Muriel Lienau joined Nestlé in 1991 and has since held various management positions in marketing in Germany and France. In 2007, she took over as Head of Beverages activities in France. In 2015, she was appointed Head of Marketing and Sales for Nestlé Waters Global before joining Nestlé Switzerland as Market Head.

Her designated successor is Eugenio Simioni, Head of Communications at the Nestlé Group since November 2015. As of January 1, 2020, he will take over as Head of Market for Nestlé Switzerland.

Eugenio Simioni joined the Nestlé Group in 1989. He held various positions and assumed increasing responsibility in the areas of internal audit, logistics, sales, marketing and communications. He has worked in Australia, South Korea, the Philippines and Switzerland. He already led Nestlé Switzerland between 2011 and 2015 and therefore has deep knowledge of the Swiss market, the local trading partners as well as regional and national stakeholders and institutions.

His successor as Head of Communications of the Nestlé Group will be announced at a later date.
 

Florian Wanner and Pascal Scherrer (from left).

The TV Regional and Radio divisions are reorganizing as of November 1, 2019, within the TV, Radio and Film Distribution division headed by Roger Elsener. According to a statement on Thursday, the goals are to strengthen regional reporting and create an organization that is optimally equipped to meet the challenges of digitization. In addition, synergies are to be achieved, thereby ensuring future viability. As part of the organizational adjustments, there will be three layoffs. At the same time, more than ten new full-time positions will be created for the development of the digital, convergent reach portal "Pilatus Today". As of November 1, the TV Regional division is reorganized under Pascal Scherrer, Head of TV Regional. At the same time, all CH Media radio stations will be consolidated under Florian Wanner, Head of Radio. 

TV Regional invests in innovation 

By creating a joint mantle editorial team across all regional TV stations, the individual stations will be strengthened and synergies will be achieved at the same time. The core business and the concession mandate of the licensed TV stations will be positively influenced by the concentration of the regional editorial teams on regional information services. Under the leadership of Pascal Scherrer, TV Regional's organization now comprises the Entertainment, Digital, Business Development, Engineering & Technology and Chief Editorial & Operations departments: 

• Markus Gilli manages the journalistic business together with Oliver Steffen as Co-Editor-in-Chief. Editorial sovereignty remains with licensed regional TV stations and their editors-in-chief.
• The entertainment division is headed by Nicole Himmelreich and includes entertainment formats as well as branded content, and is set to become a key driver of innovation for all regional TV stations. 
• The cross-media Digital division is headed by Christian Ortner.  
• The Engineering and Technology division is headed on an interim basis by Peter Canale. 
• The Business Development unit, headed by Pascal Scherrer, is responsible for building up media-related business areas such as media training and acquiring third-party contracts.

The licensed TV stations remain editorially independent and with the respective holdings of AZ Medien and NZZ. CH Media provides technical, production, marketing and management services for the licensed regional TV stations.

Radio division reorganized on a supraregional basis

The seven radio stations Radio Argovia, Radio 24, Radio Pilatus, Radio FM1, Radio Melody and Virgin Radio Switzerland Hits and Rock will be merged and Florian Wanner will be responsible for them from November 1. This means that the radio sector, like the TV sector, will be organized on a supra-regional basis. According to the statement, the merger will allow synergies to be realized and know-how to be exchanged across stations. Nicola Bomio will be responsible for the Programming organizational unit, Christian Ortner for the cross-media Digital unit and Andy Russ for Technology. 

The regional stations will each receive a local program director to further strengthen regionality:

• Oliver Wagner for Radio Argovia in Aarau
• Sacha Gamper for Radio FM1 in St. Gallen
• Roman Unternährer for Radio Pilatus in Lucerne
• Giulia Cresta for Radio 24 in Zurich

The Program Strategy and Development (headed by Sacha Gamper) and Music & Research (headed by Roman Unternährer) departments will be responsible for the entire station portfolio. Birgit Orgler will be in charge of "central news" for the stations Radio Argovia and Radio 24. 

PilatusToday reach portal is launched

The Digital division, headed by Christian Ortner, is shaping the development of convergent digital platforms. One such platform is "PilatusToday," which CH Media will launch in mid-2020, rolling out the successful concept of "FM1Today" to the Central Switzerland region. To this end, more than ten full-time positions will be created in the coming months.

