The APGS Board of Directors: Romana Weber, Gordon Nemitz, Michael Selz, Anne Langer (from left to right) and the newest member Matthias Müller (seated).
 
Matthias Müller is Strategy Director at Ogilvy. "The APGS creates an active platform for interdisciplinary thinking and encourages us to look at the challenges facing our industry in a different way. It's great that I can play a part in this as a new member of the board," says the new board member.

The board of Romana Weber (Jung von Matt/Limmat), Gordon Nemitz (thjnk), Michael Selz (Omnicom MediaGroup) and Anne Langer (Jung von Matt/Limmat) are looking forward to an exciting collaboration with him. According to a press release, they have "big plans" for next year - in addition to the Strategy Slam, the AdSchool will take place again from summer 2020.

Condor Films was founded in 1947 by Heinrich Fueter and has produced over 2000 commercials and commissioned films as well as 55 feature films in the past 72 years.

Hans Syz, who worked for several years as a DOP in Germany and abroad, has a long relationship with Condor Films. He became a member of the management team as early as 1988. A year later, Syz was given the opportunity to take over Turnus Film and developed the company into an internationally active commercial film production company.

With the acquisition of Condor Films, Hans Syz, who parted ways with Turnus Film in summer 2019, sees great potential to expand the production company's national and international presence. "I would like to return Condor Films to its core business, namely the production of high-quality feature and TV films."

Brand expansion

Already, several projects are in the pipeline. "Among other things, we are developing two TV series, several comedies and arthouse films, including again with Michael Steiner," says Syz. "I have the ambition to make Switzerland's oldest film production company fit for its eighth decade." To do so, Syz wants to rely on collaborations with renowned filmmakers, but also offer opportunities to young talents. 

That's why a film hub for film-related companies is to be created in the listed Studio Bellerive on Zurich's Kreuzstrasse. "Our vision is to open up the historic space of Condor Films as a co-working space to other companies along the entire value chain of creation, production, marketing and distribution," says Syz.

Condor Corporate as an independent company

The existing non-feature division of Condor Films will also be based at Studio Bellerive and bundled into the economically independent Condor Corporate Films. FaroTV, until now a 100 percent subsidiary of Condor Films, will operate independently and work closely with the other two companies.

Managing Director Markus Röthl: "We are very excited about the new owner, as it fits perfectly with the history of Condor Films. In this constellation, we can strengthen and further expand our service portfolio in the fictional area and in commissioned films."

The website takes center stage Duplex-baden.ch with a space configurator. Based on the information provided, this presents the rental spaces that best suit the request. Visually, the campaign is designed to impress with modern, bold color spaces - in line with the claim "Work - Share - Experience".

Visitors to the website can experience the spatial ideas: while an empty office with an extended basic layout can be seen on one side, the fully furnished office appears with a swipe to the left. When designing the 360-degree panoramic tour, everything from pictures and lighting to plants and a stylishly furnished lounge was integrated. Accompanying measures include the marketing brochure, on-site communication, digital measures and Google Ads campaigns. 

As part of the communication campaign, Matchcom is also developing the building's design aesthetics in, on and around Duplex. The aim is to match these perfectly to the identity of the building, the architecture and the actual task of the signage - to create clarity.

120 million Swiss francs have been budgeted for the construction of a production center. It will replace RTS's current building in La Sallaz, which was sold to the canton of Vaud in 2015 for CHF 55 million. In addition to the construction loan, there are also costs for technical infrastructure, which RTS finances through regular technical investments.

According to a SRG statement, the new building is necessary because the buildings in La Sallaz VD (radio), Meyrin GE (mobile TV) and the large TV studio on Quai Ansermet in Geneva are outdated. 

SRG Director General Gilles Marchand explains the decision: "This project is important for the whole of French-speaking Switzerland. It is perfectly tailored to the production of all RTS radio and video content. In addition, it opens up very interesting possibilities in the Lausanne region for closer cooperation between the universities and RTS, which has already proven successful in Geneva."

Compared to renovating the old buildings, a new building is more cost-effective, even when the expense of temporary relocation is included. In addition, the implementation of the project should make it possible to realize the goals of SRG's real estate strategy: RTS can reduce the space used by a total of 25 percent and operating costs by 3 million annually in the long term. The sale of the La Sallaz radio site to the canton of Vaud alone would cover almost 50 percent of the construction investments now approved.

