The baby and children's online store sector is a highly competitive market. In recent years, online stores for children have sprung up like mushrooms, especially in the DACH region. One of the first online stores to specialize in sustainable items is Littlehipstar. Headquartered in Munich, the store has developed into one of the biggest players in the German-speaking world over the last five years.

"Littlehipstar has big growth targets. The end-of-year business around Black Friday and Christmas is therefore extremely important. It is well known that the highest turnover is generated during this time, so buying advertising space is in high demand and drives up the price," explains Fabian Habisreutinger, Director Media and Partner at Sir Mary. "To generate new customers in this market situation, Sir Mary has worked closely with Littlehipstar to develop a Germany-wide performance marketing campaign based on a personalized content strategy."

Based on the assumption that very few prospecting users make an impulse purchase, email addresses were generated via paid media. The user was not addressed with product communication, as is usual in online stores, but was enticed to enter their email address using predefined content pieces. In the next step, the emails were used for predefined 1:1 communication in order to convert the prospecting user into a new customer. "The result of the strategy is over 18,600 generated leads with a positive return on advertising spend of 240%. We are very pleased about this, as we did not rely on direct price or product communication as usual, but on targeted control of relevant content via Instagram and Facebook, and this obviously made the difference," says Adrian Vogel, CTO of Littlehipstar.

The GTToS takes travelers from Switzerland and abroad to the most beautiful rail routes in Switzerland and to tourist highlights in all four parts of the country. There is no fixed direction or duration: travelers can hop on and off wherever they like. For this touring experience, the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland association has developed an app in collaboration with Dreipol, which is now available free of charge in the stores.

Never miss a sight 

Travelers are accompanied by the app on all stages of the GTToS. Push notifications on mobile devices ensure that they do not miss any sights during the journey. Even when the app is not open. This is made possible by GPS-based geo-fencing technology: areas are defined on the map for the various highlights. As soon as travelers pass an area with the train, the notification is triggered. With the "I was here" function, a very personal travel diary is generated during the journey, making it possible to track the sights and highlights visited.

"Infotrainment" with a difference

Gamification elements are intended to provide entertainment. During the journey and at the destinations, awards and stamps can be collected and discount coupons redeemed as soon as travelers are at a location designated in the app. The most diligent award collectors become "Master of Grand Train Tour of Switzerland" and can collect a surprise at Zurich Airport. The app also contains lots of tips for excursions in the respective destinations as well as fun facts along the route.

The app is now available in the App Store and Google Play Store for free download in seven different languages: German, English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai.

"It was already predictable, but now it's official: if you look at the top 50 biggest brand profiles, they reach a larger audience on Instagram than on Facebook," Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO of Socialbakers, said in a statement sent out on the occasion of the study. "This trend is not a surprise. What was unexpected, however, was the relative decline in engagement during the holidays in Q4. This can be interpreted as a warning signal: Brands need a deeper understanding of what type of content works for their audience, and agile methods to play that content out appropriately for their audience."
Key findings from the report:

Instagram beats Facebook in audience size & engagement

Based on the 50 largest brand profiles worldwide, there was a notable change in the fourth quarter of 2019: For the first time, Instagram is reaching a larger audience than Facebook. In addition, the top 50 brands recorded nearly 20 times more interactions on Instagram than on Facebook. Although brands generally published more posts on Facebook, the engagement of these posts did not reach the numbers achieved on Instagram.

Commitment: Surprising decline

The relative interaction rate on Instagram and Facebook was lower in Q4 2019 compared to Q4 a year earlier. The top industry on Instagram, Fashion, also saw a decrease of 19.4% in relative interaction rate in Q4 compared to Q3 2019, while E-commerce, the leading industry on Facebook, shrank by 9.6%. On the other hand, the big winner in terms of interaction rate was the Services category, with an increase of 66.7% on Instagram.

Vertical videos are preferred

Marketers often wonder whether viewers prefer horizontal or vertical videos. Currently, about 70 percent of all videos on Facebook brand pages have a horizontal format. However, Socialbakers' Q4 data shows that vertical videos are better received on said Facebook brand pages. Videos that are no longer than 30 seconds are watched to completion in a vertical format by 29.9% of viewers, while horizontal videos are watched to completion only 22.2% of the time.

Women act more often with brand profiles

Women make up 58% of brand profile fans on Instagram and are the majority in every age group. On Facebook, women account for 56.7% of brand profile fans, with slightly more men in the 18-24 age group. Within the marketing-relevant target group of 25- to 34-year-olds, women are overall the largest group interacting with brand profiles.

