kuqi, Nadine Stüssi (Consulting), Erasmo Palomba (Art Buying), Chavela Zink (Photo).

The NZZ has a conceptually and creatively enhanced homepage NZZ.ch in. Not only are significantly more articles shown at the top of the screen, but new elements have also been introduced. These include a news ticker managed by the editorial team, which continuously displays current events at home and abroad in the form of short news items and also continuously tracks them in the form of a logbook. This news feed is managed by the editorial team - except for a few hours at night - and complies with NZZ quality standards, according to a press release issued on Tuesday.

Opinion and debate articles are now placed on the home page of NZZ.ch. In addition, articles from the content offering are now accessible directly below the navigation bar. Major events and extensive in-house research are implemented using multimedia and complex data preparation and visualization, including the involvement of readers where appropriate.

From mid-April, image and video content will appear in a more user-friendly form in response to the increasing number of moving image articles produced exclusively by the NZZ in politics, business, science, culture, sport and society. The new news ticker will also be available in the Android and iPhone apps.

According to the press release, the new website will significantly improve the visibility of ad placements for advertising customers. In addition, the black bar in the navigation area, which is disruptive for certain advertising formats, has been removed from the new website.

A few days ago, the new Web presence of the monthly magazine NZZ-Folio was launched. This has been completely revised in terms of design, concept and technology. As on NZZ.ch, Folio articles are still free of charge for registered subscribers and freely available on all devices, while non-subscribers can access a selection of articles free of charge.

In agencies as diverse as Weber/Hodel/Schmid, Publicis, Matter & Partner, Jung von Matt/Limmat, Sulzer Sutter, TBWA /Zurich and Rod Kommunikation, he has already worked with success and esprit for large and small brands, according to a statement. The spectrum of brands ranges from UBS (including an international umbrella campaign in 2001), Swisscom Fixnet, BMW, Fiat and McDonalds Switzerland to BFU (Slow down Take it Easy), Max Shoes, Panasonic and Parisienne - to name just a few.

The New Rail Link through the Alps (Neat) is the largest construction project in the history of Switzerland. The Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Uvek) has the parliamentary mandate to provide "International Communication Alptransit (IKAT)" along the North-South freight corridor (Corridor 1 Rotterdam-Antwerp-Genoa) in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium.

CR Kommunikation has been supporting the FOT in the implementation of this mandate since 2008, according to a statement. As part of the mandatory WTO open tender process, the agency was awarded the contract to continue the mandate in phase three (2013-2016/19). In order to achieve optimal utilization of the Neat - in particular of the Gotthard Base Tunnel from 2016 - the first step in phase three will be to ascertain the level of knowledge and needs of future users and then to derive specific communication measures. In doing so, the agency will cooperate with its international agency network in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium as well as with Progtrans, a subsidiary of Prognos, which specializes in transport policy consulting.

Teaser image: Bav.admin.ch

But he won't be particularly surprised: after all, the Swiss media are marching united towards EU membership (Baz, Weltwoche, Schweizerzeit and Extrablatt excluded). A few German editors more or less won't make the roast pork any sweeter. Sooner or later, the colleagues from Leutschenbach will be dictated the topics directly from Brussels anyway. PS: Hopefully the foreign bailiffs and judges won't throw Schawinski out!

Thomas Häusermann

The Goldbach Group, which operates in ten countries, intends to expand TV marketing in particular in 2013. The Group is already active in this area in Switzerland, Austria and Romania. In the next six months, CEO Klaus Kappeler is therefore planning new TV marketing units in Germany, Croatia and Poland. This could be done by building up the company's own activities (probably thanks to mandate wins) or through company acquisitions, he said at the annual media conference. If this succeeds, the Group would now be active in TV marketing in the entire German-speaking region.

Growth in TV and radio marketing

But it's not that far yet, which is why a look at last year's business figures will suffice for now. According to these, the Goldbach Group achieved a net profit of CHF 9.1 million in 2012, 51 percent more than in 2011. Sales stagnated at CHF 445 million, with the Group generating 80 percent of its sales in Switzerland (around CHF 356 million).

The largest share of sales is generated by Goldbach Media, which markets TV, radio and digital outdoor advertising in the three countries mentioned above. It increased its revenues by 4.2 percent to CHF 351.9 million. The radio business grew by a full 12.6 percent - mainly thanks to expansion of the station portfolio in Romania. In TV marketing, Goldbach Media had grown by 2.5 percent, "while SRG had to accept an 8 percent decline in sales," Kappeler triumphantly stated. But the comparison is flawed because Goldbach - again in Romania - was able to expand its station portfolio and thus also its revenues. A more informative comparison is therefore based on Goldbach's TV sales in Switzerland - and these amounted to CHF 294.5 million in 2013, the same as SRG marketer Publisuisse. But here, too, caution is called for, since Goldbach's figure includes TV sponsorship as well as online and mobile advertising in the TV environment. However, SRG is prohibited from the latter, and it reports TV and radio sponsorship separately (CHF 34 million). Nevertheless, Kappeler concluded that Goldbach achieved a market share of 40 percent in Swiss TV advertising (SRG: approx. 47 percent), 33 percent in radio advertising and 11 percent in digital outdoor advertising.