The new, central production site "Leonardo" in Zurich Oerlikon will offer the entire TV, Radio & Film Distribution division optimal conditions for a convergent future from the time it moves in during the first half of 2021.

Linda Kabwita, Stephanie Graf, Carmen Fröschl, Oliver Furrer, Alina de Vallier, Mirjam Fölmli (l.t.r.)

Ownership remains unchanged with Andreas Messerli and Oliver Furrer, and cooperation within the Messerli Group will also continue. 

"With the family name, we underline the long-term planned cooperation with Oliver Furrer and his strong team in Kriens," says Andreas Messerli, Chairman of the Board of Directors Messerli Group.

The renaming will be effective November 1, 2019.

Most recently, Oliver Trinca held a management position as Senior Sales Manager at Admeira and was responsible, among other things, for the sale of the entire advertising portfolio as well as for the personal support of important key accounts. He also worked on the further development of the product range and, in addition to internal control functions, was also responsible for campaign debriefings including evaluation.

After completing his commercial training and further education at the Swiss Marketing Academy, Trinca gained his first experience in sales and account management at Groupon and Teletext, among others. 

The Swiss Mibelle Group promises a completely new way of taking vitamins with its Oliq brand. Oliq initially offers a total of five sprays for everyday needs such as energy, immune strength, balance, concentration and beautiful skin in Switzerland. Rosarot designed the launch - from the positioning to the design and the online store to the entire online marketing.

To promote the spray in the highly competitive nutritional supplements market, the agency launched the new brand in an eye-catching way. In doing so, it invokes its core competencies from branding and design to communication and storytelling to campaigning and digital marketing. The overall appearance is to be correspondingly fresh in color and with a cheeky key visual.

As part of the online launch campaign, Rosarot covered the entire range of digital marketing from display banners to native ads to social media posts, and also developed film material such as a promotional film and an explanatory film. In addition, the agency created accompanying print material for the various customer touch points.

Advertisements on Twitter are, for example, tweets that can be placed in users' news streams for a fee - even if they don't follow that account. The stop on political advertising is to take effect on November 22, and the detailed rules are to be presented a week before that.

The debate about political advertising is gaining momentum in the U.S. one year before the 2020 presidential election. In recent weeks, Facebook in particular has come under increasing criticism for its decision not to have ads with political content checked by the online network's fact-checking partners. In addition, Facebook decided not to do anything when politicians spread false or misleading information.

Facebook continues to focus on political advertising

In contrast to Twitter, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to continue to allow political messages to be disseminated as advertising. He confirmed this on Wednesday immediately after the Twitter announcement in a conference call on the latest quarterly figures. A ban on political advertising would also affect ads on topics such as climate protection or feminism, for example, he pointed out.At the same time, he said

Zuckerberg, ads from politicians are likely to account for just 0.5 percent of Facebook's revenue in the coming year. Even if this figure sounds small, even a very conservative estimate of Facebook's future business would mean significantly more than $300 million.

Dorsey indirectly criticized Facebook's position. Twitter would lose credibility if, on the one hand, the company said it was doing everything it could to curb the spread of misleading information, but at the same time allowed it to be spread for a fee. Nor did Dorsey accept the argument put forward by Facebook, among others, that political advertising is about freedom of speech. "This is not about freedom of expression. This is about paying for reach," he wrote. And that could have significant consequences "for which today's democratic infrastructure may not be prepared."

Misleading info from Trump camp

During the 2016 presidential election, posts from Russia had been widely disseminated on Facebook and Twitter as advertisements intended to increase tensions in U.S. society and, in some cases, directly supported today's President Donald Trump.

The recent debate was fueled, among other things, by an ad from the Trump camp with misleading information about Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden. The CNN network refused to air it - but Facebook did not. Zuckerberg stressed that online networks should not decide what is false or factually correct.

Trump's campaign team criticized Twitter's move as another attempt to suppress conservative voices. The U.S. president communicates a lot on Twitter. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising Democratic political star, on the other hand, praised the "ethical decision."

Advantage for incumbents

Dorsey acknowledged that critics might accuse Twitter of favoring incumbents with the ad freeze. "But we've witnessed many political movements reach massive proportions without any political advertising." Twitter had also considered stopping ads only from election candidates, Dorsey wrote. But such a ban would have been unfair and easy to circumvent, which is why they decided to make a radical cut, he explained.

