The evaluation is transparent and based on objective criteria and offers clients assistance in choosing the right agency partner.

Search engine marketing plays a key role in terms of sales volume and reach in the field of digital advertising. The services offered for search engine advertising and search engine optimization are both diverse and complex and require a great deal of specific expertise from agencies. The industry association IAB Switzerland has set itself the goal of bringing transparency to the subject area and setting a standard in terms of professionalism with new quality certificates for agencies.

Quality certificates are offered for search engine advertising and search engine optimization. The prerequisite for the application process is the signing of a code of conduct. Among other things, an agency undertakes to maintain transparency and serious working methods in strategic consulting and the implementation of measures. The aim is to ensure the quality of agency services in the long term and to achieve the greatest possible transparency for advertisers with regard to the signatories' working methods and procedures.

The certification process comprises a multi-stage procedure in which the agency in question is assessed in the areas of working methods, customer satisfaction, experience and commitment to the market. The cooperation partner for the quality certificate is the German Federal Association of the Digital Economy (BVDW), which has been successfully carrying out the certification for several years and supports IAB Switzerland in the development and certification process. An independent audit committee is responsible for the audit at IAB Switzerland.

Agencies that have been active in the market for two years and can prove a sales volume of at least CHF 200,000 in the respective business area can apply for the quality certificates.

Information on the certification process, the requirements and the costs can be found at the following link: Iab-switzerland.ch/certifications

For example, 89% of the 1,500 or so managers who took part in the current survey expect a significant increase in home office arrangements in their companies in the future. One of the reasons for this is the higher efficiency in the home office, which around half of the participating managers have observed. Maintaining informal communication with employees is perceived as the biggest challenge when managing from home.

Working from home has increased rapidly as a result of the coronavirus crisis. While managers and their teams in German-speaking countries worked from home on average less than one day per week before the lockdown (0.7 and 0.8 days per week respectively), this figure was 3.7 and 4.2 days per week during the lockdown due to the lockdown restrictions. For the period after the coronavirus crisis, 89% of managers expect a further increase in the acceptance of home office regulations. They assume that their teams and they themselves will work from home around twice as often - i.e. an average of 1.5 days - as before the crisis.

Positive experiences with working from home predominate

"The crisis has given companies a great opportunity to build a culture of trust," says Daniel Nerlich, Managing Partner of Odgers Berndtson Germany, commenting on the results. "Although our study shows that some managers still have reservations about the productivity and satisfaction of their employees working from home, the positive experiences with this form of working outweigh the negative ones."

For example, 65% of the participating managers stated that their team reacted flexibly to the challenges of the lockdown, while 58% and 56% respectively confirmed that their employees used virtual media without any problems and showed a high level of personal responsibility. The managers themselves have also had positive experiences of working from home: over 90 percent of managers say they can motivate themselves well at home, feel satisfied and balanced (76 percent) and even see themselves as more efficient working from home than in the office (50 percent).

Women arrange themselves better - younger managers find it difficult

Working from home suits women in particular. Flexible working from home gives them the opportunity to better balance work and family life. Female managers rate themselves as significantly more efficient when working from home (62%) than their male colleagues (48%). However, efficiency stands and falls with a disruption-free workplace: younger Generation Y managers - despite their generally higher affinity for digital media - find it much more difficult to work from home than their older colleagues. This is probably due to the fact that they usually still have young families with small children and often have less living space than older managers.

"In future, both-and solutions will be in demand," says Daniel Nerlich. "Some employees are very happy working from home and would prefer to continue working from there. Others want to return to the company because they have a suitable workplace here and miss the social contact with colleagues. Companies should make individual home office agreements with their employees in order to remain an attractive and competitive employer in the future."

"Leading at a distance" poses a number of challenges

Maintaining informal communication is the biggest challenge for managers when working from home. While working on projects or delegating tasks can still be done relatively well at a distance, conversations in the hallway or at the coffee machine unfortunately fall by the wayside. More than two thirds of managers miss this interpersonal contact with colleagues or employees. A good half of managers also find communication within teams and motivating their employees difficult.

In contrast, managers consider productivity and target achievement, flexibility in processes and the use of IT and communication technology to be less problematic. "Leadership is not possible without face-to-face communication," explains Nerlich. "It depends on the right mix of personal and digital contact - tailored to the culture of the company, the requirements of the respective role and the individual needs of the employees," says the consultant.

Lockdown time, for everyone, meant lots of time at home. What for some was a welcome change from the daily commute was a whole new kind of density stress, especially for many families. With schools closed, the majority of Swiss children were at home, and many professionals throughout Switzerland were in their home offices. For this reason, Mobiliar and Jung von Matt/Limmat launched the "Homemade Damage Sketches" campaign to give all participants a few nice moments. The campaign was supported by Ringier.

Hüüslipapier and a lot of creativity

With the help of a simple tutorial, the draftsmen and women were asked to draw real or invented damage stories in typical Mobiliar style and send them to Mobiliar. Using pencil and good old "Hüüslipapier", more than 600 damage sketches were created. Among the best sketches submitted, vouchers were raffled off for local businesses, which were thus also supported in difficult times. The winners were able to choose for themselves which business in their area the voucher should be valid for.

