Every season has its culinary highlights. And there are many of them at ProSpecieRara, the foundation for the preservation of the diversity of traditional breeds and varieties: sweet or sour, light or hearty, plain or flashy - there is something for every taste.

The agency's task was to publicize the year-round diversity of varieties and awaken the desire to try them out. Epicureans and their perfect culinary counterpart find each other through "seasonal favorites," a kind of partner exchange.

The multichannel campaign was developed from scratch by Valencia. From idea development to conception and production of 14 different subjects to implementation on online and offline channels. The comprehensive overall package includes posters, POS advertising materials, social media content and a giveaway in the form of a seasonal poster. The landing page for the campaign was implemented by Valencia's subsidiary Cab Services.

The "Seasonal Favorites" campaign is supported by the Coop Fund for Sustainability and can be seen at Coop and on all ProSpecieRara channels until the end of 2021.

Loeb operates three department stores and several stores in the canton of Bern. A major relaunch of the website and the e-commerce store is planned for the fall. Ads&Figures was commissioned to optimize this digital information and sales platform in the area of SEO, so that the pages rank better in Google searches.

For Zebrabox, the Swiss market leader in the field of self storage, Ads&Figures created a tracking concept with a corresponding setup, which enables all relevant key figures to be measured and evaluated in a targeted manner.

The new customer Grand Casino Baden, operator of the first Swiss online casino Jackpots.ch, engaged Ads&Figures for support on the way to a digital "House of Entertainment". First fields of action are attribution and data ownership.

Too many young men die every year due to recklessness in, on and around Swiss waters. That's why Visana and the Swiss Lifesaving Society (SLRG) launched the "Save your friends" prevention campaign last year and attracted a lot of attention from the Instagram generation with emotional and deliberately shocking display and social video ads by Bern-based creative agency Komet.

Now, in the Corona summer of 2020, the target group is to be warned against entering the water under the influence of alcohol. On the other hand, they should also be encouraged to do the safety check on the "Save your friends" landing page - also from Komet - and to consume further, possibly life-saving information there as snackable content.

For this purpose, the Bernese agency has created a humorous video ad in which not only the two Visana ambassadors and Sportsman of the Year 2019, Mujinga Kambundji and Stucki Chrigu, make their appearance as lifeguard and jogger, but also "Mister Corona" Daniel Koch. This is SLRG ambassador since he jumped into the Aare in his suit on the occasion of his retirement. Now he emerges from it again - correctly in a diving suit.

At the center of the "Summer Road Trips" is the regained freedom. Thanks to individual motorized mobility, this ensures a successful, enjoyable summer. With the "Best of" tips, the section provides life hacks for the best road trip, creative ideas for shortening the travel time for whining children, and inspiring trips for girlfriends, bros, or couples to enjoy moments together. In addition, there are matching Spotify lists for summer feelings "on the road".

Get inspired and enjoy the summer

The edited "Best of" lists are accompanied by short vignette films. For this, Farner worked with the production company John Allen. The vignette films create the link to the Content Hub MyAUTOgram.ch and are communicated via digital channels. The media mix includes social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, as well as various display and video placements.

In July, the canton of Valais launched a campaign for vacationers in the Valais, giving away 100,000 vouchers worth 100 francs. The voucher is available for as little as two hotel nights and can be redeemed almost anywhere in the Valais.

A cross-media campaign is to ensure that the whole of Switzerland learns about this action within a short time. Under the motto "Stay as you are. Gniesses jetz no meh.", the aim is to show once again in a humane way that you can be yourself in Valais. The campaign is a seamless continuation of the successful "Chum, wie dü bisch" campaign, where the Valais was happy to welcome guests with Corona hairstyles after the end of the lockdown.

"The campaign got off to a very successful start," says Mathias Fleischmann, Director of Experience and Market Management at Valais/Wallis Promotion. "It was important to us not simply to distribute vouchers, but also to make people want to travel to Valais with a human insight."

The campaign started on August 3. The lead medium TV is supported by the distributions on social media.

Despite business loans and the option for short-time work, job cuts have occurred. Specifically, 9.3 percent of the companies surveyed in Switzerland reported that staff had been cut. However, this balances out somewhat, at least in terms of numbers, as 6.7 percent of companies overall have hired new staff. There are also some other bright spots. For example, 14.7 percent of businesses overall have benefited from Corona. And almost a quarter (23.3 %) have remained unaffected by the pandemic.

Corona changes everyday working life in companies

COVID-19 is changing everyday working life in many companies. In the medium and long term, 40.7 percent see an increase in home offices. 36.7 percent recognize an increased awareness of health issues, and one-third (32%) anticipate an increased use of digital tools and programs. One in four (24%) expect an increased awareness of environmental concerns.