Ad Spend: Instagram catches up, Facebook remains leader

With 58.3% of total spend, Facebook Feed remains the most popular ad channel. As in previous quarters, ad spend on Instagram Stories increased rapidly in Q3, and in the second half of 2019, 10% of total spend was spent on Instagram Stories for the first time. Overall, Instagram Stories ad spend increased 40% last year and 91% in the last two years. Other ad spend trends include Instagram Explore and Facebook Marketplace. In the first five months after launch, the percentage of ad spend on Instagram Explore increased to 1,32%. Facebook Marketplace ad spend increased from 0.72% in December 2018 to 1.31% at year-end 2019, representing more than 80 percent growth.

Influencer marketing: no sign of slump

An unchanged trend remains the explosive influencer marketing growth. In Q4 2019, the number of influencers using the hashtag #Ad (or its local language equivalent) in their posts increased by 90.5 percent. Walmart's Instagram profile recorded a total of 854 mentions from 619 influencers in Q4 2019, continuing to lead the way in influencer marketing.

Brits like to swear a lot. And because it often sounds funny, no one is bothered by it. Billy, however, has obvious difficulties getting his family to swear. Despite the boy's pranks, his father, mother and sister are always able to stifle the dirty word at the last moment. The cursing jar - Billy's motivation - remains empty.

When the father finally slips out a bad word, Billy's honorable intentions become clear. He wants to donate the money he has collected to a heart foundation so that his grandfather, who suffers from vascular dementia, can get well again. A foul word goes a long way.

To mark the anniversary, Coop City is giving away a lucky ribbon with every purchase of a Naturaline textile item, which was knotted in India from organic cotton and made up in the Madiswil workshop for the disabled. In addition, for the 25th anniversary, Coop City now offers a large selection of shoppers and backpacks from the Zurich label Rossis, in addition to an anniversary collection of polo shirts and dresses. All are made of durable canvas with 100 % organic cotton.

The anniversary logo with the planet made of organic cotton yarn runs through all activities from the T-shirt to the campaign to the POS and the tote bag.

The new channel deals with topics around relationships and tummy tickling, LGBTQ+ and body positivity, contraception and sexual health, assault and safety. The aim is to convey interesting facts about love, sex and dating in an informal way.

Andrea Burri (photo), director and founder of the Institute for Sex Counselling and Sexual Sciences, is a new addition to the department founded by Zora Schaad. She delivers weekly Sexfacts and also overcomes fears of contact for her articles. Couples and sex counselor Bruno Wermuth continues to answer readers' questions weekly as Doctor Sex.

Lilli.ch is an association in which sexologists, gynecologists, urologists and psychologists offer young women and men advice on sexuality and sexual violence in simple terms. The GummiLove association takes a peer-to-peer approach: at festivals and sporting events, young people carry out prevention work and distribute condoms - on 20 minutes they report on their experiences. The illustrations for the articles are by Maya and Yehuda Devir.

The agency supports Ewz in the long term in generating awareness for the electricity provider's offerings. The current social campaign on Instagram and Facebook, for example, draws attention to the fact that Ewz customers - i.e. all residents of the city of Zurich - can benefit from discounted tickets to ZSC games. On the other hand, the channel-specific content also activates existing fans of the ZSC with the raffle of VIP tickets, training visits including Olympus, meet & greets and signed jerseys.

With a fresh and dynamic appearance, the brand wants to consistently expand its market position. The new website is designed to give players in the Swiss construction industry a better overview. To this end, the navigation has been greatly simplified and intuitively designed. The rejuvenated appearance should now provide an optimized and faster insight into Olmero's services and products.

The logo in revised spelling was visually adapted and now appears lighter and more modern. It was important to the company that the new logo is an evolutionary development of its predecessor to ensure recognition value.

A coffee machine should be regularly maintained and descaled, otherwise the quality of the coffee is not guaranteed. In the current TV commercial, a coffee farmer from Costa Rica speaks directly into the camera and appeals to fragrant coffee lovers in Switzerland, Germany and Austria to descale their coffee machines regularly so that they can also enjoy the true benefits of his high-quality coffee beans. In four different TV commercials, the product benefits of Durgol are thus to be presented in a humorous way. Additional Durgol product benefits will be highlighted in various social media formats.