Meanwhile, Twitter suspends its rules against insults or hate speech for politicians' remarks that are not disseminated as ads, if the tweets are newsworthy. The short message service had also come under criticism for this, particularly because of controversial tweets from Trump.

Facebook is much bigger than Twitter, with around 2.45 users. According to the last comparable figures, the short message service had around 330 million active users. In the meantime, Twitter only discloses how many users the company can reach with its advertising - most recently, that was 145 million. (SDA)
    

The planning tool is already actively used by more than 30 million people in over 240 countries every month and has grown strongly internationally in recent months with its expanded premium offering. For the further expansion of Doodle, Renato Profico, a proven expert in B2B sales and business development, has been hired as the company's new CEO. 
 
Samuel Hügli, Member of the Management Board and Head of Technology & Investments at Tamedia as well as Chairman of the Board of Doodle: "Doodle has developed at a rapid pace from a private appointment planner with a user base of almost 200 million to a powerful business tool for professional users. On behalf of Tamedia and the Doodle Board of Directors, I would like to thank Gabriele Ottino for his outstanding work over the past three years. 

According to the statement, Gabriele Ottino has expanded the organization internationally and tripled subscription sales last year with a significantly more attractive premium offering. He has also laid the foundation for further expansion by acquiring the first major business customers. With Renato Profico, Doodle will take the next important step in its development, further establishing the company in the U.S. as well as other markets with great growth potential, and expanding its product services."
 
Renato Profico was most recently involved in various executive functions at JobCloud for a total of 11 years, for four of which he headed the job platform network as CEO. In addition to his broad leadership experience, he has expertise in the areas of B2B sales and marketing, business development as well as organization building and development.

Speaking is one of the most natural, fastest and easiest forms of interaction for us humans. According to a study by Stanford University, voice input by a user is three times faster than the
input via a smartphone keyboard. In addition, the cognitive load is lower when speaking than when typing and the operation of digital devices is easier and more convenient in certain situations - for example, when users cannot or do not want to look at a display or the situation does not permit physical operation.

Voice User Interfaces on the rise

The use of voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant has increased significantly over the last two years in the USA and in various European countries. The strong increase in use is due not least to the high availability of devices with voice assistants as well as technological progress and improved voice recognition and processing. It is estimated that there are over two billion devices worldwide with which voice assistants can be used. According to Voicebot, over 25 percent of households in the US own a smart speaker, over 20 percent in the UK and over 10 percent in Germany.

According to a study by the University of Lucerne and the Farner agency, 37 percent of Swiss people were already using voice control on their smartphones, computers or smart speakers at the end of 2018.

Changing customer behavior

The increasing spread and use of voice user interfaces such as voice assistants is leading to changes in customer behavior and a variety of new touchpoints within the customer journey. By using voice technologies, companies can not only extend existing digital channels (e.g., website, mobile app, call center), but also create new touchpoints on new digital channels (for example, voice app for voice assistant).

First overview of the voice user interface landscape in Switzerland

The Voice Map Switzerland provides an in-depth overview of the voice user interface landscape in Switzerland. The aim of the Voice Map Switzerland is to create transparency on the developments in the field of Voice User Interfaces in Switzerland. It shows examples of companies and institutions that already offer voice services or the necessary technology, conduct research in the field, dare to experiment with voice user interfaces or provide practical knowledge. The companies and institutions listed in the Voice Map Switzerland were defined based on a survey of voice experts and desk research.

Regular updating

The first Voice Map Switzerland is published as a beta version, based on the assumption that there are more companies and institutions in Switzerland related to Voice User Interfaces. In the future, the Voice Map Switzerland will be updated at regular intervals and supplemented with further examples of companies and institutions.

The Voice Map Switzerland is created in collaboration with the Institute for Digital Business at the Zurich School of Economics and the Voice Meetup Switzerland.