Digitization is advancing more rapidly

More than half of all respondents (54%) stated that the crisis is driving digitization forward in their companies. For 32 percent of them, even significantly. Video telephony is now part of everyday working life for 61.5 percent of respondents. One in three (33.9%) uses digital platforms, for example to manage procurement purchases. And almost as many (30%) have cloud systems in the company. Even their own online formats such as webinars were launched by 14.6 percent at short notice after the outbreak of the pandemic. For Peter F. Schmid, CEO of Visable, this is an irreversible development: "Without the timely, targeted use of digital tools, a large number of SMEs in Europe would have to fear for their existence. To put it bluntly, this means that only those who digitize will survive this crisis."

Marketing budgets shrink - online is strengthened

Almost one in four companies (22.7%) are planning for the coming year with a lower marketing budget than in 2020 to compensate for sales losses incurred during the crisis. Budgets are increasingly shifting to online channels. 55.9 percent of the decision-makers surveyed want to rely more on online marketing in the coming year.

"One in four trade fairs will no longer exist after the crisis"

The trade show industry has been hit particularly hard: Around one-third (31%) of those who have previously attended trade shows are no longer planning to attend or participate in trade shows in the coming year. Only 15 percent still see a trade show appearance in general as an important sales tool. Peter F. Schmid sees himself confirmed by the results: "My forecast is that one in four trade fairs will no longer exist after the crisis. Even before the onset of the Corona crisis, there was discussion about the appropriateness of many trade shows worldwide. In times of digitalization, it is neither timely nor ecologically and economically sensible to transport complex goods such as machines halfway around the world to exhibit them for one or two weeks at a leading trade fair." Virtual trade shows could be an alternative: 19.6 percent of those surveyed want to use the option for their company in the future.

Local and national trading partners gain in importance 

With the COVID-19-induced shutdown, many companies are being forced to change their purchasing strategy. Established supply chains are breaking down and bottlenecks must be overcome with new partners. For this reason, a quarter of respondents (24%) are once again focusing more on local, national suppliers and suppliers from surrounding European markets with shorter supply routes. 9.3 percent are even actively avoiding cooperation with suppliers from the USA or Asia.

Companies in Germany less affected by Corona

Switzerland and Austria appear to be significantly more affected by the Corona crisis than Germany. While only one in four respondents in Germany (25.3 %) report significant revenue losses, one third of companies in Switzerland and Austria are affected. But in Switzerland and Austria, too, the Corona crisis is making a significant contribution to accelerating digitization in companies. In Germany, 44 percent of respondents agreed with this statement. As in Switzerland, even more than half (54 percent) in Austria are of this opinion. Whereas 44 percent of the German respondents rated the way things work in the company as "business as usual," only 24.7 percent in Switzerland and only 22 percent in Austria agreed with this statement.

Moving images are becoming increasingly important in the digital content mix. To meet the growing demand, Andy Was Right has hired Raphael Drobi as Head of Video Unit. The 26-year-old brings experience in film production as well as editorial reporting and will lead Andy Was Right's video creators.

"The requirements for digital moving images are constantly changing in today's world. Raphael will help us to produce stories that are even closer to customer and user needs," says Linard Baer, Content Lead Andy Was Right.

Drobi did his training at UBS before completing his bachelor's degree in business administration at the ZHAW. After that, he worked for Tuna Productions and was most recently business editor at SRF TV ("Tagesschau," "10vor10," online).

The equally controversial and impressive video "Protégete, protégenos!" (Protect yourself, protect us!) shows a cremation at the end and warns those who refuse to wear a mask: "Cremation oven: 980 degrees. There are things that cause more heat than a protective mask".

It was in "very bad taste" and "disrespectful", complained social network users. Some media described the campaign as "harsh" and "brutal" - but participants in TV talk shows countered that raising people's awareness was necessary in view of the rise in new infections and the irresponsibly lax attitude of many people.

In Madrid, almost everyone complies with the obligation to wear a face mask, even outdoors. But in pubs and restaurants and at evening gatherings of larger groups in public and private spaces, increasingly careless behavior can be seen, especially among younger people.

Many people complain that with temperatures in Madrid exceeding 35 degrees almost every day in summer, wearing a mask outdoors is torture - especially if you can keep the legally prescribed minimum distance of one and a half meters. The answer in the video: "Your apartment in summer: 32 degrees. Beers with friends: 30 degrees. Disco: 28 degrees. Hospital: 25 degrees. Intensive care unit: 22 degrees. Cremation oven: 980 degrees."

In the former coronavirus hotspot of Spain, Madrid has been hit harder by the pandemic than any other region in the country, with more than 8,400 deaths. Although the situation has eased considerably, the number of new infections has been steadily increasing since the end of the lockdown - mostly among people up to the age of 40.

