"Physical books are still very strong in terms of sales, in contrast to the physical music market, which is already being outstripped by streaming. The success of books by well-known YouTubers is particularly interesting. These mainly attract younger target groups, but they still buy physical books. This shows that young readers still value the haptic experience," GfK Entertainment spokesman Hans Schmucker tells the news portal Pressetext.

GfK Entertainment has analyzed sales of physical books in the seven European countries of Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Sales increased in all countries except Belgium in the first three quarters of 2019. In Italy, sales increased by 4.6 percent, followed by Portugal (4.5 percent) and the Netherlands (3.5 percent). Non-fiction books in particular accounted for a large proportion of the increased sales.

Celebrities popular books

Favorites among European readers are mainly books by celebrities, such as "Passions" by France's ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy. A bestseller in Italy and France is "Becoming," the biography of ex-U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama.

In addition, life advice books and historical nonfiction are very popular. Books by local authors are particularly popular with European readers, while international bestsellers are rare at present. (pte)

Netflix thus fell short of its own forecast of seven million new users, but exceeded market expectations. In total, paid memberships amounted to just under 158 million at the end of the quarter, as the online video service announced on Wednesday after the close of the US stock exchange. 

The development was well received by investors, with the share price rising by around eleven percent at times after trading hours. With 7.6 million new customers, Netflix is aiming for less growth in the current quarter than analysts had assumed, although the Christmas quarter is usually very strong.

Netflix is under pressure ahead of the launch of new streaming services from financially strong rivals Disney and Apple and had disappointed shareholders with relatively weak growth in the previous quarter. A decline in user numbers in the important US home market went down particularly badly at the time. However, things looked better again in the most recent quarter - 517,000 new subscribers were added in the US.

Sharp price increase

Overall, however, the U.S. market remains difficult for Netflix, with only 2.7 million new users subscribing to the service in the first nine months of the current year. A sharp price increase is likely to have played an important role in this. In the future, the company will no longer report its U.S. growth separately, but will bundle it together with the figures for the Canadian market.

Financially, however, things have been going well recently: profits climbed year-on-year from 403 million to 665 million dollars, significantly more than analysts had expected. Sales increased by a strong 31 percent to 5.2 billion dollars. However, in view of high production and marketing costs, the company expects a significantly lower surplus at the end of the year.

The fact that the streaming service was able to score with customers from the beginning of June to the end of September was not least thanks to "Stranger Things. With 64 million viewers in the first four weeks, it was the most successful season of the popular mystery series to date, according to Netflix. In the fourth quarter, Netflix is relying primarily on film productions such as Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" with Hollywood stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.

The streaming market leader is demonstratively self-confident in the face of the attack by competitors Disney and Apple, whose video services start in November and cost significantly less than Netflix's subscriptions. The new offerings will make a lot of noise and may put some pressure on Netflix in the short term, according to the letter to shareholders. But no competitor has a comparable variety and quality, which is why Netflix will continue to grow. (SDA)

Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich is the leading institution for constructivist, concrete and conceptual art in Switzerland. Since 2015, Ruf Lanz has been raising awareness of the museum beyond its dedicated art circles - with campaigns that have won multiple awards (including from ADC Switzerland, Edi, ADC of Europe, Epica and the Cannes Festival).

The creative agency is now responsible for another campaign. It uses their electronic diaries to remind managers in the surrounding business districts to take a break from all the hustle and bustle: with concrete art close by. Haus Konstruktiv is just a few minutes away from Bahnhofstrasse, Paradeplatz and Stauffacher. Three motifs are used on posters, occasional ads, postcards and online applications.

For the project, which has a pilot character, the NZZ, the Swiss National Library NL and the Zurich Central Library ZB. This will be the first time that a "German-language daily newspaper with a global impact" will be fully available through a Swiss library service, according to a statement on Thursday.

The volumes 1780 to 1950 have already been scanned for a research project of the Institute for Computational Linguistics at the University of Zurich. Now the remaining issues of the NZZ be digitized. Freely accessible on the platform from 2021 will be all issues with the exception of the last 25 years. Newer issues are subject to a payment mode.

The total cost of the project is around CHF 1 million. Half of the costs will be covered by the canton of Zurich, while the NL and the ZB will each contribute 20 percent. The UBS Cultural Foundation is contributing CHF 100,000 to the digitization project. The E-newspaperarchives.ch (E-npa.ch) platform is operated by the NL. (SDA)
 

Facebook has been in the Best Global Brands ranking since 2012 and has seen steady growth over the following five years. At its peak in 2017, Facebook was ranked 8th with a brand value of $48.188 billion. In 2018, Facebook slipped to No. 9 and is now ranked No. 14 after a 12 percent decline in 2019.