Voice Assistants Apps

• AZ Media
  • The Alexa Skills Radio24 News and Argovia News can be used to access the news from Radio 24 and Radio Argovia.
    • Sources: https://www.amazon.de/AZ-Medien-digital-Radio24-News/dp/B07GB9N3L5/; https://www.amazon.de/AZ-Medien-digital-Argovia-News/dp/B07GBCTK2T/
• Bring.
  • The Bring Shopping List can be used via a Google Action with Google Assistant and a Skill with Amazon Alexa. The iOS app is compatible with Siri voice control.
    • Sources: https://assistant.google.com/services/a/id/4bb88e0d15f88b48/; https://www.amazon.de/Bring-Labs-AG-Einkaufsliste/dp/B01N188I03 https://apps.apple.com/de/app/bring-einkaufen-kochen/id580669177
• Radio Energy
  • With the Radio Energy Skill you can listen to the 50 Energy stations, play the news and check the currently played songs.
  • Source: https://www.amazon.de/Energy-Schweiz-AG-Radio/dp/B07F19XPZ7
• Swiss Radio and Television (SRF)
  • Various SRF content can be used via Google Actions for Google Assistant and Actions for Amazon Alexa.
  • Available Google Actions: SRF Meteo, SRF Radio Weather, SRF News, SRF Audio, SRF News, SRF Sportflash, 100 Seconds of Knowledge, Echo of Time
    • Source: https://assistant.google.com/explore/search?q=srf&hl=de_de
• Swiss
  • Swiss enables its customers to check in for their flight using voice input via Google Assistant.
    • Source: https://sites.google.com/view/presseseitegoo/googleassistant
• Tamedia
  • The most important news from various newspapers can be accessed via Google Actions (available Google Actions: Tages-Anzeiger, Berner Zeitung, Basler Zeitung, Der Bund). The news of the Tages-Anzeiger are also available as an Amazon Alexa Skill.
    • Sources: https://www.tamedia.ch/de/gruppe/newsroom/medienmitteilungen/digitale-transformation-zeitungen-von-tamedia-im-audio-modus-verfuegbar; https://www.amazon.de/Tamedia-Tages-Anzeiger/dp/B073V7D4S1/
• Zermatt Tourism
  • Since August 2019, there is an Amazon Echo device with an Alexa Skill in the counter hall of Zermatt Tourism that can answer questions from guests (examples: "What can I do in Zermatt? " or "Which restaurant do you recommend? ").
    • Source: https://www.zermatt.ch/Media/Neuigkeiten/Zermatt-Tourismus/Virtuelle-Assistentin-begruesst-Gaeste-bei-Zermatt-Tourismus

Voice in Products & Services

• Swisscom
  • Since April 2016, Swisscom TV customers have been able to use voice control to switch to shows (e.g., by channel, movie, series, genre or actor) and operate their TV set. The Smart Remote with microphone button also understands Swiss German.
    • Sources: Voice Meetup Switzerland, August 2019; https://www.swisscom.ch/de/privatkunden/abos-tarife/inone-home/digital-tv.html
• UPC
  • Various voice functions are available to customers via the UPC TV Box remote control. Customers can use voice commands to search for content (e.g., movies & series, actors, genres, topics, channels), change channels, and call up menu items and applications.
    • Source: https://www.upc.ch/de/support/fernsehen/tv-box/sprachsteuerung/
• Quickline
  • Via the remote control of the Quickline TV box, customers have access to a voice search function that allows them to search for programs, films and actors, among other things, by means of voice input.
    • Sources: https://www.quickline.ch/fernsehen/; https://qlgroup.quickline.ch/mediacenter/pressemitteilungen/news-detail/news/quickline-lanciert-neues-tv-erlebnis/
• St. Gallen Cantonal Bank
  • In the smartphone app of St. Galler Kantonalbank, customers can trigger the financial assistant directly by voice. To this end, the app has been equipped with a voice button, which is intended to facilitate queries via smartphone. The function can also be used in Swiss German.
    • Sources: https://www.sgkb.ch/de/e-banking/finanzassistent; https://spitch.ch/de/news/2019.07.15.page
• Geberit
  • The supplier of sanitary products enables voice control of Geberit shower toilets via the Geberit Aquaclean smartphone app.
    • Sources: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/geberit-aquaclean/id1201676816; https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geberit.aquaclean;

