Apple's wireless headphones are in first place in the search queries on both Digitec and Galaxus. This is not surprising, since Apple launched the second generation of headphones just in time for the Christmas season.

Apple's iPhones are in second place at Digitec. The iPhone 11 and XR models are very popular. In second place at the online department store Galaxus comes the Dyson brand: Their Supersonic hairdryer and Airwrap hair styler are particularly likely to be Christmas gifts this year.

The Bose brand takes third place at Digitec, and it is the Lego brand at Galaxus. As with Apple, Bose's headphones are particularly popular, namely the 700 and QuietComfort 35 II models. Meanwhile, many children and the young at heart are looking forward to building sets from Lego. In vogue this year are a model of an Aston Martin DB5 and a large roller coaster.

Top product search terms at Galaxus from November 2 to and including December 2, 2019

1. AirPods
2. Dyson
3. Lego
4. iPhone
5. Sonos
6. Bose
7. iPad
8. Pampers
9. Nintendo
10. KitchenAid

Digitec's top product search terms from November 2 to and including December 2, 2019

1. AirPods
2. iPhone
3. Bose
4. Sonos
5. iPad
6. dji
7. Nintendo
8. SSD
9. Samsung
10. Surface

The AO Foundation is a medically-led, nonprofit education, innovation and research organization and global network of surgeons specializing in the surgical treatment of trauma and musculoskeletal disorders.

The project, which lasted over 18 months, was characterized by a consistent focus on the requirements and communication needs of a highly skilled and demanding community of orthopedic surgeons around the world.

Today, the new digital ecosystem enables this community to further develop their individual skills in dialogue with colleagues and thus improve the lives of people with orthopedic injuries or degenerations. 

The task was approached from two directions. In an extensive qualitative and quantitative analysis as well as numerous tests of user behavior, the current and future user needs were assessed in order to subsequently translate them into a new digital communication and social media strategy.

At the same time, a new brand architecture was created for the broad range of services and knowledge offered by the AO Foundation. The AO is a globally operating organization characterized by strong local autonomy and high commitment of all members. As a result, the solution now takes into account all of the organization's culture and process-related characteristics and forms the basis for a comprehensive new look for the Foundation. 

The combination of digital solutions for the further development of the community and the comprehensive realignment of the brand makes the AO Foundation fit for the challenges of building and developing its digital knowledge and competence management. At this year's Davos "AO Courses", the brand was launched in early December and is now being implemented worldwide with the digital communication tools.

The management team at Wirz Activation: Managing Director Barbara Dürst, Creative Director Stefan Dätwyler and CEO Jörg Bewersdorff (from left to right).

After working for various agencies and the lifestyle brand Bally, Barbara Dürst most recently held various management positions at OgilvyOne in Zurich for 18 years. Of these, ten years alone were spent with overall responsibility for the agency with a digital focus.

During this time, she gained in-depth knowledge in advising and supporting numerous banks and insurance companies, in the automotive sector and in various mandates for Swiss Post.

In her new role, she will report to Jörg Bewersdorff, who as CEO of Wirz Activation is working on the further development of the brand. "In Barbara, we have gained an absolute expert with an impressive track record in the field of customer engagement," says the CEO about the new appointment. 

Dürst succeeds Amar Abbas, who left the company at the beginning of November.

The idea behind the campaign was that the streetcar passengers could get a taste of ZHN and Spoom, since the interior of the streetcar is based on that of the office offers.

Inauguration party with DJ

On Friday, the streetcar was inaugurated with a party. From Bellevue, the journey went through the city center to the airport, passing the properties to be marketed in Zurich North.

Photos: Fabienne Wild Photography

Landi Switzerland is a subsidiary of Fenaco, the cooperatively organized company of Swiss farmers. The new film portrays five people from the Landi universe who put their heart and soul into their daily work behind the scenes. "It's the people that make it," says a Landi store manager on behalf of the company. She is joined by a product manager, the head of the Landi office in China and two winemaker brothers.

Seed developed and produced the film in close collaboration with Landi Switzerland. It will be used at trade events, as an introduction to presentations, in human resources, marketing and stores, and on various online channels. The film was directed by Simon Koller.

Dominik Wurzer moved to Contovista around two years ago from the strategy consultancy of a software-as-a-service company in the field of digital customer experience. He takes over the position from Gian Reto à Porta, who, like co-founder Nicolas Cepeda, will remain with the company as a consultant.

Gian Reto à Porta, co-founder and long-standing CEO of Contovista: "I wish Dominik every success in his new position and am proud that our Contovista DNA, which has grown over the years, will be continued with this internal appointment. At the same time, I am glad that with the Aduno Group we have a strong team with solid structures behind us. Contovista is thus ideally positioned for the coming years."

The new CEO Dominik Wurzer comments: "I am very much looking forward to my new role, as more and more banks are recognizing the huge potential of data-driven banking. The financial industry is undergoing radical change and banks are increasingly required to offer their customers simple, intelligent digital solutions that they are already accustomed to from other industries."

Aduno Group takes over Contovista in full

The Aduno Group is expanding its previous 70% stake in Contovista to 100%. In March 2016, the Aduno Group initially acquired a minority stake of 14% in Contovista. The stake was then increased to 70% in 2017. Gian Reto à Porta and Nicolas Cepeda, the founders of Contovista, are relinquishing their shares and withdrawing from the operational business at the end of Q1 2020.

Video: The Contovista founders on the exit and CEO change

Since December 1, there are in the Amag Advent Calendar Instant prizes such as tire sets, vehicle interior cleanings or Amag services of all kinds to be won. In addition, there are individually decorated Christmas wishes worth up to 2,000 Swiss francs to be won on each of the Advent Sundays, and of course there is a grand prize in the form of a city trip on 24.12.