According to the latest official figures, Spain has so far registered a total of 305,000 infections and around 28,500 deaths. Switzerland only added the Spanish mainland to the list of risk areas on Wednesday. Last week, the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin advised against traveling to the regions of Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre in the north-east of the country, which are particularly affected by new outbreaks. (SDA)

Revenues fell by 22 percent to 1.92 billion dollars, as the company announced. However, News Corp performed better than analysts had expected.

Advertising revenue fell during the coronavirus pandemic, but subscription figures rose, for example by 15 percent for the Wall Street Journal. The bottom line was a loss of 397 million dollars, which was due to write-downs in Australia and the UK as well as restructuring costs. In the previous year, the Group had reported a loss of 51 million dollars. (SDA)

A significant development is the increasing popularity of organic videos posted by brands to increase engagement within the community, which is largely at home or working from home during the pandemic.

"Q2 was a dynamic quarter from a marketing perspective. Ad spend recovered and CPC rebounded as businesses in most regions and industries returned to normal," says Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO of Socialbakers. "In early June, we saw a drop in ad spend, especially in the US, due to #BlackoutTuesday. However, ad spend returned to normal very quickly. The end of June then saw a further drop in ad spend - most likely due to the Facebook ad boycott, which could also have an impact on the figures for the third quarter of 2020."

Advertising expenditure on the rise and approaching pre-Covid-19 levels

Spending on social media ads increased significantly worldwide in the second quarter of 2020. Brands spent 26% more on advertising globally in the second quarter than at the end of the first quarter, when budgets were still very much affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Every industry analyzed showed an increase in advertising spend in the last three months. However, there were instances where ad spend temporarily declined, likely due to the online social movements #BlackoutTuesday and the Facebook ad boycott organized by civil rights and activist groups.

The impact of the Facebook advertising boycott hit North America the hardest, where spending fell by 31.6% in the last two weeks of the second quarter. With the boycott expected to last until at least July, advertising spend is likely to continue to fall at the start of the third quarter.

Cost-per-click increases worldwide, but still below previous year's level

The cost per click for all brand ad accounts fell during the pandemic, reaching a low of USD 0.075 in April. However, by the end of Q2 2020, they had risen 42.7 percent to $0.107, according to data from Socialbakers. While the increase shows a recovery as most countries have overcome the initial impact of Covid-19, the CPC was still 23.6% lower than at the end of Q2 2019 (USD 0.107 vs USD 0.140).

Online activity of Facebook users at pre-pandemic level

The data from Socialbakers shows that with the lifting of the quarantine, online user activity worldwide largely returned to pre-pandemic levels. Relative Facebook interactions fell from 100% to 50.8% in the second quarter before increasing again at the end of the quarter. After the abnormal increase in mid-March, the decline is mainly a return to normal levels.

Instagram dominates in terms of audience size and interactions

Instagram continued its upward trend in the second quarter, with the platform growing its audience and almost reaching its interaction peak at the end of the quarter. The reach of the profiles of Instagram's top 50 brands is now 31 percent greater than Facebook. Engagement also remained significantly stronger on Instagram, with 18.7x more interactions than on Facebook, despite 70.7% of all brand posts being published on Facebook.

Video content is growing and shows great potential

In light of the pandemic in March 2020, video content on social media platforms began to skyrocket. Twitter - with over 20 percent of tweets from brand pages - has the highest share of video content on social media platforms, compared to Facebook and Instagram. On Instagram, video content accounted for 17.1% of all posts in the second quarter of 2020, an increase of 16.3% compared to the second quarter of 2019. Facebook saw a 5.3% increase in video compared to the same period last year, with video content accounting for 18% of content on the platform. In addition, Facebook Live usage increased by 27 percent compared to Q2 2019 and by 126 percent over the last four months. Facebook Live was by far the most engaging format on the platform in the second quarter.

"Video is a great way to increase organic engagement, especially during the pandemic," says Socialbakers CEO Yuval Ben-Itzhak. "Due to consistently high engagement, we expect many brands to continue using Facebook Live and live video in Q3 and Q4. The message is clear: brands that are not investing in live video are missing out on potential engagement."

The coronavirus crisis has also brought to light the weaknesses and failings of recent years in public administration. The authorities in Switzerland still have a lot of catching up to do, especially when it comes to digitalization. Switzerland has the potential to be an international leader when it comes to digitalization in public administration. However, the legal framework in particular, which stands in the way of digitalization, and an inadequate technical infrastructure prevent the Swiss authorities from making further progress in digitalization.