IVR, Voice Authentication, Transcription

• Amag
  • When calling the amag spare parts warehouse, garage owners can state the 17-digit alphanumeric chassis number, whereupon the employees in the spare parts warehouse already know at the beginning of the call which vehicle type is involved. The system understands different Swiss German dialects.
    • Source: https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/spracherkennung-bei-schweizer-firmen-erste-erfahrungen-ld.1510015
• Avaloq
  • Avalog customers can use voice-controlled services based on a voice interface solution, such as identifying people on the phone based on automated speech recognition (ASR).
    • Sources: https://spitch.ch/de/news/2019.02.07.page; https://www.avaloq.com/de/-/speech-interface-solution-from-spitch-for-avaloq-clients
• PostFinance
  • PostFinance authenticates customers by their voice when they call the contact center. After a voiceprint is created once, PostFinance recognizes customers by their voice for all subsequent calls. Customers have the option to reject this type of authentication (opt-out).
    • Source: https://www.postfinance.ch/de/privat/support/persoenliche-daten/authentifizierung-stimmerkennung.html
• Swisscard
  • For its customer service, Swisscard uses a speech recognition solution that understands the spoken text of callers and processes it semantically. The callers' voiced customer concerns are transcribed into High German, interpreted, prioritized and assigned to the best-qualified customer service employee available for the concern.
    • Sources: https://spitch.ch/de/news/2019.02.11.page; https://www.moneycab.com/it/spitch-swisscard-definiert-customer-service-neu/
• Canton Valais
  • Since 2014, debates in the bilingual Valais cantonal parliament have been recorded using special speech recognition software.
    • Source: https://www.1815.ch/news/wallis/aktuell/walliser-dialekt-als-gradmesser/
• Geneva University
  • Lectures at the University of Geneva are automatically transcribed and students are offered a keyword search based on this. The University of Geneva had already processed over 7,000 hours of video material in 2017.
    • Source: https://www.swisslearninghub.com/crealogix/2017/11/spexian-launch/

Voice Assistant platforms (officially available in Switzerland)

• Siri from Apple
  • The voice assistant Siri is officially available in Switzerland. With SiriKit, providers of an iOS app can make certain functions accessible as app extensions via Siri.
    • Sources: https://www.apple.com/chde/ios/feature-availability/#siri; https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sirikit
• Google Assistant
  • Google Assistant is officially available in Switzerland in German, French and Italian. With Google Actions, third-party services can be made available via Google Assistant.
    • Sources: https://sites.google.com/view/presseseitegoo/googleassistant; https://developers.google.com/actions/;
• Samsung Bixby
  • Samsung Bixby is officially available in Switzerland. Samsung allows third-party developers to create apps for Bixby.
    • Sources: https://www.samsung.com/ch/apps/bixby/; https://t3n.de/news/samsung-oeffnet-app-store-fuer-bixby-1175231/

Natural Language Processing / Understanding, Authentication Solutions

• Recapp
  • Technology from Recapp, a spin-off from Idiap Research Institute, enables the development of automatic speech recognition systems that adapt to new dialects, languages and speakers. Recapp can automatically log multilingual conversations involving technical terms. Recapp's technology understands search queries and voice commands in French, German, Italian, English and Swiss German dialect.
    • Source: https://recapp.ch
• Spitch
  • Spitch provides solutions in automated speech recognition (ASR), voice user interfaces (VUI) and natural language data analysis. The focus is on providing accurate Natural Language Processing to improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs. In addition to numerous languages offered, Spitch is the first provider of enterprise solutions in various Swiss dialects.
    • Source: https://spitch.ch/de/
• SlowSoft
  • SlowSoft creates speech technology components with a focus on minority languages and dialects. The actual core of SlowSoft's technology is Rhaeto-Romanic and Swiss-German speech synthesis (text-to-speech), which is not available from other, international providers. SlowSoft focuses on the specifically Swiss needs in the field of speech technology.
    • Sources: https://slowsoft.ch/deu/; https://slowsoft.ch/deu/demos.html
• Futurae
  • With "Zero-Touch for Smart Speakers," Futurae enables companies such as banks and insurance companies to seamlessly secure their customers' interactions with voice assistants using two-factor authentication.
    • Sources: https://futurae.com/product/iotauth/; https://futurae.com/pdfs/Futurae_IOT_Authentication.pdf
• Crealogix
  • Crealogix acquired the startup Koemei (IDIAP spin-off) in 2017. With Spexian, Crealogix Digital Learning offers searching of video and audio recordings (e.g. lectures, telephone conversations) for specific terms, the solution converts speech directly into text (ASR) and indexes keywords. A search engine allows for quick retrieval of terms.
    • Sources: https://crealogix.com/de/news/crealogix-erwirbt-machine-learning-software-zur-daten-und-videoanalyse/; https://www.swisslearninghub.com/produkte/spexian/