Jean-Michel Cina, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SRG SSR: "The decision also ensures that the balance between the language regions is maintained in terms of investment. SRG remains 
decentralized and efficient."

The division of RTS activities from 2024/2025 will be developed as part of an ongoing participatory process. In addition, the SRG Board of Directors has consulted the social partner, the Swiss Syndicate of Media Professionals SSM, and has taken note of its recommendations and findings.

Andy Was Right never talks about customers. The start-up on Pfingstweidstrasse in Zurich refuses to court references. But what the Andys are happy to share with the public is their view of their craft. What are companies doing right on social media? Why is Tiktok on the rise? Why have there been so many bad Black Friday ads on Instagram this year?

In the first episode of the "Andy On Air" podcast, these are just some of the questions that will be answered. The podcast will appear weekly and link overarching topics with current events - just like Andy Was Right tells the stories of her customers on social media. Aren't podcasts just hype? "Not at all," says Managing Director Roger Hämmerli. "Although a lot is being written about podcasts in the media, the general public is only now slowly warming up to them. The market is far from saturated."

The podcast is not only interesting for the advertising industry, but for anyone who lives with or on social media on a daily basis and appreciates audio content.

In addition to our own social media experts, guests from other industries will also have their say at the Andys. "We don't just want to talk about social media. Life in a start-up, generational conflicts or the influence of digitalization on politics, for example, are also possible topics for Andy On Air," explains Hämmerli.

The entire conversation is recorded in Andy Was Right's office - not only as an audio track, but also as a video for his own social media channels. The first episode of "Andy On Air" was released on Spotify and Apple Music on Wednesday, December 11.

The subjects present the advantages of digital information procurement in an amusing way.

The video shows how the concept can be adapted to all media titles as well as content-related, local or seasonal events.

The campaign has been running since November for a wide variety of titles on all media channels - TV, radio, online, social, print and out-of-home.

Greater willingness to invest in expanding digital skills, associated increase in productivity and the opinion that the state should also provide support. The "We Power The Nation" study surveyed Swiss companies on digital capabilities.

Digital competencies a central component of corporate strategy

More than two-thirds (70%) of the Swiss companies surveyed expect to invest in digital skills. This puts Switzerland ahead of its neighbors France (64%) and Germany (66%). Investment in training the digital skills of employees (59%) is at the forefront, followed by investment in digital resources (56%).

40 percent of companies cite the fact that digital skills are of central importance to their business strategy as the main reason for this investment behavior. Securing a competitive advantage follows in second place with 37 percent.

The roughly 25 percent of companies surveyed that are not likely to invest in digital capabilities during the next twelve months cite a lack of pressure from customers as the main reason (32%). A comparably high proportion state that investing in digital capabilities is not a priority in the short term (31%).

Increase in productivity as the main benefit

Regardless of whether or not they plan to invest in digital skills in the next year, all companies were asked about the clearest benefits of investing in digital skills. Respondents see the greatest positive impact in the form of increased productivity (41%), more flexible working (40%) and better customer service (34%). Productivity increases in particular are mentioned especially frequently by large companies (46%).

Leverage cloud computing for higher productivity

In this context, cloud applications enable more flexible adjustments to constantly changing market and customer requirements. At the same time, they can be used to strengthen digital competencies by bringing information together more efficiently and helping to break down data silos. However, Sage's survey showed that only 30 percent of the Swiss companies surveyed use cloud applications for administrative tasks such as wages, accounting and HR.

"The willingness to invest in digital skills shows that Swiss companies have recognized the scope of digitization," says Tobias Ackermann, Country Manager Switzerland at Sage. "I see this as a very positive development, because it is precisely these skills that play a decisive role in the future viability of companies. At the same time, however, it is clear that SMEs still have some catching up to do when it comes to using cloud applications. They need sustainable corporate strategies. This also involves deciding whether to invest in their own cloud infrastructure or to rent it and outsource operational responsibility."

Europe-wide strongest desire for funding for trainees
With regard to the question of how the state can support companies in building digital knowledge, 35 percent of Swiss companies would like access to free training, followed by tax breaks (32%) and access to funding for learners or apprenticeships (32%).

