Two years ago, the High Court of the Canton of Zurich sentenced a man to a conditional fine for multiple defamatory statements. The judicial authorities accused the man of having made defamatory statements to the detriment of third parties in an email he had written himself and in his own Facebook comment.

The man had also marked other users' Facebook posts with "Like" or "Share". In these posts, the third party was accused of right-wing, brown and anti-Semitic ideas. According to the Federal Supreme Court, the man had thus spread defamation.

The convicted man appealed against this judgment to the highest Swiss court. According to the ruling of the Federal Supreme Court, the dissemination of defamation is considered a separate offense. Pressing the "Like" or "Share" buttons on Facebook can lead to greater visibility on the internet.

However, according to the Federal Supreme Court, whether a punishable act of dissemination actually exists must be considered on a case-by-case basis. The offense is only completed when the disseminated accusation is visible to and perceived by a third party.

In the present case, it was clear that the liked and shared news content had reached people who were not part of the original author's subscriber base. The High Court was therefore right to assume that the offense of dissemination was basically fulfilled.

As a result, the Federal Supreme Court nevertheless upholds the appeal. It referred the case back to the High Court for a new decision. The court had previously wrongly excluded the accused from the opportunity to prove the truth of the allegations made. (SDA/judgment 6B_1114/2018 of January 29, 2020)

Today, social media celebrities receive about $8 billion for ads, but the influencer boom will soon reach a new peak, according to Sylvia Jablonski, managing director for capital markets at U.S. investment advisory firm Direxion.

Industrial metamorphosis

"We've seen this metamorphosis of the advertising industry before. It has evolved from traditional ads in magazines to billboards to TV commercials. Today, we've arrived at social media advertising. Companies have realized that influencers with many followers can actually lead to more purchases," "Yahoo Finance" quotes Jablonski.

According to Jablonski's assessment, the return on investment for influencer advertising is around 3.5 percent. In contrast, it is only about 1.2 percent for ads in magazines or on Google. Instagram users in particular, with a large number of followers, have a massive influence on their purchasing decisions.

Wave of regulation looms

While the trend toward influencer marketing shows no signs of abating, however, a wave of regulation could also be on the way, Jablonski warns. Many social web celebrities would disguise paid advertisements as personal recommendations. This is a thorn in the side of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in particular. In the future, the agency wants to take more measures to ensure that influencers transparently label advertising as such. (pte)

The two northern half-cantons are separated by about as much as they are united. This has always meant that the cantonal banks stick to the cantonal borders. The Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank, however, wants to be closer to its 37,000 customers who live or work in the city canton and therefore dared to do the unthinkable: it opened a branch in the middle of the city. OSW accompanied this almost historic border crossing with an extensive campaign.

The agency's brief was simple: BLKB's move into the city should get into the heads of both cantons. In order to boost the talk of the town, OSW developed advertising media on numerous channels: a poster campaign, rail panels and public transport screens, special stickers on the town's public transport, an online campaign, social media posts, samplings at train stations. And a nighttime incursion by out-of-canton BLKB spies.

Guerrilla action

To appropriately stage the bank's arrival, OSW conceived a guerrilla intervention: overnight, balloons with speech bubbles in the style of the poster campaign appeared on well-known sculptures and statues in the city and let them talk about the bank's arrival.

The night-and-fog campaign was announced and accompanied by short clips on social media, which also called for a competition to win an e-bike. It's a quick way to get from A(mmel) to B(asel).

Branch opening

To break the proverbial ice once and for all, passers-by were allowed to free a prize in the form of theater tickets, gold vreneli or shopping vouchers from a block of ice during the opening at the Barfi, wearing protective goggles and using their strength. If they managed to do it in time.

This should eliminate all fear of contact and not only make everyone aware of the arrival of BLKB in the city, but also: that what belongs together is finally together. OSW implemented all advertising materials and was responsible for the consulting.

As Head of the Südostschweiz media family, Reto Furter will be responsible for the strategic and operational management of the Südostschweiz Bündner Zeitung and Südostschweiz Glarner Nachrichten, the Linth NewspaperRadio Südostschweiz and TV Südostschweiz as well as Suedostschweiz.ch and the corresponding social media channels.