Knowledge transfer from practice

• Institute for Digital Business HWZ
  • The Institute for Digital Business at the HWZ is a Swiss-wide training, consulting and research center for digital transformation. As part of the MAS Digital Business, dedicated lectures on the topic of Voice User Interface are offered in CAS courses.
    • Source: https://fh-hwz.ch/produkt/mas-digital-business/
• Voice Meetup Switzerland
  • The Voice Meetup Switzerland is a platform for the exchange among corporates, startups and interested parties on the topic of Voice User Interface. Meetups with speakers from the field (e.g. Amazon, Spitch, SRF, Swisscom, what3word, etc.) take place at regular intervals.
    • Source: https://www.meetup.com/voicemeetupch/

Basic research, applied research, experiments

• EPFL
  • The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (LIA) focuses on various research topics related to Voice User Interface such as Natural Language Processing. The Data Science Lab aims to make sense of large amounts of data (including natural language processing). Furthermore, the Machine Learning and Optimization Laboratory also deals with Natural Language Processing.
    • Sources: https://lia.epfl.ch/; https://dlab.epfl.ch; https://www.epfl.ch/labs/mlo/
• Idiap Research Institute
  • The Idiap Research Institute is an independent, non-profit research foundation affiliated with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). The research institute includes several research groups related to voice user interfaces such as the Natural Language Understanding Group and the Speech & Audio Processing Group.
    • Sources: https://www.idiap.ch/en; https://www.idiap.ch/en/scientific-research/natural-language-understanding; https://www.idiap.ch/en/scientific-research/speech-and-audio-processing
• ETH
  • The Data Analytics LAB investigates topics related to large-scale data analysis and organization. Among other things, natural language processing and understanding are also of particular interest.
    • Source: http://www.da.inf.ethz.ch/research/
• University of St. Gallen
  • The Institute for Media and Communication Management at the University of St. Gallen has published a study on application potentials and examples of conversational interfaces as well as other publications on the topic of conversational interfaces.
    • Source: https://mcm.unisg.ch/de/forschung/forschungsprojekte/forschungsprojekte-digital-communication/conversational-interfaces https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s35764-018-0117-7
• Lucerne University
  • Prof. Dr. Reto Hofstetter from the University of Lucerne and his team, in collaboration with communications agency Farner, have published the first representative study on the use of voice user interfaces in Switzerland.
    • Sources: https://www.unilu.ch/fakultaeten/wf/news/studie-zur-bedeutung-der-sprachfunktion-4355/; https://www.farner.ch/2018/12/voice-first-studie/
• Université de Genève
  • The Computational Learning and Computational Linguistics research group at the University of Geneva consists of research associates and PhD students from the Faculties of Linguistics (LATL) and Computer Science (CUI, GAIL). The group is engaged in interdisciplinary research combining Linguistic Modeling with Machine Learning.
    • Source: http://clcl.unige.ch/
• Zurich University
  • Institute of Computational Linguistics conducts research and teaching in computational linguistics, speech technology, phonetics and speech signal processing. The Phonetics Group and the Phonetic Laboratory conduct basic research on various aspects of phonetics and speech signal processing.
    • Sources: https://www.cl.uzh.ch/de.html; https://www.cl.uzh.ch/de/phonetics.html
• Farner
  • The communications agency Farner, together with the University of Lucerne, has published the first representative study on the use of voice user interfaces in Switzerland. Lectures and workshops on the topic of voice user interfaces are held at the Farner Lab in Zurich.
    • Sources: https://www.farner.ch/2018/12/voice-first-studie/; https://www.unilu.ch/fakultaeten/wf/news/studie-zur-bedeutung-der-sprachfunktion-4355/; https://lab.farner.ch/
• Viseca
  • Angela Finance is a prototype of a conversational interface from Viseca Card Services. Angela Finance enables two-factor authentication, allowing customers to check their latest credit card transactions, for example. In collaboration with the University of St. Gallen, Viseca has published a study and a technical article on Alexa Skills and the development of Angela Finance.
    • Sources: https://twitter.com/AngelaFinance; http://www.angelavoice.com/; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s35764-018-0115-9; https://mcm.unisg.ch/de/forschung/forschungsprojekte/forschungsprojektedigital-communication/conversational-interfaces
• FHS St. Gallen
  • The University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen is investigating new application possibilities, potentials and requirements in connection with voice user interfaces. As part of the research project "conego", requirements and success criteria for a voice-based conversational e-government for the city of St. Gallen are being investigated. A central project result is a functional prototype of a voice-based service for citizens.
    • Sources: https://www.fhsg.ch/de/projekte/project/conego-217/; https://www.netzwoche.ch/news/2019-01-08/okay-google-sprachassistenten-fuer-kognitiv-beeintraechtigte-menschen; https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3236112.3236128