The desire for government support for learners stands out most strongly in Switzerland compared to all the European markets surveyed, significantly more strongly than in its immediate neighbors France (19%) and Germany (20%), for example.

The audience council unanimously elected the two on Thursday to succeed Roger Blum, as the audience council SRG Deutschschweiz announced the same day. Blum will leave office at the end of March next year.

Schöbi is co-head of the Media and Computer Science department and the Media Education Center at the Lucerne University of Teacher Education, where he lectures on media education. Girsberger, who holds a doctorate in law, has many years of experience in journalism. She is a freelance moderator, communications consultant, and owner and managing director of her own agency.

The two new ombudspersons will share the previous workload of 80 percent equally. (SDA)

New at Republica: Lukas Jung and Simon Schatzmann (from left to right).

The 42-year-old Lukas Jung has many years of experience on the agency and client side. Most recently, he was head of e-commerce at the Pax insurance group in Basel. Before that, he worked for six years at Coop Genossenschaft, also in Basel. There, he was initially project manager for digital marketing before becoming head of marketing for Supercard, where he was responsible for the transformation of the Supercard program in the direction of digital shopping facilitation.

At Republica, Lukas Jung is to drive the Digital Solutions division: "I am very excited - after several years on the client side - to pass on the knowledge I have acquired and to implement successful, digital projects together with Republica's clients," he says. 

Simon Schatzmann also has many years of experience in the communications business, having worked for Contexta, Komet and Bold, among others.

Now he will bring this experience to Republica as a consulting manager. "I was attracted by the prospective projects at Republica - whether for Bernexpo Groupe or other well-known clients. 2020 will be an exciting year for the agency and agency head Bala Trachsel convinced me to be an important part of this adventure. The management buyout was an additional motivation for me," says the 45-year-old about his employment at Republica.

In April 2019, the SRG Board of Directors had already decided to create a new ICT competence center by the beginning of 2020 (Werbewoche.ch reported). The new competence center is intended to further expand the existing internal services for SRG and at the same time generate additional revenues on the market with selected services.

The new competence center is headed by Martin Schneider, former CEO of Swis Txt, and comprises a total of 270 employees at locations in Biel, Berne, Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne and Comano. 

In addition to IT infrastructure and cloud solutions, Swiss Txt's services also include multimedia offerings for sports content and smart TV platforms and applications (HbbTV). Automation and efficiency enhancement along central workflows are part of the services for broadcasters. Swiss Txt supports versatile video applications and processes with professional services and integral management and distribution platforms. Interactive elements, multilingual subtitles and enrichment with metadata are designed to create targeted added value.

Another focus is on innovation projects in areas such as "Accessibility" and "Citizen Journalism / Social Media," where the latest technologies and business models are to be tested with partners from all over Europe. This also with EU funding and financing. 

Swiss Txt is also the SRG's competence center for access services - subtitling, audio description and sign language - and continues to subtitle all SRG TV programs. At the same time, the company supports a wide variety of stakeholders in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding accessibility of information.   

With the merger of Swiss Txt and INIT SRG, the employees of Swiss Txt will now be subject to the CBA of SRG SSR as of January 1, 2020. 

Otto Hofstetter is a mold maker for the production of PET preforms and plastic packaging. Yellow has developed an overall concept for its appearance at K'2019, which takes place every three years in Düsseldorf.

For this purpose, the brand values were made tangible and enjoyable. Based on the experience Yellow has through its 360-degree support of the Otto Hofstetter brand, a pure networking platform was created.

"The trade fair is the ideal place to cultivate our network," says Sales and Marketing Director Stefan Zatti. Since Yellow supports the Otto Hofstetter brand in all application areas, the agency knows this fact.

In addition to the exhibition stand itself, the creative team from Basel was responsible for the entire communication around the event.

The 35-year-old Clavadetscher will take up a new position on the Executive Board as of January 2020. The current Head of Marketing & Sales and member of the Executive Board, Jürg Emmenegger, will leave the company in January 2020 after twelve years of service and take up a new challenge outside Ramseier.

Marco Clavadetscher has many years of experience in the beverage market. He joined the company in 2009 as a key account manager and is currently responsible for his specialist area as Head of Retail/Industry Sales. Clavadetscher holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Bern. He lives with his partner in Stansstad NW.