As the successor to Martina Fehr, who is leaving the company after five years in this role, he will head the Editorial Board. His core tasks include the further development of convergence and the newsroom. Reto Furter was already involved in this process in his previous role, ensuring a seamless succession.

Reto Furter can draw on a sound educational background for his new role. Reto Furter completed a basic commercial apprenticeship after secondary school. He later studied history at the University of Bern, graduating with a doctorate in 2006. He has been a lecturer and has undergone various in-service training and further education courses in the field of journalism since 2005. From 2011 to 2015, Reto Furter was head of the Graubünden regional section of the newspaper Südostschweiz and became a member of the editorial team. As head of the Graubünden department and member of the extended editorial team, he was then given responsibility for all Südostschweiz media channels in this area.

Beyer Watches and Jewels at Bahnhofstrasse 31 is a Zurich institution. The family business was founded in 1760 and is now run by René Beyer in the eighth generation. Today, Beyer sells ten top watch brands, cultivates the watch and jewelry craft with ten watchmakers and six goldsmiths, and maintains one of the most important collections in the world with the Beyer Watch Museum. Together with Sir Mary, this unique history is to be told in a modern way.

The focus of the collaboration is a new brand campaign, the revision of digital touchpoints and a content offensive.

"Companies with as much tradition as Beyer are rare. Properly staged, their impact continues to rise in the digital world. Tackling this task fills us with pride," says Nicolas Hostettler, Strategy Director & Partner at Sir Mary.

Nicole Wollner and René Linder.

As Director Digital, Nicole Wollner will lead the team of digital channel specialists at Ads&Figures and will further develop and expand it. She not only brings with her many years of experience on both the agency and client side, but also has a wealth of experience in various industries, according to the statement. Most recently, she was head of fundraising, marketing and communications at SOS Children's Villages Switzerland. Before that, she worked in marketing for Rado Watch and Swisscom, among others.

Nicole Wollner is looking forward to the new challenge: "Ads&Figures has developed impressively since it was founded almost four years ago. Nevertheless, everything is based on a sustainable entrepreneurial idea, which is reflected not least in the participative team culture. Now it's a matter of establishing the tried and true and boldly tackling the new."

Innovation as a separate business area

For this reason, Ads&Figures is now also dedicating itself to the topic of innovation and bundling this in its own business unit, which is led by René Linder - co-founder of the digital agency along with Fabian Wydler (CEO) and Jean-Claude Zulauf (COO). "Digital market cultivation is developing at breakneck speed. The rapid adaptation of trends on the one hand and targeted innovation on the other will enable us to continue offering our customers the best services in the future," René Linder is convinced.

The digital agency, founded in 2016 and based in Bern, offers strategic and conceptual consulting as well as all online marketing disciplines such as search engine advertising, feed optimization, search engine optimization, programmatic advertising and social media advertising. Ads&Figures is a Google Premier Partner and employs 22 people.

Currently, the loss amounts to 8 million francs due to declining advertising revenues. However, this loss is expected to increase in the next few years, according to a statement on the homepage of Radiotelevisione Svizzera (RSI).

RSI Director Maurizio Canetta informed staff at the Lugano radio studio on Wednesday morning about the cost-cutting measures to be implemented by the end of the year.
In an earlier cost-cutting step, RSI had already reduced its full-time positions from 991 to 978. Of the current 978 positions, another 12 will have to be cut by the end of 2020, the statement continues.

The measure is to be cushioned wherever possible by early retirements and natural fluctuations. However, dismissals cannot be ruled out. (SDA)

So Nuts is the new snack from Camille Bloch - available as hazelnuts coated with a fine layer of Ragusa and as almonds coated with Torino. The new snack is the latest chapter in the history of the family business, which was founded in 1929.

So Nuts is positioned as a balanced snack and is intended to appeal to those who eat consciously but do not want to or cannot do without indulgence - and the impulsive desire for chocolate. The campaign motto "Crazy. Sensible" was derived from these opposites, visually dramatized with an illustrated campaign subject.

The individual measures of the launch campaign can be seen at Coop, Coop to go and Coop Pronto from mid-February to the end of April. These include in-store posters and various POS advertising materials as well as advertisements and a landing page. This will be accompanied by a nationwide sampling with 200 promoters, where passers-by can try out the snack.