230,000 participants in the previous year

The fact that Amag has implemented an Advent calendar again this year is due to last year's success: in 2018, a total of over 230,000 participants tried their luck and took part in the sweepstakes. The commitment of the target group was also high: 14 percent sent in their personal Christmas wish, which was fulfilled with a bit of luck on each of the Sundays in Advent.

Via social media, the pre-Christmas contest achieved a CTR of 18.53 percent. Now, similar values and thus intensive engagement with the brand are expected this year as well.

Image: Michael Grund, Head of the Department of Marketing and Business Communications at the HWZ

Dealing with the topic of customer experience is nothing new in the fields of marketing, sales, communication or CRM. Nevertheless, it seems difficult to translate theoretical knowledge into practical action concepts and apply them to customers.

Customer experience focuses on each individual customer and their needs. Their wishes and desires must be addressed precisely if a brand or company is to become indispensable for customers in today's global competitive environment. Today, customers must become ambassadors for the brand, which is achieved by emotionally charging the brand worlds.

In terms of the current situation, the study shows that the importance of cultivating customer relationships is high and will continue to increase significantly in the near future. However, there has been no real improvement in the design of the increasingly important customer experience since the first study in 2017 - on the contrary: in German-speaking Switzerland, the level of awareness has actually declined.

"The large discrepancy between the recognized importance of the topic of customer experience for a company's own success and the weak assessment of its own level of awareness is alarming. Virtually all companies assume that the importance of customer experience is high and will continue to increase over the next three years. Nevertheless, the same companies give themselves a maturity level of less than 50 out of 100 possible points," says Michael Grund, Head of the Center for Marketing & Sales HWZ.

"A change of perspective and a strong and systematic customer-centric orientation require a fundamental change in the company. It is therefore not surprising that 'company culture' is the main concern of companies; it has even become more important over the years," adds Anne-Laure Vaudan, Managing Partner of Nexa Consulting.

What do these results mean for 2020?

For the third time in a row, companies are putting data and technology at the center of their efforts to further develop the customer experience. The measures planned in 2020 confirm the challenges and the most important topics highlighted by the participants in the study.

The five most important measures for the next twelve months include process optimization, centralization and data usage, strengthening the corporate culture and developing digital channels.

While Roger Federer is enjoying a few days of rest and recuperation at home, someone else is traveling around the world: Santa Claus is in town.

After his work is done, he would actually have deserved a fine coffee - but unfortunately he has run out of fresh coffee beans. As the preceding campaign shows, Roger Federer knows this situation only too well. 

With the aim of drawing attention to the brand and activating potential customers, selected influencers will publish various content on their Instagram accounts over the next few weeks.

The Christmas campaign relies on influencers who fit Guess and who know how to authentically convey the Guess message to their community through images and text.

Dreifive and Picstars teamed up for the influencer campaign, developed a concept, and selected the creators from the Picstars pool who matched Guess. They were segmented strongly according to reach, engagement, creativity and number of Swiss followers.
 
"We already had a very good experience with the two-person team Dreifive/Picstars for the last campaign. We therefore decided to bring the two agencies back on board for Guess' current Christmas campaign," says Laura Kirchhofer of Heno. Dreifive and Picstars were already allowed to implement an influencer campaign for Esprit Watches & Jewellery, another Heno brand, a few months ago.

The statistics of the Swiss Confederation speak a clear language: 28 percent of the Swiss population are slightly to severely affected by depression at least once in their lives. It is not uncommon for economic, family or health reasons to encourage a fall into drugs, alcohol and, not least, loneliness. Even if not all of them end up on the street, the need is omnipresent and the state offers of help do not take effect in every case.

This is where the campaign of Sozialwerk Pfarrer Sieber comes in: SWS catches people who have fallen through the cracks of society, cares for them unbureaucratically in their time of need and helps them further so that they can find their way back to normality. A falling person is shown - far from the cliché of the bearded homeless person. 

At the heart of the campaign is an addressed mailing and a scatter shot portraying the stories of those affected and at the same time showing how SWS provides concrete help. Reach and visibility are to be extended by digital moving image posters in highly frequented locations, such as train stations. A cinema spot, which will be broadcast in the Zurich area, completes the communication package.

A guerrilla action with a "mobile" three-dimensional hole, which is laid out in the city and draws the attention of passers-by to the action, is to create special attention. Viewed from a specific angle, it looks as if passers-by could fall into it. The resulting photos and films will serve as an extension in social channels. The posts that are created lead to a landing page with an online donation offer.

The focus in the development of the key visual was on the visualization of acoustics. For this purpose, the two designers Sebastiaan Cator and Gabriel Bach developed music visualization software that is capable of converting 20 minutes of radio jingles into colors. The software generates - based on various parameters of the music - a variety of video and visuals in real time, reminiscent of fluids flowing into each other. The result is dynamic key visuals that correspond to the different sound sequences of the jingles and consequently also differ from each other graphically.

For the countdown to the on-air date, Rod mobilized the social media communities of well-known Swiss musicians for 20 Minuten. Under the hashtag #theveryfirstsong, a contest was launched to determine the very first song to be played on 20 Minuten Radio. For this, artists were tagged and asked to motivate their community to participate. The song that generated the most comments was to be played first. The winner was Xen featuring Stereo Luchs with the track "Gheie guet".

The campaign was accompanied by articles in 20 Minuten print and online. Valérie Henzen, Head of Product Management at 20Minuten: "20 Minuten Radio got off to a successful start and, thanks to the teaser campaign, brought the community closer to the new brand. Now we are looking forward to the further implementations in the coming weeks."