Lack of digitalization makes working from home difficult for public administration

The proportion of administrative employees who were able to work entirely from home during the coronavirus crisis is below the overall average for all Swiss employees (30 percent) at an average of 25 percent. A comparison of the home office capacity of public administrations with other office-based industries in the private sector, such as information and communication technology (65%) or finance and insurance (50%), shows an even greater discrepancy. In the federal administration, for example, just over a third (33%) of employees could easily work from home. In the cantons (27%) and municipalities (15%), the figure was far lower.

"The general trend towards working from home has already increased in the private sector over the last few years with the introduction of flexible working models," explains Philipp Roth, Head of Public Sector at Deloitte Switzerland. "However, this trend does not yet seem to have really taken hold in the authorities and public administration."

Technical requirements and know-how for virtual working are lacking

Flexible and efficient working from home requires the right resources and technologies. Only 29 percent of the administrative employees surveyed were able to work virtually from home immediately without any technical obstacles. Almost three quarters (71%) struggled with frustration because they had to wait several days or even weeks for technical upgrades or never received them at all.

"Public administrations already have the option of increasingly working virtually from home," explains Roth. "The authorities should make better use of the potential of existing devices and applications that enable virtual working."

"However, the rapid introduction of simple tools and platforms for virtual collaboration and digital exchange must not come at the expense of data security and data protection," says Roth. "Here, too, there are now solutions that enable public authorities to create flexible workplace models," says Roth. However, administrative staff must also undergo further training. "In the age of digital change, training employees and managers is particularly important. Only when administrative staff are familiar with the existing technologies can meaningful digital renewal be driven forward," says Roth.

Approval for more digital services increases due to coronavirus crisis

The survey also shows that the coronavirus crisis has changed the attitude of many citizens towards digital services. Just under a third (31%) of the population have changed their opinion of digital services in a positive way as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Less than one in ten (9%) view new digital services negatively. For the rest, the pandemic has not triggered any change.

"Studies have shown that even before the pandemic, a majority of the Swiss population was ready for more electronic services from the federal government, cantons and municipalities," explains Rolf Brügger, Director for Government & Public Services at Deloitte Switzerland. "The current crisis has further increased this need. If you take the example of the 1.9 million employees who had to register for short-time working compensation, you can see how many of these services are not sufficiently digitalized. There were several so-called media discontinuities in the registration processes. Applicants were therefore unable to submit forms electronically, but had to print them out on paper and send them to the authorities by post," says Brügger.

Majority of administrative employees are in favor of more e-government

A majority of Swiss administrative employees (56%) are in favour of more digitalization in the administration. However, a relatively high proportion of 39% see no additional need for digital processes or services. "It is often due to a lack of IT infrastructure that does not even allow employees to properly use and get to know the benefits of digitalization," says Brügger

Use momentum, remove hurdles

According to the administrative staff surveyed, the current obstacles to digitization are the legal framework (37%), hardware and software (30%) and the physical infrastructure (14%). "Creating the appropriate legal basis is important - for example with electronic signatures," says Brügger. "At the same time, the coronavirus crisis has shown that it is possible to implement changes very quickly. We now need to take advantage of this momentum and invest in digitalization in the long term."

Purchasing more hardware and equipping employees with laptops across the board is quicker than implementing the legal framework. However, this is associated with high costs. "In the short term, it is important to focus on processes and simplify them. This does not require years of developing completely new IT systems: new electronic forms without paper printouts and mailing and a few smart new software tools could significantly reduce the number of existing media disruptions in the process. You don't need to build a new IT landscape, buy any hardware or change any laws to achieve this," emphasizes Brügger.

According to the survey, there is a positive development in Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region - in Eastern Europe, however, the tone is becoming harsher.

"The world is just opening up again after a truly unprecedented event in most people's lives. Yet many of us still work and learn from home and continue to practice social distancing. These circumstances demonstrate the need for safe, healthy and respectful interaction, both online and offline," Microsoft says.

The Group conducted the survey among 16,051 teenagers and adults from the Asia-Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, South America, North America and Western Europe regions. In general, the majority of respondents (52 percent) believe that nothing has changed in terms of conversation. However, 26 percent see an improvement, while only 22 percent claim to have noticed a deterioration.

Western Europe becomes more polite

In Western Europe and North America, 20 percent of respondents believe that online communication is becoming more polite, while only 17 percent see it as becoming ruder. In Asia Pacific, Internet users are showing better manners, according to 31 percent of survey participants, while only 22 percent find a harsher tone.

Eastern Europe is less optimistic: According to around 28 percent of respondents, the Internet is becoming ruder, with only 17 percent seeing a positive development. In South America, rudeness (31 percent) narrowly outweighs politeness (30 percent). According to the respondents, the most important factors for polite online conversation are respect, security, freedom and friendliness. (pte)