"Blick TV is our country's first digital TV and we are the first to be live within minutes when something happens," says Christian Dorer, Editor-in-Chief of the Blick Group, which intends to consistently pursue its digital path with the new project.

The Blick TV core team currently consists of 48 employees. Blick TV is headed by editor-in-chief and ex-SRF "Arena" presenter Jonas Projer. "Ringier has the courage to conquer television and reinvent it for the Internet," he praised his new employer in a statement on Sunday. Ringier CEO Marc Walder is 100 percent behind the project. "Users love moving images. The advertising market loves moving images. That's why we are investing in this project. Now we have to let the editorial team work," he says in an interview with the NZZ on Sunday. "I have set only two goals: Within 180 seconds, relevant news must be live. And Blick TV must be successful in one place: on the smartphone."

Getting started on Monday: the presenters of Blick TV.

Barrier-free every quarter of an hour

Every quarter of an hour, the digital TV broadcasts information on politics, business, sports and entertainment. The new offering can be seen on Blick.ch and in the Blick app. Thanks to a new type of player, the mobile version of Blick TV can be watched in both portrait and landscape format. All reports are subtitled, which enables smartphone use on the move and barrier-free access. In addition, users will find significantly more on-demand videos on Blick.ch.

Community as an ally

Blick TV is a new type of video offering for the web. "All the more reason for us to want to know what users notice and like, what excites or disturbs them," says Editor-in-Chief Projer. "Blick.ch already has an enormously large audience and a very committed community. We count on them. They are our most important allies in making Blick TV better day by day." With a new, interactive area on Blick.ch, users can get involved. The submitted feedback will be recorded and dealt with in a Blick TV broadcast.

Premium partnership with CNN

Blick TV is integrated into the newsroom in terms of content and space and covers the entire range of Blick topics. Journalists from the Blick editorial team will contribute as correspondents and experts for TV. For international reports and livestreams, Blick has a premium partnership with the world's leading news channel CNN. "With CNN, we have gained the ideal partner for access to a global news network. Blick TV is thus excellently positioned in the field of fast, international reporting. This gives our channel a strong competitive advantage," says Thomas Spiegel, CEO of the Blick Group.

The marketing of Blick TV has got off to a successful start. Admeira has primary responsibility. Secondary marketing is handled by Goldbach Audience. (hae/pd)

Two reasons prompted the foundation to make this change. There is the problem that films must be screened publicly for audience juries; however, these can clash with festival premieres in terms of scheduling, as Julia Krättli, managing director of the Zurich Film Foundation, explained to the Keystone-SDA news agency. By doing away with the audience jury, producers and distributors are now left to decide when they want to show a film publicly for the first time.

In addition, an audience jury requires a certain number of viewers to ensure that the selection is well supported. At the first award ceremony last year, the number of viewers who judged the prize was too small.

Award ceremony after ZFF

The second change communicated by the Zurich Film Foundation concerns the timing and form of the award ceremony. If the prize was awarded in 2019 as part of the ZFF, the award in 2020 will be presented after the festival, in early November. "Last year, we used the synergy with ZFF for the audience jury. Because we now do without jurors from the audience, we are free in terms of time," explains Krättli.

The foundation is now aligning itself with the film awards ceremonies of other cantons such as Bern and Basel. In addition, this date offers the possibility of the Zurich Film Prize becoming a yardstick for the Swiss Film Prize, as the films submitted are largely congruent, according to the statement. Exactly how the event will be organized will be decided in the course of the year.

With the innovations to the awards ceremony, the Film Foundation is responding to criticism of the first awards ceremony. According to the foundation, the procedure in the first year did not pass the stress test.

Furthermore, a jury of three experts will decide on the short film, the long documentary and the long feature film. In each of the three categories there will be an award for the best film.

Prize money remains unchanged

A new feature will be that each jury will also award two special achievements, for example for camera, music, editing, screenplay, acting and other people involved in the film. "The Zurich Film Prize thus takes into account the fact that every film work is only created through the collaboration of many people involved," writes the Film Foundation.

A total of 100,000 Swiss francs in prize money will continue to be awarded. The best film in the documentary and feature film categories will each receive 20,000 Swiss francs, and the special achievement awards 10,000 Swiss francs. In the short film category, the best film receives 10,000 Swiss francs, the honorees 5,000 Swiss francs.

Which experts will sit on the juries in 2020 is to be announced at the beginning of summer, at the same time as the call for entries for the "Zurich Film Awards". (SDA)