Voice Apps & Services no longer available

• SBB
  • SBB offered a voice-activated timetable with voice recognition in the SBB Mobile Preview app. Using voice input, customers could enter their destinations and have the desired connections displayed. The voice timetable recognized requests not only in written German but also in all Swiss German dialects. The function was removed from the SBB Mobile Preview app in mid-2019.
    • Sources: https://company.sbb.ch/de/medien/medienstelle/medienmitteilungen/detail.html/2017/5/2305-2; https://sbbcffffs-community.sbb.ch/t5/SBB-Mobile/Spracherkennung/td-p/24296
• Swisscom
  • Starting in 2016, Swisscom used a system for identifying customers by voice. In May 2019, Swisscom decided to no longer use voice recognition on its hotline. The registered voiceprints were deleted.
    • Sources: https://www.swisscom.ch/de/about/rechtliches/datenschutz/voiceprint.html; https://www.inside-it.ch/articles/54323

Kreisvier is now an LSA agency: Christian Jost-Cellarius CEO, and Alexandra Kellenberger, Client Service Director. 

The Basel-based agency Kreisvier Communications stands for communications that successfully master the balancing act between physical and digital worlds. The focus is always on the needs and experience of the target groups and users. K4 supports its clients in all kinds of branding, communication and marketing projects. In addition to eye-catching sales promotion measures, its core competencies include the conceptual development and implementation of extensive store concepts (for example, Coop Store 2025+ and Fooby Store in Lausanne). The agency was founded in 2001 and today has 55 employees. The management consists of Christian Jost-Cellarius (CEO), Alexandra Kellenberger (Client Service Director), Thomas Bauer (CTO) and Sven Kahler (Creative Director). Clients include Coop, Coop Bau+Hobby, Roche, the Canton of Basel-Stadt, Danfoss, Rheumaliga Schweiz, Minergie Schweiz, Spross, Pestalozzi and Sympany.
 

French-speaking Switzerland's presence in the LSA is strengthened

Gamned, the media agency for digital marketing with headquarters in Geneva and Zurich, as well as a further five branches abroad, is distinguished by its expertise in the areas of programmatic advertising, media campaigning, strategic consulting, technology and digital solutions. Over 40 employees work in Switzerland and over 140 worldwide - a team of specialists depending on the market and client needs. Gamned! specializes in performance campaigns with strategic and consulting expertise for integrated campaign management. The agency serves national and international clients across all industries and budget sizes. Key clients include Localsearch and Localcities from Swisscom, Decathlon and Visilab.

Ticino back in the LSA

Founded in 2013 in the heart of Lugano and certified as Google Partner, the agency SNDS Social and Search offers its clients customized solutions for digital marketing such as: Creation of websites, e-commerce, management of company profiles in the main social media. In addition, the web agency covers the entire management of advertising Google AdWords, search and display campaigns. SNDS has a strategic consulting approach that focuses on understanding the client's core business and needs. The agency's main clients include banks, universities, multinational companies and local and international SMEs; SNDS supports them with a team of professionals who have been working in the field of digital communication and marketing for several years, guaranteeing high quality standards.

Competition will remain tough, with or without the merger of UPC and Sunrise, Schaeppi said in a conference call on Thursday. The cancellation of the takeover of UPC by Sunrise does not fundamentally change this.

Last week, Sunrise had called off the purchase of Switzerland's largest cable network operator for CHF 6.3 billion at the last minute (Werbewoche.ch reported). The reason for the failure was the opposition of Sunrise's major shareholders, who found the deal too expensive, among other things. The purchase would have made Sunrise a more powerful competitor for top dog Swisscom.

Nevertheless, the trend of falling prices will continue even after the largest takeover in Swiss telecom history has collapsed, Schaeppi explained: Customers will get more for the same money.