Rod Kommunikation is like an anthill at the moment. In addition to the day-to-day business at Bürglistrasse, young people and their models are realizing the new poster campaign for Pro Juventute, more precisely for its free counseling service 147.ch (Werbewoche.ch reported).

In doing so, they implement seven themes or topic areas that the 147.ch consultants are often confronted with in their everyday work - bullying, fear of the future, depression, family disputes, the first time, crisis and fear, conflicts in the partnership.

The shoots take place under high time pressure, as the pictures and videos have to be completed by the end of the week. The young photographers, filmmakers and their models are passionate and passionate about what they do and amaze with their creativity and inventiveness.

Bernhard Bürki, Head of Communications and Marketing at Pro Juventute: "We are thrilled by how quickly and how creatively the participants of the pop-up agency turned our briefing from last Saturday morning into convincing image and film concepts. They are really doing an exceptional job here!"

Marco Meroni, Rod Communication, in a statement: "We are really excited by the creative potential of the young creatives, by their passion but also by the speed at which they submit. They think and work like professionals. We are convinced that a great campaign is being created here right now."

The campaign for 147.ch will be launched on March 30.

VMLY&R employs around 7,000 people at 60 locations worldwide. The agency specializes in creating holistic brand experiences by combining brand and customer experience. Following the agency credo "We create connected brands", the agency combines the areas of strategy, experience design, emerging tech, platforms & engineering and business transformation, among others.

Tobias Händler, CEO of Scholz & Friends Zurich, underlines the advantages of the latest development in the WPP universe in a statement on Wednesday: "We are delighted that, in addition to creative campaign work, we will in future be able to offer our Swiss clients data-based and technology-driven solutions at the top international level in all matters of customer experience. At the same time, we will remain the close-knit agency at Zurich's Kreuzplatz." Scholz Friends has been represented in Switzerland since 2003.

Frank-Michael Schmidt, CEO of Scholz & Friends Group and VRP of Scholz & Friends Switzerland: "The decision for VMLY&R is a strategic milestone in the development of our agency group. Together we want to create a new type of network."

And Jon Cook, Global CEO of VMLY&R, emphasizes the similarities between the two agency worlds: "We share the same values and the same passion for the future of our industry. The strategic alliance with Scholz & Friends is a great opportunity for our clients and I am delighted that we can now also offer them a strong brand experience and customer experience offering in Germany and Switzerland."

The cooperation with VMLY&R is also a decisive step in the internationalization of Scholz & Friends. With a very strong position in North America, starting from the global headquarters in Kansas City, as well as a strong presence in Asia, VMLY&R is the ideal partner for the international growth of Scholz & Friends/Commarco clients, a statement continues.

A classic OOH campaign is given an on-top option and thus a new function with beem. Using established Bluetooth technology, beem enables users to get exciting content directly from real-world billboards to their cell phones. Over the next two weeks, Graubünden Ferien is working with beem to launch an instant-win game at over 170 APG|SGA poster sites in selected train stations in Zurich. During this time, there is a total of ski day tickets and ski weekends to be won.

The interactive billboards can be interacted with from February 17 to March 4 at the stations Zurich HB, SZU Zurich, Zurich Enge, Zurich Hardbrücke, Zurich Oerlikon, Zurich Stadelhofen and Zurich Wiedikon. All users who manually activate the beem function in the apps of 20 Minuten, Bluewin or their own beem app and allow access to Bluetooth and location can participate in the Instant Win game.

If a user who has completed the activation approaches a billboard equipped with a Bluetooth beacon, a Beem banner appears in the newsfeed in the 20 Minutes app that is open in the foreground with a message to participate in the Instant Win game. Immediately afterwards, anyone who takes part will find out whether he or she has won a day or weekend ski pass.

Like the "Advertiser of the Year", the Goldbach Crossmedia Award is now a fixed component of the Best of Swiss Web Award Night. This year, on April 2, 2020, at the Samsung Hall in Dübendorf, Goldbach will for the first time present the audience award in addition to the previous award, which is determined by a jury of experts. The audience will thus have the opportunity to vote for the best cross-media campaign.

The search for the public's favorite is now on. The online voting is open to everyone and all interested parties can vote for one of the 23 participating campaigns until March 10, 2020. All of these campaigns were submitted on the occasion of the Goldbach Crossmedia Award. This additional award gives the projects another chance to win.