Video and mobile as growth drivers

The Goldbach Audience business line, which handles online business in all ten Goldbach countries, was again less successful. It reduced sales by 17 percent to CHF 62.1 million, following a 15 percent decline in the previous year. According to Kappeler, the reasons were increasing competition in online marketing and the introduction of direct booking discounts on publishers' websites. But Goldbach has now parted with such low-margin products, Kappeler said, so he expects growth again this year. This is also because the company invested in video and mobile at an early stage. Video alone accounted for a third of Goldbach Audience's total revenue last year, the CEO said. In the Swiss online market, Goldbach has a market share of 27 percent (display + video), with revenue from display advertising growing by 5 to 8 percent in 2013, from video advertising by 20 to 25 percent and in the mobile business by 40 to 50 percent.

The Goldbach Interactive business segment, which offers conceptual and technological services related to interactive communication solutions, also saw a decline of 3 percent to CHF 38 million. This was mainly due to major investments, particularly in Slovenia, where a company was acquired.

Markus Knöpfli

The magazine is delivered to around 476,000 households four times a year. According to the press release, a radical change of concept was not required, but rather a gradual modernization and adaptation to changing conditions, including the expansion into the web. The development is not complete, but should be seen as a continuous process, as Editor-in-Chief Tanja Funk emphasizes.

Visually, the Magazine the new corporate design of the health insurance company. New fonts and slightly different design elements are intended to make the magazine look lighter. The upgraded online version of the magazine promises to be more relevant in terms of content: whereas previously a simple PDF was posted online, the new flipbook offers more options for background information and additions as a first step. As part of the renovation, existing sections will also be replaced by new ones. For example, a new children's page will take account of the importance of the family target group.

Responsible at Sanitas: Denise Fitzi, Andreas Goetz, Valentin Hüsser, Anita Kneusslin, Andreas Roos, Isabelle Vautravers (editorial staff), Tanja Funk (editorial management), Sanitas translation service (translation). Responsible at Publicis Communications Switzerland: Flavio Muff, Matthias Koller (consulting), Marvin Hugentobler, Bettina Klossner (AD), Oliver Gisi (text), Roger Rüegger (ECD), Beni Kägi (art buying), Philipp Läderach, Adrian Hänni (DTP). Responsible at Neidhart + Schön: Roberto Porfido (pre-press), Corina Blecher (litho).

Both the RSI TV news program "Il Quotidiano" and Il Caffè made public in February 2012 the name and photo of a couple from Lugano who were discovered dead in their apartment. At the time, the police spoke of a relationship drama. The man allegedly killed first the woman and then himself. The newspaper and news program had violated point 7 of the duties of journalists, writes the Press Council in a statement published Tuesday. There was no public interest in identifying the dead by name and picture.

In addition, there was no declaration of consent from the relatives. Privacy should have been respected to the extent that it would not have been possible for outsiders to recognize the persons. In its statement, the Press Council criticized the common practice of Ticino media to always mention the names of the persons involved in serious crimes. This procedure had already been denounced in several cases in the past. (SDA)
 

"With Markus Stadler, we have another senior-level sparring partner for our clients. This significantly increases our pool of experience and knowledge," says Iskender Akgün, Managing Partner of C-Factor, about the weighty addition.

Competence expansion for ICT, healthcare and tourism

Markus Stadler has founded and successfully built up two communications agencies in over 15 years. He has made a name for himself in the development of communication solutions that transcend conventional disciplinary boundaries and combine different sub-areas of communication into a coherent overall solution. Based on Stadler's broad experience in PR, advertising, online communications and marketing, C-Factor is looking to further expand its areas of expertise. In addition, C-Factor is expanding its industry focus with the new partner: the agency will increasingly become an interesting contact for clients from ICT, healthcare, tourism and for large infrastructure projects, according to a statement.

Even more reinforcement for C-Factor

Regula Wegmann joined C-Factor at the beginning of the year. The 28-year-old consultant studied journalism and communications at the ZHAW and most recently worked as a communications manager in a start-up company in the cleantech industry. "With her high level of textual competence and her broad communications background, Regula Wegmann is a great addition to our consulting team, especially in the energy sector," says Philipp Metzler, Managing Partner of C-Factor.

Former Swisscom CEO Alder is to replace Bruno Widmer at the helm, who intends to hand over his post to new hands after six years as planned, the advertising marketer announced on Tuesday. For the current year 2013, the group expects a further strengthening of profitability after the implementation of organizational restructuring measures in Eastern Europe and the Adriatic region as well as cost reductions. In addition, the company said it is examining the market entry of the Media business line into further countries in order to expand the group's position in the moving image sector. (SDA)