At some point during a long train ride, children only want one thing: to play with their cell phones. Although parents know that staring into the smartphone is not the best solution, it often remains the only one when it comes to enjoying a relaxing ride.

With MärliTrax, SwissPass Smile wants to improve the travel experience for everyone. Fairy tale podcasts are intended to transform the passing landscape into a stage for exciting stories.

An interactive experience

Each tale is inspired by a particular train route in Switzerland and written to fit it. Through geotargeting, castles, mountains and rivers you pass become part of the audio plays in real time. Depending on where you board, even the fairy tale length changes modularly.

The view from the train window is linked with audio content. A child's imagination can transform it into a completely new and interactive experience. For example, children travel from Basel with Topolina to Chiasso in search of El Dorado. At Lake Geneva, they rescue the fairy kingdom from Lake Geneva with young Amelie.

New stories all the time

The launch took place in summer 2019 with a first tale from St. Gallen to Geneva. New routes and stories are now being added all the time. By the end of the year, 12 more self-written fairy tales are to follow.

According to the study, global revenues are expected to climb to $142 billion in as little as ten years - almost double the 2019 result. Growth will be driven primarily by the streaming market, which is expected to reach around 1.2 billion customers by 2030.

Strong rebound effect expected

"Music industry revenues are likely to slump by as much as 25 percent globally in fiscal 2020," CNBC quotes from the U.S. investment bank's analysis. "It's expected to hit the live music sector particularly hard," where many rescheduled dates and concert cancellations are expected due to the ongoing Corona threat. "There could be a 75 percent drop in sales here this year," explain the Goldman Sachs experts.

However, the poorer short-term development would be offset overall by an extremely positive longer-term outlook. "We expect a strong rebound effect driven by long-lasting growth in streaming offers, a general increase in demand for music content and live events, as well as new opportunities in licensing and conducive regulatory conditions," the assessment says.

Major labels as main beneficiaries

According to Goldman Sachs, global music industry revenues will rise to $142 billion by the end of the decade, an increase of 84 percent on the corresponding figure from 2019, which settled at $77 billion. By then, the online market for streaming services is expected to reach 1.2 billion users - that would be almost four times as many paying customers as in the previous year (341 million users).

The US analysts identify major labels such as Universal Music Group and Sony Music in particular as the main beneficiaries of this clear long-term upward trend. "The platforms of these companies are benefiting most from the streaming boom and its huge volumes of customer data. However, competition is likely to intensify here as well," the report says. (pte)

The newly implemented campaign structure is based on the analysis of existing data sets of Gift idea.ch. The current setup of the social media channels was assessed and the potential identified. With the insights gained, Ads&Figures then developed a new concept together with Geschenkidee.ch. The overriding goal was to reduce acquisition costs for new customers and increase profitability with existing customers.

"The social media channels are strategically significant for us as a company. The concept presented by Ads&Figures after a workshop was very logical and, above all, it promised increased internal efficiency. In the meantime, we are working with the new campaign structure on a daily basis. The first results are promising," says Regina Ellmann, CMO at Geschenkidee.ch.

With the first two easing measures on April 30 and May 11, we are gradually returning to normality. But it is a new normality that the Swiss will first have to get used to. Hotels, museums and restaurants have reopened and shopping is possible again. The mountain railroads, shipping and tourist attractions are expected to follow on June 8, with the opening of the borders with Austria, France and Germany scheduled for June 15. This staggered opening of the tourist infrastructure is very welcome and must be coordinated with the guests' need for safety and hygiene, writes Switzerland Tourism in a press release on Thursday.

Strengthening the trust of guests from Germany and abroad

The protection concepts drawn up by the federal government and industry associations for the opening of businesses are mandatory. The cantonal authorities are responsible for monitoring compliance with the protection concepts. For some guests, however, the step into the new normality may be fraught with doubt and uncertainty. In order to strengthen guests' confidence in Switzerland as a vacation destination, the tourism industry associations HotellerieSuisse, Seilbahnen Schweiz, IG Parahotellerie Schweiz, Verband Öffentlicher Verkehrsmittel, Verband Schweizer Schifffahrtsunternehmen, Verband Schweizer Tourismusmanager and GastroSuisse are launching the "Clean & Safe" campaign on the initiative of ST. The involvement of other associations is being planned. The campaign so far includes a new label and the information platform Clean-and-safe.ch, with an overview of all industry-specific protection concepts.

Clear and uniform means of communication

With the "Clean & Safe" label, a uniform and easily recognizable means of communication has been created. The label gives establishments the opportunity to communicate their commitment to a clean and safe guest experience to the outside world. At the same time, guests from Switzerland and abroad are relieved of a degree of uncertainty, as the label clearly signals that the establishment visited has made a conscious commitment to comply with the protection concept.