Prominent support

On Ringier's social media and channels, Swiss celebrities such as Baschi, Anna Rossinelli or Matthias Sempach and various influencers interpreted submitted damage sketches. "With the Homemade damage sketches, we caught the right momentum to engage our customers, but also Switzerland in general, and inspire them with a popular advertising classic in the lockdown," says Lorenz Jenni, Head of Brand Management & Marketing Communications.

High activation

In addition to a large number of damage sketches, the campaign generated a lot of online buzz for Mobiliar: In four weeks, over 80,000 visits were counted on the landing page and around 16,000 minutes on the Mobiliar website. "The special and particularly good thing about the Homemade damage sketch campaign is: The campaign precisely did not try to sell anything during the crisis, but showed that we get the farthest for each other and with each other," says Dennis Lück, Chief Creative Officer of Jung von Matt/Limmat.

2005 is an eventful year: Angela Merkel becomes Chancellor of Germany, the video portal YouTube is launched, and the Swiss people vote to join the Schengen/Dublin agreement. 2005 is also the year in which the vision of streaming TV free of charge and legally licensed over the Internet becomes the TV streaming provider Zattoo. Only a year later, with just a dozen employees, Zattoo launches its service in Switzerland. The Swiss kick off with the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica on June 9, 2006, making Zattoo the first provider in the world to bring free live TV to the PC. Expansion to Germany follows a year later. By 2007, more than a million users were streaming TV over the Internet with Zattoo.

Not only rosy times

A few turbulent years followed, during which Zattoo was not only available on more and more platforms with a growing selection of channels, but also during which the financial crisis put the business model to the test. As a consequence, Zattoo withdraws from some European markets in 2009. From 2010, Zattoo focuses regionally on Switzerland and Germany as well as on apps for mobile devices and establishes its own B2B business in 2012.

The days when viewers sat in front of the TV at prescribed times were already becoming a thing of the past. In 2010, Zattoo launched the Replay function in Switzerland, allowing users to watch the TV program of the last 30 days after broadcast. This service was further expanded with the introduction of the recording function and Restart, a function that allows users to watch live programs that have already started from the beginning, and was later also introduced in the German market. A versatile video-on-demand offering has also been available for several years.

With many years of experience from its own end-customer business, Zattoo founded its own B2B business in 2012. The business currently has more than 30 customers.

Extensive further development

With around 1.8 million viewers at the 2016 European Football Championship, Zattoo reached a new peak. One of the reasons: the massive increase in usage time on the big TV screen. Since then, Zattoo has extensively developed its service for smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Android TV and Apple TV to provide an even better TV streaming experience. With the launch of the Ultimate subscription in 2018 and the first Full HD channels, Zattoo aims to create an increasingly attractive product for the big screen in the living room.

Over the past few years, Zattoo has constantly evolved. From a live TV service for the PC to a leading live and on-demand TV service for the TV in the living room and on mobile devices. From an ad-supported direct-to-consumer provider, Zattoo has become an end-to-end, multi-national and multi-client TV platform operator. As an innovation leader, Zattoo, then as now, contributes to the evolution of the TV industry. For this achievement, Zattoo was honored in 2020 with the Technology and Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Tertianum Management, with offices in Zurich and Crissier, has reorganized its marketing and communications department. Marketing has been divided among the language regions and integrated into the organizations of Marianne Häuptli, COO German-speaking Switzerland, and Nicolas Crognaletti, COO French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.

Marie-Françoise Ruesch has been recruited for the Tertianum Group's communications and brand management, and has been responsible for this area since June 1. The communications expert has many years of experience in marketing, branding and corporate communications. After working for various agencies, she held various management positions on the corporate side at internationally active companies such as Sony, Canon and UBS. In her new role, Marie-Françoise Ruesch reports directly to Luca Stäger, CEO of Tertianum Management.

(Photo: Thijs Wolzak)

The Corona crisis is a challenge for everyone. The houses of culture are lacking visitors, most companies are suffering from the pressure of a lack of income and many private individuals are losing part of their income due to short-time work, unemployment or a lack of orders. At the same time, the crisis has also allowed a solution to blossom: With mutual solidarity, the negative effects can be mitigated in many cases.

This is where the Museum of Communication comes in and launches the Corona Savings Wednesday from now until the end of August. Every Wednesday, admission is reduced to 10 francs for adults, 7 francs for AHV and IV and 3.50 francs for children and young people under 16. Children under 6 are free.

In this way, the museum wants to make a contribution in solidarity to offer as many people as possible access to culture and variety in these financially tight times. Especially for families, a visit to the Museum of Communication and the broadening of cultural horizons should not fail due to the budget. Culture should be open to everyone - especially in a time full of challenges.

In professional kitchens, speed is as important as quality. Bischofszell Culinarium now offers detailed information online on over 800 products that can help restaurateurs from restaurants, hospitals and home kitchens with their menu planning. This includes information on ingredients, nutritional values and allergens, as well as useful preparation tips. Users also receive information around the clock about new products, seasonal ranges and promotions.