Apple and Google were able to maintain their top position for the seventh year in succession. Apple's brand value increased by 9 percent to $234.241 billion and Google's by 8 percent to $167.713 billion. Amazon once again posted strong growth of 24 percent, ranking third for the second time after 2018 at $125.263 billion.

The other brands in the top 10 are Microsoft in 4th place ($108.847 billion), Coca-Cola in 5th place ($63.365 billion), Samsung in 6th place ($61.098 billion), Toyota in 7th place ($56.246 billion), Mercedes-Benz in 8th place ($50.832 billion), McDonald's in 9th place ($45.362 billion) and Disney in 10th place ($44.352 billion), a returnee in the top 10.

German car brands on a downward slide

Like last year, the German icons from the automotive industry are weakening alarmingly. Whereas Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW, Audi, Porsche and especially also Mini in previous years, the brand values of the six German car brands are growing by an average of only 5 percent, with growth of between 9 percent (Porsche) and 1 percent (BMW). The latter brand is at least growing again, albeit at a modest level, having lost 1 percent in 2018.

MasterCard is the brand with the greatest growth in 2019, with a 25 percent increase in brand value to $9.430 billion, moving up 8 places to 62nd. Other interesting top performers include Gucci ($15.949 billion, ranked 33rd) with 23 percent growth and Adobe ($12.937 billion, ranked 39th) with 20 percent growth. Dell returns to 63rd place ($9.086 billion) after a six-year absence following relisting.

26 of the 100 Best Global Brands recorded double-digit percentage growth. Overall, the value of all 100 listed brands grows by 5.7 percent year-on-year to a new record of $2.131 trillion.

In 1999, Interbrand published the first ranking of the most valuable brands, the Best Global Brands, and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Time for an interim conclusion: "For decades, building a brand was all about positioning. But the age of brand positioning is over," says Charles Trevail, Global CEO of Interbrand. "In a world where customer expectations evolve faster than companies, brands can no longer be considered separately from companies."

Kuster completed her primary and secondary education in Eschenbach SG. After training as a businesswoman with a vocational baccalaureate, she worked as an event and marketing manager in Freienbach SZ, among other positions.

Sandra Kuster gained her first media experience at the Zürichsee Zeitung. At the editorial office in Wädenswil, she learned how to research and write reports and features. Sandra Kuster started her radio career in summer 2019 at Radio Zürisee in Rapperswil SG, where she will continue her six-month stage until the end of the year.

As of January 2020, she will be permanently employed at Radio Zürisee with a 40 percent workload.

Onex is located around five kilometers southwest of Geneva city center and is the sixth-largest municipality in the canton with a population of almost 20,000. With over 230 classic and backlit poster sites, Neo Advertising's offering in the Greater Geneva area has increased to over 3,500 advertising spaces.

Christian Vaglio-Giors, CEO of Neo Advertising: "Having been awarded the contract will enable us to further expand our market leadership in the canton of Geneva. We look forward to a long-term partnership with the city of Onex, which is known for its dynamism and openness, particularly in the area of digitalization."

The Onex poster sites are integrated into Neo Advertising's 2020 city offer for the city of Geneva.

The president of the Young Socialists (Juso), Ronja Jansen, had objected to the broadcast on SRF television last October 6. In the sequence she was called "Miss Juso" and "hot" as the new Juso president.

This was sexist because it was always women who were reduced to their appearance in such a way, although their field of activity had nothing to do with it. Sexist stereotypes are thus reinforced and reproduced, and no reference is made in the program to the problems associated with this.

This argumentation is supported by ombudsman Roger Blum. Blum himself raises the question of whether such a remark has any place in a satirical program. "I mean no, because it does not take your actions and behavior for a ride, but ironizes your appearance and thus reduces you to appearance and thus discriminates," he writes.

The editors had argued that the journalist asking the question was an artificial figure and that artificial figures were always used to distort the behavior of certain types of people beyond recognition. Following this argumentation, Michael Elsener had distanced himself from the statements of the artificial figure Frank-Walter Froschmeier in the next broadcast due to the public protest.

"If one thinks this through to the end, then the Star journalist's remark would not be sexist, but a criticism of sexism," Blum continues to write. This argumentation is to be taken seriously, but is not entirely convincing. Because an art figure must speak in conformity with type. He cited Alfred Rasser's "HD Läppli" or Viktor Giacobbo's "Harry Hasler" as examples.
These would all have behaved according to type. "That a German journalist mistakes a Romand for a Frenchman is still somewhat plausible," Blum writes. "But is it typical for German journalists to be sexist? Here, the artificial figure is probably somewhat overused. That's why I don't adopt the art figure theory."

At the beginning of October, FDP leader Petra Gössi had already complained about "Late Update"-Elsener after he had compared the demand for personal responsibility with the negligent use of weapons in a sketch (Werbewoche.ch reported).