Implementation of the campaign

The "Clean & Safe" label is provided by the respective industry associations. A total of six industry-specific labels are available, which are visually derived from the cross-industry label (for hotels, restaurants, shipping, cable cars, public transport and meetings). All businesses wishing to use the label that suits them must register online with the relevant association and confirm their compliance with the protection concepts with their signature. The form in which the label is used (online, physical) is always determined in consultation with the relevant industry association.

Safety and hygiene become a competitive factor

As a clean and safe country, Switzerland is in a particularly good position during a pandemic. ST will also explicitly advertise the strict protection concepts of Swiss hotels, restaurants, cable cars, shipping and public transport as part of the "Recovery Plan". The cross-industry label will therefore also be used for promotion abroad. By the start of the tourist season, the label should be known among the Swiss population and in the most important guest markets, as well as being used in establishments throughout Switzerland.

This corresponds to a further decline of -29.5 percent compared to the previous month, which already showed the first signs of the curfew. In a year-on-year comparison, the gross advertising print in April is even 40.2 percent or 210 million gross advertising francs lower than in 2019. Overall, the gross advertising print in 2020 (YTD) amounts to 1.6 billion. A minus of -17.2 percent.

Advertising pressure in the overall market

Development of advertising print as of April 2020 in million gross Swiss francs

The crisis hits out-of-home with a delay - but hard

Empty streets, empty streetcars. Why put up billboards when hardly anyone sees them? That's probably what advertisers in Switzerland thought. The result was 66.3 percent less advertising than in the previous year. However, the effect was somewhat delayed. Other media groups already showed declines in gross advertising print in March. An example of an OOH image campaign from Germany shows how creativity can be used to convert advertising print into media reach. "We thank everyone who doesn't see this poster #". The sender: hohes C.

Only cinemas were hit harder than OOH in April. These remained closed. The consequence - no advertising pressure.

Radio advertising experiences the third strongest percentage decline (-56.2%), followed by print advertising (-42.8%) and TV advertising (-38.0%). Internet advertising shows the highest stability with "only" a quarter less gross advertising than in the previous year (-25.1%).

Crisis winners: Tobacco products alone on a wide track

Only the tobacco industry increased its advertising pressure year-on-year, as in the previous month (+57.8 percent). However, this has no impact on the overall development of the Swiss advertising market. With less than half a million gross advertising francs, the tobacco industry's share is 0.1 percent.

Advertising print reduction > 50 percent

The events industry has been hit the hardest. The gross power print has fallen in April 2020, compared to 2019, by 84.7 percent. This is followed by the vehicle industry, without car showrooms, commuter traffic and the secure purchasing power of customers, advertising print, the industry with a strong affinity for billboard advertising, falls by 75.1 percent in April.

Leisure, hospitality, tourism (-64.2 percent), transportation (-63.5 percent), energy (-55.2 percent) and fashion & sports (-50.5 percent) round out the list of industries whose gross value print more than halved in April compared to a year ago.
Outlook

The results for the advertising industry after six weeks of lockdown are sobering. With the first easing on May 11, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. It will be interesting to see whether and how quickly the Swiss (advertising) industry picks up speed again.

Advertising printing in the industries

Top of the month

Top advertisers and most advertised products and services (excluding product range and image advertising) in April

Media Mix

Media Mix for the month of April

Sports journalist of the year 2016 and TV presenter Steffi Buchli is moving to Ringier as of January 1, 2021. Buchli will become a member of the Blick Group's editorial team and take over from Felix Bingesser (57) as Editor-in-Chief of Sports. In her new role, she will report directly to Christian Dorer, Editor-in-Chief of the Blick Group. With the addition of Steffi Buchli, the Blick Group is strengthening its expertise in moving images and TV rights.

Steffi Buchli can look back on around 20 years of experience in journalism. From 2003 to 2017, the 41-year-old Zurich native worked at Swiss Television (SRF). She then spent three years as head of programming and presenter at MySports. She is looking forward to her new task: "In the sports world, the Blick brand stands for strong positions and clear opinions. In that sense, the two of us are a good fit," Buchli said in a statement on Wednesday.

Bingesser hands over sports management

Felix Bingesser, who has headed the sports department for ten years, will continue to work for Blick-Sport as a journalist. As a member of a working group, he will also be responsible for strategic issues in the area of sports for Ringier. Sport is a central topic for the Blick Group and also for Ringier. To this end, Bingesser will also take a seat on the Board of Directors of Ringier Sports. "Felix Bingesser is the longest-serving head of sports in the history of Blick! He has strongly shaped the sports scene as a leading journalistic voice. I thank him sincerely for this and am very happy that he will continue to work for us," says Christian Dorer.