The campaign was designed to attract more visitors to this digital offering. A personalized mailing was designed that invited professionals to model their favorite dish themselves right away from the marzipan provided and post a picture of it on Culinarium-online.ch to be put on display. Those who present their creations to the expert jury can win products from Bischofszell Culinarium worth up to 1000 Swiss francs. The direct approach is followed up by e-mail reminders and retargeting banners.

Skintherapist based in Zurich, now also offers its own products in addition to holistic and medical facial treatments. These "Organic Botanicals" are developed and produced in Switzerland.

For the new campaign against blackheads, the agency is using Leonardo da Vinci's famous Last Supper, which for once shows Jesus alone without his 12 apostles - his blackheads.

The packaging design for the Skintherapist range was also conceived and realized by Die Antwort. The campaign will run digitally and on social media in June and July 2020.

The Mini Countryman and the Mini Clubman, as well as the smaller Mini 3 Door and the Mini Convertible, are all high-performance models. Serviceplan Suisse is promoting the four John Cooper Works models with an online campaign. In fast-paced video ads and other placements, the characteristics that define a Mini John Cooper Works are presented: speed, power and maximum driving pleasure.

After the Women's Center Zurich (Stop Prostitution) and the Migros (Ice Tea Beats) on Tuesday the first two winners were announced, two more gold winners are now known:

1st Bank Cler: "The Zak Context Banner" (Category: Highlight) 

Zak, Bank Cler's mobile banking service, reacted in October 2018 to the announcement of new fees by its competitor Postfinance. With a banner right next to numerous online articles on the topic, Zak promoted the switch to the alternative, which continues to be free of charge, and thus addressed disappointed Postfinance customers at exactly the right moment and in the right place. The selective measure was a huge success and, measured by the impact of the budget used, 31 times more efficient (in terms of new customers gained) than the already efficient campaign that ran at the same time.

• Client: Bank Cler
• Lead Agency: Home Zurich
• Other agency: phd Media Switzerland

2nd Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund: "M-Budget Mobile - No one needs more subscription" (Category: Activation) 

Innovative and unique - M-Budget-Mobile is the first mobile operator to reward low usage. Unused data is converted into Cumulus points. This proves the new attitude "No one needs more subscriptions" directly via the product. No empty advertising promise. Effective and efficient - The objectives are clearly exceeded. M-Budget Mobile extends its lead over the competition in terms of awareness (with a smaller budget) and successfully anchors the core message "You get Cumulus points for unused data" with consumers. Most importantly, subscriptions increased by +28% year-on-year.

• Client: Federation of Migros Cooperatives
• Lead Agency: Wirz Communications, Zurich
• Other agencies/companies: Plan B, Zurich / Sebahat Film + Foto

Bank Cler is joining the race for the Grand Effie - the award for the one "outstanding" best case - after the Women's Center and Migros, which has now won gold twice. Now it's up to the Grand Effie jury - the prize will only be awarded exclusively at the digital award ceremony on June 30 if the decision is unanimous.

Programmatic is much more than Real Time Bidding (RTB) and now also offers new channels: Radio, DOOH and TV. Although there are still marketing and communication professionals for whom this concept is still unclear, it can nevertheless be said that the term "programmatic" is known to 90% of the professionals surveyed. At the same time, a better understanding of programmatic can be observed this year compared to last year: With 43%, 13% more participants were able to give a precise definition of programmatic.

The best-known and most frequently activated channels in 2020 are display (95%), social media (70%) and video (61%). Unsurprisingly, real-time campaign optimization, increased performance and automation are seen as the main benefits of programmatic. On the other hand, 63% of respondents want more comprehensive reporting, better tools to measure the visibility of impressions (62%) and are looking for new, more interactive formats (53%). The Swiss market should expand its expertise in this area in the coming year and players should become more competent in order to fully exploit the benefits of programmatic.

It is important to note that 70% of the companies surveyed already use programmatic, an increase of 10% compared to 2019. Programmatic advertising spend represents a significant proportion of the digital budget: Almost 40% of the total digital budget is spent on programmatic in French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland.

The level of development of the Swiss market continues to increase: 70% of respondents say they will increase their investments in 2021. Among advertisers who do not yet use programmatic, 54% plan to plan programmatic campaigns, and 40% of them want to do so this year.

On Saturday, June 20, the Zurich Pride should have taken place, the biggest queer event in Switzerland. Unfortunately, this year's Pride had to be cancelled due to the corona virus, which is why VBZ cannot bring anyone to the event.
However, this year's motto "Show your colors against hate" does not lose its importance. Because physical and mental violence, discrimination and stigmatization are still part of everyday life for the LGBTIQ community.

That's why the VBZ bring the colors of Zurich Pride to the streets in their own way. And declare their support for a tolerant, open and colorful Zurich. On full-page ads in 20 minutes as well as on social media. The action is supported by a Article on Vbz.jobsin which VBZ draws attention to the company's own LGBTIQ association "Pink Line".