Ten out of 170 shipments objected to

Ombudsman Blum further points out in a statement on Thursday that only ten of the more than 170 contributions to the federal elections broadcast by SRF radio and television in the national programs had been objected to. He supported the criticism in only two cases. This showed that journalistic work had been done professionally.

The second complaint, which was approved, concerned the program "Rendez-vous". The complainant had criticized the fact that there had only been talk of the women's surge in the FDP and GLP. However, the fact that the proportion of women on the lists of the Greens and the SP was still the highest was suppressed. According to Ombudsman Blum, the SP and the Greens should therefore have been mentioned. (SDA/swi)

The 37-year-old communications expert with a creative background is looking forward to the new challenge. He takes over the CEO position from co-founder Christophe Vouillamoz, who has been in the executive management since the beginning of 2018. (Werbewoche.ch reported). Vouillamoz will continue to be part of the management team as Head of Operation.

At the same time, the Board of Directors is being rejuvenated and the management streamlined. After many years of service in the various roles of owner, managing director and chairman of the board, 70-year-old Daniel Straumann is leaving the strategic management to two younger co-owners of the company, Christian Raissig and Luciano Hagge Dias. At the same time, Hanspeter Detsch has also announced his resignation from the Board of Directors, where he had been actively involved in the agency's development as an entrepreneur and former publisher since 2015. Hansueli Siber has been Chairman of the Board of Directors since May 2019 (Werbewoche.ch reported).

As of November 1, 2019, the management of the agency for branding, communication and digital solutions will continue to consist of Stephan Clavadetscher (Head of Finance & HR, deputy CEO), Steph Huber (Head of Consulting) and Christophe Vouillamoz (Head of Operation), in addition to the new CEO Johannes Just. The management team will be responsible for and implement the growth plans of the agency from circle 9.

Nicolas Ziegler, Head of Markets, Brand and Events at ABB, Daniela Lužanin, Head of the ABB Formula E Partnership, Chrisitian Baertschi, CEO at Serviceplan Group Switzerland and Nicolas Gspan, Consultant at Serviceplan Suisse (l.t.r.)

The Euro Effie annually honors the most effective multinational advertising campaigns in individual categories in Europe. For the first time in Swiss communications history, the bronze Euro Effie Award was brought to Switzerland in the Brand Experience category.

"I am very proud that we were able to accept the Euro Effie Award for the second time. This award is a recognition for the client and the team and proves our competence to lead international mandates at the highest level. As a creative, I am particularly pleased that our ideas are effective and can make a significant contribution to the business success of our clients," says Raul Serrat, Executive Creative Director of Serviceplan Suisse. Already in 2017, the house of communication brought a Euro Effie to Switzerland for the successful launch of the "Café Royal" brand.

ABB received this year's Euro Effie Award in the Brand Experience category for the implementation of the ABB FIA Formula E partnership, which was communicated in 2018. Serviceplan Suisse accompanied the launch of the globally oriented title partnership of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship and provided ABB with communications support for the first-time implementation of the Formula E Championship under the title partnership at 10 races in nine different countries.

According to the PR Trendmonitor, well over half of PR professionals believe that concealing mistakes backfires (58 percent). A good third of respondents attribute crises to the personal misconduct or failure of their bosses (40 and 35 percent, respectively).

On the other hand, one in five communications professionals fear the negative impact of a social media shitstorm or false reports (20 and 19 percent respectively). Poor service and poor working conditions also cause concern among respondents: one in ten sees these as dangerous triggers for communications crises (12 and 11 percent respectively).

The ten most dangerous crisis triggers in PR:

1. Cover up errors (58%)
2. Personal misconduct of top management (40%)
3. Top Management Failure (35%)
4. Compliance Issues (28%)
5. Social Media Shitstorm (20%)
6. False reports (19%)
7. Defective products (16%)
8. Prosecutorial Investigations (13%)
9. Poor service (12%)
10. Poor working conditions (11%)

Whereas pharmacists were respected academics in the field of health in earlier centuries, their expertise today often goes unused. Nowadays, people almost only go to the pharmacy when they have a doctor's prescription in their hands or when they have run out of headache pills.

Pharmasuisse and the Swiss Pharmacists Association want to put a painless end to the image of the simple pill kiosk and have had the team from Maybaum Film develop an innovative antidote. 

Maybaum Film was commissioned to show the diversity of the pharmacy profession in an entertaining image video - from wound care to cosmetic tips and from mixing effective teas to nutritional advice. The video is to spearhead the national "Ask your pharmacist" campaign on online channels, informing and curing fears of contact in the long term.

Together with a representative of the traditional clientele, a three-person production team from Maybaum visited six pharmacies in French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland to capture the skills of the professional staff on camera.

The result is a film that conveys the extensive service portfolio of pharmacists with wit and drive. The informative video is intended to create the best conditions for ensuring that the skills of the pharmacists' guild no longer have to lie fallow.