Böni and Mäder report to Bucheli

Andreas Böni, who has served as Blick's head of soccer for twelve years, will become deputy editor-in-chief for sports. He is one of Switzerland's most high-profile soccer journalists - known, among other things, for his moving image format "Am Ball mit Böni," where he analyzes the latest soccer matches and results. The current deputy head of sports at Blick, Patrick Mäder, will remain in the same position. Andreas Böni and Patrick Mäder will report directly to Steffi Buchli in their functions.

Bucheli's successor at MySports still open

As far as Steffi Buchli's successor is concerned, UPC will be looking intensively at this vacancy over the next few weeks, according to a statement from the MySports operator. Apart from that, there will be no changes to the channel's content. The team around Vice President MySports Matthias Krieb and the two editors-in-chief Toby Stüssi (German-speaking Switzerland) and Alexandre Burkhalter (French-speaking Switzerland) are already planning the upcoming season of the National League and the Swiss League "with full vigor". They will be supported by the entire editorial and production crews of around 50 people in Erlenbach ZH and Rossens FR respectively. (hae/pd)

Corona has caused a lot of things to fall apart. However, the crisis also made many things possible: Formula 1 racing teams used their 3-D printers to manufacture respirators. Home offices have become the standard. Football is taking place right now without spectators. "In chaos, the new can establish itself more quickly," says Dietmar Dahmen. The futurologist is one of the speakers at the Swiss Brand Congress, which is taking place twice this year. As a web congress, it will take to the virtual stage on June 11. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., representatives of brands such as Mammut, Credit Suisse, About You, Lindt and Feldschlösschen will address topical issues in a live stream. The web event is included in the regular ticket.

Live event at the Dolder Grand in Zurich

The Swiss Brand Congress live on site will take place on October 26, 2020 at the Dolder Grand in Zurich. Under the motto "Local Heroes, Global Players," 30 experts from successful national and international brands are expected on stage. Representatives of big brand names such as Geberit, Hilfiger, Heineken, Zurich Film Festival or the communication guru Frank Behrendt will show first-hand current trends and developments in the industry. Which brands have a bright future ahead of them? Which are losing relevance? Topics such as live experiences, influencer marketing, Big Data as well as storytelling and much more will be discussed in the eight forums.

Award for practice and science

Two prizes of the "Academy of Marketing Science" will be awarded at the Swiss Brand Congress. The award honors marketing practitioners for special commitment to academic marketing education and research. The second award, the "Rigour & Relevance Research Award," is presented to a research paper that has the highest relevance for companies.

In addition, there is "Live Shopping": the possibility to sell goods in a video livestream. The project is intended to help smaller companies in particular survive the Corona crisis, Facebook's founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

"It's something I've been interested in for a while, but when Covid-19 came along, it became really critical and urgent." Many smaller companies - whose ads are important to Facebook's business - were facing extinction and looking for a way out in online business, he said. That's why Facebook Shops development was "dramatically accelerated," he said.

Data on customer behavior

For Facebook itself, the shopping platform will bring data on customer behavior - similar to other offerings from the online network, Zuckerberg pointed out. "We'll see which stores they interact with, what products they're interested in, what they buy and so on."

Currently, however, there is no function for sharing this information with friends, and no one else except the user, the store and Facebook gets access to it. With the data, however, the online network could continue to perfect its lucrative ability to bring advertisers to the right addressees for their ads.

Fees for payment functions

Setting up the Facebook stores will be free of charge for merchants, Zuckerberg said. Fees would only be charged for payment functions, for example - "but that's largely about covering our costs". Facebook expects that advertisements from merchants will increase the online network's revenues.

"Our advertising system works with auctions, where a company bids as much as an ad is worth to them. If we can make an ad more valuable because someone who clicks on it is more likely to buy something, we will make more money from advertising," he said, describing Facebook's thought process.

Facebook also wants to score points by linking its various services. For example, users will be able to contact an online store via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Instagram's chat function. If a credit card is stored in the Facebook system, you can pay directly with it.

The aim is to make it easier for people to try on cosmetics, clothing or glasses, for example, with the help of augmented reality. Virtual content on the display is mixed with real images. For example, makeup colors can be displayed on the face or pieces of furniture in the room. The online network is also working on integrating bonus points programs.

Some categories, such as guns, will not be available on the platform, even if their sale would be legal, Zuckerberg said.