Swiss surf more on vacation than at home

In mobile communications, data volumes abroad have more than doubled since the launch of the inOne bundled subscription in April, which includes roaming. Customers use their smartphones very intensively in other European countries and surf more during their vacations there than at home in Switzerland.

"We have 40 times more data usage on mobile networks than seven years ago," Schaeppi said. That's why Swisscom needs to expand its networks, he added. Any non-expansion would lead to congestion sooner or later. With the new 5G mobile communications generation, Swisscom has opened up 160 communities with 230 antennas, he said. Swisscom is thus lagging behind its competitor Sunrise. The second largest Swiss telecom group offers 5G in more than 310 communities. Nevertheless, Swisscom wants to reach nine out of ten Swiss people with the new, much faster mobile technology in the near future. "We are sticking to our goal of 5G coverage of 90 percent of the population by the end of the year," Schaeppi said. However, he said, in many communities the rollout of the mobile network is being delayed by moratoriums and objections. This does not only affect 5G. How many communities this is is difficult to say, Schaeppi explained. It's constantly changing, he said. "If this goes on for a long time, it will cause problems for all providers."

Swisscom wants to score with TV

In the fixed network speed race, where cable network operators UPC and Quickline are currently stepping on the gas with an increase in peak speed to 1 gigabit per second (Gbit/s) and Salt is even advertising 10 Gbit/s, Swisscom cannot keep up with its copper network. It is trying to keep up by pulling the optical fibers closer to the houses up to the street shaft, which shortens the length of the copper line.

By the end of 2021, 90 percent of households should have speeds of more than 80 megabits per second (Mbps) and 75 percent of households should have speeds of more than 200 Mbps, Schaeppi said. Speed is not often the decisive factor in customer choice, but the bundled offer, he said. And this is where Swisscom is competitive: "We have the best TV offer," Schaeppi said.

Even for a household with four people, 80 Mbit/s would be sufficient. Competitors' advertisements with speeds of 1 or even 10 Gbit/s are primarily marketing.

Sales and profit shrunk

In the first nine months, Swisscom was able to cushion competitive pressure in Switzerland through cost-cutting measures and the growth of subsidiary Fastweb in Italy. Revenue shrank by 2.7 percent to CHF 8.46 billion. Operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stagnated on a comparable basis.

On balance, net profit fell by 2.6 percent to CHF 1.18 billion. Swisscom thus performed at the upper end of analysts' expectations. On the weaker Swiss stock exchange, the share gained 0.4 percent until shortly after midday.

Swisscom's management is sticking to its previous outlook for the full year 2019: Revenue is expected to reach around CHF 11.4 billion, compared with CHF 11.7 billion in the previous year. Swisscom continues to expect EBITDA to exceed CHF 4.3 billion. (SDA)

In addition to the limited Halloween edition, the design with vampire, mummy and werewolf motifs also adorns the labels of the PET bottles and cans of Fanta Orange, Fanta Mango and Fanta Shokata. 

Social media haunt

Fanta is accompanying the spookiest time of the year with a social media activation. All Fanta drinks in the Halloween design feature a Snapcode that unlocks Halloween filters and lenses on Snapchat.

When scanning the vampire on the Fanta Black Blood Orange label, a vampire AR game can additionally be activated via Facebook Messenger. In addition, the Fanta community can follow various activities of Fanta influencers on Instagram under #FantaHalloween.

This September, the Industriewelt Aargau association officially launched the "#ZeitsprungIndustrie" theme year. More than 100 events organized by partners such as ABB Technikerschule, Stadtmuseum Aarau and SBB Historic are intended to provide a platform for regional industrial history and current visions of the future.

The branding of the campaign was also very much in line with the development: In the dynamic corporate design, Megura reflects the ongoing upswing of industry and business. Metallic colors are intended to evoke raw materials from manufactories and promote recognition on any medium.

The new corporate design of "#ZeitsprungIndustrie" can be applied to various means of communication and by a wide variety of users. Thus, the 40 sponsors from industry, education, culture and tourism use the current appearance independently on posters, websites, flyers and social media.

In the process, the design of "#ZeitsprungIndustrie" also had to match all the time shots of the past years. And it will continue to do so in the future: an expansion of the campaign to other Swiss regions is conceivable.