Competition with Amazon and Ebay

Facebook, with its 2.6 billion users and well-oiled online advertising system, could become a powerful competitor even to major commerce platforms like Amazon and Ebay. The shopping initiative is at the same time likely to attract the attention of regulators - like anything a company Facebook's size does, Zuckerberg said. "But I don't think our response can be to not do anything new."

Many people and businesses wanted to use Facebook's products and relied on them. "We have a responsibility to innovate, and I think we're one of the institutions in the world that can really help." (SDA/hae)

On Wednesday, the Federal Council specified the coronavirus emergency aid for the media requested by Parliament. The package of measures covers all types of media. The temporary emergency aid for the media will be regulated in two emergency ordinances.

Support for indirect press funding and the Keystone-SDA news agency beyond the six-month time limit, as requested by a motion, will be examined in due course, as the Federal Council writes.

According to the Federal Council, the emergency package is intended to safeguard the regional public service throughout Switzerland. The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the structural crisis in the media that has been evident for years. (SDA)

The group is conducting these tests in U.S. nursing homes so that residents can use the video chat application to Google Duo can easily stay in touch with their families and friends.

"Important for health"

"Staying connected to others is important for seniors' mental and emotional health. Social isolation in quarantine makes that especially difficult. With Nest Hub Max and Duo, families can be "together" even though they're not in the same place," Google says.

Google has distributed about 1000 simplified Nest Hub Max devices to seven nursing homes in Washington state. The smart displays are easier to use than ordinary ones. A list of contacts was previously created to facilitate video calls. In addition, the displays are equipped with simply designed cards that tell users exactly what they can do with them and serve as shortcuts to functions such as music, weather reports or settings.

"Activity is anonymous"

Google wants to make the retirement home version of Nest Hub Max as private as possible. The devices are managed by Nest Hub's fleet management system. In addition, they run on a "logged out" mode where no data is stored. "All activity on them is anonymous," Google says. (pte)

Graubünden vacations has developed a package of measures to stimulate tourism demand aimed at attracting Swiss guests in the summer and fall of 2020, the government announced Wednesday. The money is intended to help cushion the economic impact of the Corona pandemic. Because according to government data, the pandemic is kicking the tourism sector "with full force".

Communication tools are to be used to inspire guests to travel to Graubünden. The canton is to be raised in awareness as an "ideal and close travel destination". (SDA)

Axel Eckstein and Alexander Kranz-Mars (from left).

In doing so, they make a point of putting companies and consumers on the same footing. Kranz-Mars: "We carefully prepare both sides to have great experiences - with each other." For them, it's about "not seeing consumers as victims who are being digitally stalked, but as human beings like the rest of us. And as such, most of us prefer equal dialogue. Regardless of whether you're wearing the buyer's hat or the seller's hat."

The two agency owners say they score points by combining their experience from advertising and design agencies. "Alex is a 360-degree designer and he has known the digital sector for more than 20 years. As a lecturer, he also passes on his UX knowledge to students," Eckstein said. Kranz-Mars on his business partner: "Axel was at BBDO, Jung von Matt, Havas and Leo Burnett and has made a name for himself not only as a top creative but also as a brand strategist."

The agency already serves large clients from the industrial and service sectors, as well as smaller companies and start-ups. According to the statement, the range of services demanded has become ever greater and the process is increasingly leading up to the development of business models. "We're comfortable with the fundamental questions," Axel Eckstein explains, "and unlike a traditional management consultancy, we always keep an eye on whether problem-solution fit and value proposition ultimately turn into successful communication."

The agency founders demonstrate what this can look like right away in their own cause. For their first project under the name Atoll, they didn't develop a campaign, but a product: a glove wiper from the 3D printer. A pro bono project to improve hygiene in hospitals and wherever protective gloves need to be changed frequently. Thanks to the collaboration with two specialized companies from the field of additive manufacturing, the glove wiper could be made available in the shortest possible time, also as a free download under Atoll.cc/gloveremover.

Axel Eckstein

Founder and partner of Atoll. Member of the Account Planning Group Switzerland, ADC Switzerland and ADC Germany. 350 creative awards. Stations: Executive Creative Director at Leo Burnett and Havas in Zurich, Art Director at Jung von Matt in Zurich and Frankfurt and at BBDO in Düsseldorf.

Alexander Kranz-Mars

Founder and partner of Atoll. Lecturer in graphic and screen design, book author and game developer. Stations: Owner of plusgestaltung, senior consultant at Nose and partner at Crafft in Zurich. Digital art director at Stuttgarter Zeitung. Designer in London and Sydney.